496 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUWEUM, 1891. 



angry and ashamed to be thus seen by her husband, and ordered the 

 Ugly Female of Hades, the eight thunder deities and a host of war- 

 riors to pursue him. He escaped from these, but when Izanami herself 

 took up the chase she overtook him. But he blocked up the Pass of 

 Hades with a great stone, and they stood <ni opposite sides of it and 

 took leave of each other, or, according to some authors, divorced each 

 other. Izanami could not join her husband because she had eaten food 

 from the fire of Hades. How like this is to the story of Persephone 

 and the poinegnmate. We must omit the details of this story. 



Dr. J. Edkins is disposed to regard the Japanese conception of the 

 under world as derived from China, in which country it can be traced 

 back to 721 n. v. The divinity Tai shan was the Taoist ruler of the 

 souls of the dead. Fire worship, which Dr. Edkins refers to in this 

 connection, although not unknown in Japan, does not appear to have 

 been much practiced. When Izanagi descended to Hades she assumed 

 supreme authority. As she undertook the pursuit of Izanagi, she 

 feared to leave the fire deity to his own devices, lest he should do harm 

 to the world. So she created the deities of clay and of water to re- 

 strain him. This fire deity plays but a very small part in the mytho- 

 logy; even his period of rule in Hades was very short. The most we 

 can say regarding fire worship) is, that a peculiar form of tire-drill is 

 known in Japan, which was used once a year until quite recently at one 

 of the Idzumo temples for producing fire. This api>aratus has already 

 been described by the writer.* Another similar drill is in the museum 

 at Tokio. The hypothesis of Dr. Edkins,t that the origin of the Japa- 

 nese cosmogony is to be found in the fire worship of Persia and the 

 worship of Ormuzd in India, China and Mongolia, about the sixth cen- 

 tury B. ('., is ])lausible at first sight; but it is founded upon a presump- 

 tion of early intercourse between the countries, which, as we have seen, 

 is not borne out by research. Even should it prove true, the develop- 

 ment of the Shinto mythology has certainly been in lines peculiarly in- 

 dependent and characteristic. I can not bring myself to admit for it 

 such a comparatively late origin as the sixth century B. c. 



The under world of the ancient Japanese may have been (juite like 

 the Chinese and Persian idea, but the Japanese of the present day are 

 a progressive people, and with them there is advancement in the under 

 world as upon earth. The Ise pilgrims have many more or less un- 

 tuneful songs which they chant as they slowly tramp along, and here 

 is one which I heard in the evening at a native hostelry, where I stopped 

 one rainy night, on my pilgrimage to the ancient shrines. It was 

 written down for me by the jiietty daughter of the house, and after- 

 wards translated by a student, Mr. K. Nagai. 



* See Hougli, Walter, " Fire-iiiiikiii.n aiiparatiis," Report U. S. National Museum, 

 1888, p. 552. 



t Persian Elements in Japanese Legends. Trans. Asiatie Soeiety of Japan, xvi, 

 1-9. 



