502 RtlPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1891. 



allured the Sun -goddess from her cave, the string of sacred jewels, and 

 the sword found by Susano in the serpent's tail. The Sun-goddess 

 charged him thus: '' Regard this mirror exactly as if it were our august 

 si)irit, and reverence it as if reverencing us." Transubstantiatiou is an 

 older idea among Japanese than among our owu ])riests. 



THE FIRST MTKADO. 



A pleasing story follows about the beautiful Priiu'ess-blossoming-bril- 

 liantly-like-thetlowers-of- the trees, who bore three sous named Fire- 

 shine, Fire-climax and Fire-subside. The lirst lost his brother's fish- 

 hook in the sea and though he made five hundred others to replace it, 

 his brother Avould not be satisfied. So Fire-subside sailed iu a boat to 

 a palace built of fish scales, the abode of an ocean deity, and there fell 

 iu love with the Sea-gixl's daughter. After three years he told the 

 story of the fishhook. The Sea-god called together all the fishes of the 

 sea and the hook was found iu the throat of a tai. The Prince was 

 sent home on the back of a crocodile, and gave the hook to his brother. 

 The Princess, his wife, bore him a son named His-Augustness-Heaven's- 

 sure-height-prince- wave-limit- brave-cormorant- thatch - meeting - incom- 

 pletely. This son with au uuusual name married his maternal aunt and 

 begot children, one of whom was His- Augustness-Biviue-Yamato-Prince, 

 who is the recognized first Mikado, better known by his posthumous 

 title Jimmu Tenno, whose reign is reputed to have beeu from b. c. G60 

 to B. c. 585, when he died at the age of 127 years. 



From this point on the Kojiki is a record of the emperors down to 

 the time of Suiko (A. D. 593 to 628). For a thousand years, to the time 

 of Eichiu (A. u. 400), the chronology is quite as uncertain as the events 

 recorded. In the earhest times numerous terrestrial deities ruled the 

 country, who either freely submitted to the emperors or were compelled 

 to do so. We read that as Jimmu Tenno advanced to subdue the bar- 

 barian tribes in th(^ north and east, the Earth -spiders, with tails, and 

 the savages called Ebisu,* supposed to be the Ainos, he was guided 

 across the waters of the Inland Sea ("?) by a friendly deity riding on a 

 tortoise, and, as the bad deities were still numerous ou the land, a great 

 crow was sent from heaven to lead him. 



SHINTO AS A RELIGION. 



I have thus endeavored to present in au intelligible and connected 

 fin-m the salient features of the mythology of Shinto. It has beeu no 

 light task to worry through the details of it as found in the Kojiki and 

 other books and make a readable story. Fautastic as it all is, there 

 is still a thread of connection from the beginning which enfinx'es the 



* For a r^sum^ of our knowledge of these people, see the author's memoirs on The 

 Ainos of Yezo and on The Pit-Dwelh^-s of Ye/.o. Report of U. S.' National Museum, 

 1890. 



