484 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



see the luminary, should rule the world. If the bad gods should be the first to see 

 it rise, then they should rule ; and if the good gods should be the first, then they 

 should rule. Therefore both the bad gods and the brilliant gods looked toward the 

 place whence the sun was to rise. But the fox-god alone stood looking toward the 

 west. After a little time the fox cried out, '' I see the snn rise." On tbe gods, both 

 good and bad, turning around and gazing, they saw in truth the refulgence of the 

 sun in the west. This is the cause for which the brilliant gods rule the world. 



WHY THE COCK CAN NOT FLY. 



By Professor Chamberlain. 



When the Creator had finished making the world and had returned to heaven, he 

 sent down the cock to see whether the Avorld was good or not, with the injunction to 

 come back at once. But the world was so fair that the cock, unable to tear himself 

 away, kept lingering on from day to day. Ab last, after a long time, he was on his 

 way flying back up to heaven. But God, angry with him for his disobedience, 

 stretched forth his hand and beat him down to earth, saying: " You are not wanted 

 in heaven any more." That is why, to this day, the cock is incapable of any high 

 flight. 



ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION. 



By Professor Chamberlain. 



Wheu the world had only recently been made, all was still unsettled and danger- 

 ous, for the crust of the earth was thin. It was burning beneath, and unstable, so 

 that the people did not dare venture outside of their huts even to obtain food, for 

 they would hove scorched their feet. Their necessities were relieved by the god Oki- 

 kurumi, who used to fish for them, and then send his wife, Turesh, round with what 

 he caught. She every day popped in at each wiudow the family meal for the day. 

 But the conditions of this divine succor was that no questions were to be asked, and 

 that none should attempt to see Turesh's face. Well, one day a certain Aiuo, in one 

 of the huts, not content with being fed for nothing, must needs disobey Okikurumi's 

 commands. Curious to see who was the lovely ministering maiden, he watched for 

 the moment when her hand with food in it appeared at the window, seized hold 

 of it and forcibly pulled her in, disregarding her screams. No sooner was she inside 

 the hut than she turned into a wriggling, writhing sea monster. The sky darkened, 

 crashes of thunder were heard, the monster vanished, and the hut was consumed by 

 lightning. In punishment of that one man's curiosity, Okikurumi withdrew his favor 

 from the whole race and vanished. Ever since then the Ainos have been poor and 

 miserable. 



Accordiugto another tradition, which seems to be among those most widely spread, 

 the Japanese hero Yoshitsune arrived on the scene some time after Okikurumi had 

 begun teaching the Aino men how to fish and hunt, and Turesh had begun teaching 

 the Aino women how to sew. Being of a wily disposition, he ingratiated himself so 

 well with the divine pair that they bestowed on him their only daughter in marriage. 

 The wedding took place at Piratori, in the district of Sara. Yoshitsune was thus 

 enabled to penetrate the secrets of the Ainos. By a fraud, to which his wife was an 

 unwilling partner, he obtained possession of their treasures and of their books and 

 fled, carrying all with him. Okikurumi and Turesh, incensed at this insult, disap- 

 peared through a cavern at the summit of Mount Hayopira, near Piratori. Since 

 that time the Ainos have lost the art of writing and of pottery, and have taken to 

 buying their clothes, etc., from the Japanese. When interrogated on any point on 

 which they are at a loss for an answer, the almost invariable Aino reply is, " We do 

 not know, for we have no books. Those that our ancestors had were all stolen by 

 Yoshitsune." 



