145 



Higo province, Aso district, there is in the mountains a water 

 (numa, yg , not only a swamp, but a water bigger than a pond 

 and smaller than a lake)^ which is called "The Sacred Pond" 

 (jjj^^'/|b^, Shinreichi). For many years past even in times of 

 large floods or heavy droughts the water of that pond did not 

 rise nor fall. Now, however, it has, without any reason, decreased 

 more than twenty jo. According to the diviners this means cala- 

 mity of drought (:^^, han-eU, litt. 'pestilence of drought')"'. 

 In 840 it fell 40 jo ^, and the Emperor ordered the people by 

 proclamation to pray for averting this bad omen =>. 



§ 9. An Emperor's dragon-tail. 



In the Ainosho * a funny explication is given of the use of the 

 word bird (J^^) in the sense of dotal {^'^, "same body"). 

 According to some people, says the writer, this is due to the fact 

 that the Emperor- Ojin (270 — 310, the Empress Jingo's son, 

 deified as Hachimau in 712) had a dragon's tail, because he 

 was a descendant of the sea-god (Jimmu Tenno, his ancestor, being 

 the grandson of the sea-god's daughter ^). In order to hide this 

 tail he invented the suso or skirt. One day, however, when he 

 left the room, the tail was still inside when a lady-in-waiting 

 shut the sliding-doors and pinched the tail between them. Then 

 the Emperor exclaimed: "Biryu", "(I am) a tailed dragon". 

 Afterwards this word biryu was changed into bird with the 

 meaning of "same body", because the Emperor had meant to 

 say that what was between the door was also belonging to his 

 body (!). The author of VaQ 'Ainosho believes the legend of Ojin 

 Tenn5's dragon's tail, because, says he, Toyotamabime's son 

 Ugaya-fuki-aezu uo Mikoto married his own aunt, also a daughter 

 of the sea-god, a younger sister of his mother, called Tamayori- 

 hime, with whom he begot four sons, the youngest of whom 

 was Jimmu Tenno. Therefore in his opinion it is quite possible 

 that Jimmu's descendants had dragon-tails ! 



1 The same thing is to be found in the Nihon isshi, ^ ^^ i^ ^ , Ch, IV and 

 XIII, K. T. K. Vol. VI, pp. 39 and 363. 



2 Shoku Nihon kokl, ^ ^ ^ ^^' written in 869 ; Ch. IX, K. T. K. Vol. 



Ill, p. 285. 



3 Same work, Ch. IX, p. 288. Of. Ch. X, p. 293. 



4 A^ ^ ^k, an encyclopaedia written in 1446 by the Buddhist priest Gyogo, 



^ ^\ Ch. VII, nr 21, p. 19. 5 See above, p. 139. 



Veih. Kon. Akad. v Wetensch. (Afd. Lelterk.) N. K. Dl XIII, N°- 2. 10 



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