tive pair, or divine man and woman, now separated to make a journey
round the island, the male to the left, the female to the right. At
their meeting the female spoke first: "How joyful to meet a lovely man!"
The male, offended that the woman had spoken first, required the circuit
to be repeated. On their second meeting, the man cried out: "How joyful
to meet a lovely woman!" This island on which they had descended was the
first of several which they brought into being. In poetry it is the
Island of the Congealed Drop. In common geography it is identified as
Awaji, at the entrance of the Inland Sea. Thence followed the creation
of the other visible objects in nature.

Izanagi's Visit to Hades and Results.

After the birth of the god of fire, which nearly destroyed the mother's
life, Izanami fled to the land of roots or of darkness, that is into
Hades. Izanagi, like a true Orpheus, followed his Eurydice and beseeched
her to come back to earth to complete with him the work of creation. She
parleyed so long with the gods of the underworld that her consort,
breaking off a tooth of his comb, lighted it as a torch and rushed in.
He found her putrefied body, out of which had been born the eight gods
of thunder. Horrified at the awful foulness which he found in the
underworld, he rushed up and out, pursued by the Ugly-Female-of-Hades.
By artifices that bear a wonderful resemblance to those in Teutonic
fairy tales, he blocked up the way. His head-dress, thrown at his
pursuer, turned into grapes which she stopped to eat. The teeth of his
comb sprouted into a bamboo forest, which detained her. The three
peaches were used as projectiles; his staff which stuck up in the ground
became a gate, and a mighty rock was used to block up the narrow pass
through the mountains. Each of these objects has its relation to
place-names in Idzumo or to superstitions that are still extant. The
peaches and the rocks became gods, and on this incident, by which the
beings in Hades were prevented from advance and successful mischief on
earth, is founded one of the norito which Mr. Satow gives in condensed
form. The names of the three gods,[4] Youth and Maiden of the Many
Road-forkings, and Come-no-further Gate, are expressed and invoked in
the praises bestowed on them in connection with the offerings.

He (the priest) says: I declare in the presence of the sovran
gods, who like innumerable piles of rocks sit closing up the way
in the mul