PRIMEVAL JAPATTESE, 795 



story were preserved solely l).y oral tradition. The three volumes 

 which profess to tell alioiit the primeval creators of Japan, about 

 fJimniu, the first mortal ruler, and about his human successors during 

 a dozen centuries, are supposed to bo a collection of previoHsly unwrit- 

 ten recollections, and it seems onl}" logical to doubt whether the out- 

 lines of figures standing at the end of such a long avenue of hearsa}" 

 can be anything but imaginary. Possibly that disbelief is too whole- 

 sale; possibly it is too much to conclude that the Japanese had no kind 

 of writing prior to their ac(iuisition of Chinese ideographs in the tifth 

 century of the Christian ci-a. Rut. there is little apparent hope that 

 the student will ever be in a position to decide these questions con- 

 clusively- He must be content for the present to regard the annals of 

 primeval Japan as an assemblage of heterogeneous fragments from the 

 traditions of South Sea Islanders, of Central Asian tribes, of Manchu- 

 rian Tartars, and of Siberian savages, who reached her shores at vari- 

 ous epochs, sometimes drifted b}^ ocean curi'ents, sometimes crossing 

 by ice-built bridges, sometimes migrating by less fortuitous routes. 



What these records, stripped of all their faliulous features, have to 

 tell is this: 



At a remote date a certain race of highh^-civilizcd men — highly civ- 

 ilized by comparison — arrived at the islands of Jaj^an. Migrating 

 from the south, the adventurers landed on the southern island, Kiu- 

 shiu, and found a fair country covered with luxurious vegetation and 

 sparsely populated by savages living like beasts of the field, having 

 no organized system of administration and incapal)le of offering per- 

 manent resistance to the superior weapons and discipline of the invaders, 

 who established themselves with little difliculty in the newly-found 

 land. But on the main island two races of men very dift'erent from 

 these savages had already gained a footing. One had its headquarters 

 in the province of Izumo and claimed sovereignty over the whole 

 countrj'. The other was concentrated in Yamato. Neither of these 

 races knew of the other's existence, Izumo and Yamato being far apart. 

 At the outset the immigrants who had newly arrived in Kiushiu imag- 

 ined that the}" had to deal with the Izumo folk only. They began In- 

 sending envoys. The fii'st of tliese, l)ribed by tiic Izumo rulers, made 

 his home in the land he had been sent to spv out. The second forgot 

 his duty in tiie ai'ms of an Izumo l)eauty whose hair fell to her aidcles. 

 The third discharged his mission faithfully, but was put to deatii in 

 Izumo. The secjucd of this sonunvhat conunonplace series of events 

 was war. Putting forth their full sti-ength, the southern invaders 

 shattered the power of the Izumo court and rec(Mved its su])missi()n. 

 P)ut tliev did not transfer tlieir own coui't to tiie conciuered province. 

 Ignorant that Izumo was a mer(> fraction of the main island, they 

 imagined that no more regions I'emained to be su])jugated. By and 

 bv thev discovered their mistake. Intellis-ence reached them tiiat far 



