494 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



vites." They were ('ommanded by the heavenly deities, who gave them 

 a jeweled spear, to create the drifting laiid. They created the world, 

 which was then only Japan. Standing on the floating bridge of heaven 

 they thrust the end of the jeweled spear into the waste of waters and 

 stirred the brine until it went curdle-curdle, and tlie drops that fell 

 from the spear piled up and became the island Oiiogoro. now un- 

 known. 



The expression ''•bridge of heaven" is varicmsly interpreted by au- 

 thors. Some take it literally as meaning an actual bridge between 

 heaven and earth. The word hashi signities not only a bridge, but it 

 may apply to anything which fills or bridges over space. The Sun-god- 

 dess, as will be seen, traveled from earth to heaven on the Amc-no-mi- 

 hashira, which may be the wind. But most native authorities regard 

 it as a more substantial structure, for we read of the heavenly rock- 

 boat, Ame-no-iha-fmie, and also of stairs, reminding one of Jacob's lad- 

 der, while a later conception is a pillar of earth which afterwards fell 

 and formed a range of high mounds in Harima, near Miyadzu, in 

 Tango. The length of this range is 22,290 feet — presumably the dis- 

 tance from earth to heaven in the olden time. 



The two creator gods descended from their place upon the island 

 they had made, and after a short courtship, the details of which are 

 too objectionable for translation, they gave birth to a child without 

 bones, cartilagenous and unable to walk. This child, well knoAvn to 

 the Japanese as Hirugo, also named Ebisu, one of the household gods, 

 they placed in a basket of reeds and let him float away like a Japa- 

 nese Moses. He did not die, but his story is too special for consideration 

 here. They then gave birth to the eight* islands of Japan, beginning 

 with Awaji at the eastern entrance to the Inland Sea. 



The first island born to this couple was named Aha, but for some 

 reason this, like the child Hirugo, was not perfect. The parents in- 

 quired of the Heavenly Deities why this was so. The latter resorted 

 to divination and they soon discovered the reason. When the creator 

 gods descended upon the mythical Onogoro, they walked around it in 

 opposite directions, and when they met the woman was the first to 

 speak. This was apparently contrary to the etiquette of even those 

 early days, and it was impossible to make a good world if the deities 

 were so careless of proper ceremonies. They then went around aga'i 

 as before, when the man spoke first, with subsequent satisfactory re- 

 sults. 



After giving birth to the eight islands, they begot a long series o' 

 deities to govern them, and for a long time, as we may infer from sub 



* The number eight frequently occurs in the Shinto mythology and seems to I 

 the most perfect and fortunate number. .Japan was known as "the land of tli^ 

 eight great islandiS." Yezo was then unknown. There was a serpent with 'digh- 

 heads and eight tails; there were eight thunder deities, and in the myth of Auiater- 

 asu there is described a string of jewels eight feet long; there were eight hundreit 

 myriad deities, etc. 



