1?74 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [YoL. II. 



his co-regent. Her name Mekuba is something Hke that of Mikifito-no- 

 Naisino, daughter of the emperor Kwonin, and, therefore, the aunt of 

 Sagateno and Otomo^'*. Mekuba was probably related in some way to 

 Sagota, being, perhaps, his daughter, although the monuments make no 

 statement to that effect; but her name is so prominent on them, along 

 with those of Sagota, Metome, and Dzuta, as to leave the impression 

 that she had royal claims superior to those of a mere consort. It is un- 

 fortunate that so little is recorded of this Budhist queen or empress whose 

 deeds of beneficence and piety have, in all likelihood, been transferred 

 by the Japanese historians to the widow of Sagateno. That widow died 

 at the age of 65, and after her death her name was honoured as that of a 

 saint. Now, had the queen of Sagateno really been such a patroness of 

 Budhism, it is hardly likely that the priests who composed the proclama- 

 tion to rebuild their temple would have omitted the name of their bene- 

 factor, since that name would have been a sanction for the demand of 

 the document, as valuable in the eyes of the Budhists among the people 

 as that of Sagota himself. The names of Sagateno's queen may be 

 correctly given as Tatsibana-no-Fushin Kaghesi and Danrin Kwogu, but 

 her daughter, unnamed in the history, will be the Mekuba of the inscrip- 

 tions and the true votary of Budhism. 



Another Siberian inscription contains the statement of Dzuta's or 

 Shidzuta's assssination. The only person whose story in the Japanese 

 annals at all coincides with his is Tsune-Sada, the son of Otomo, who 

 was accused of revolting against Masa-Yosi or Nin-Mio, the son of 

 Sagateno, and was deprived of the succession in consequence, when he is 

 ■said to have become a priest -°. Such particulars as can be gathered 

 concerning him will be found in The Hittite Track in the East. There 

 remains King Shibata. His Japanese name is Seiwateno, and he is 

 called the son of Bun-tok, who was Sagateno's grandson. On the 

 maternal side he belonged to the famous family of Fushiwara, a family 

 which seems to have risen to empire through the overthrow of Sagateno's 

 lineal descendant and heir Shidzuta-^ Other inscriptions present him 

 as the King of the Raba-Kita, while Shidzuta was ov-er the Yoba-Khita. 



The inscriptions indicate that Budhism reigned in the Yenisei country, 

 but not undisputedly, and this is in complete accord with the Japanese 

 annals for the times of Sagateno and his successors. Amida is a 

 Japanese surname of Budha, but the word has no significance; it seems 

 foreign. The Anota ot Inscription XVIII is most likely the Japanese 

 ando, ease, happiness, tranquillity, denoting the state of the great teacher, 

 who, having attained Nirvana, had become free from the evils of sentient 

 existence. The time of Budha's attainment of Nirvana, or, as the in- 

 ,scriptions bluntly put it, of his death, I have decided, on the grounds of 



