to trouble him, and
frenzied with disappointment and fear, he dashed his head against the
rocks of Mount Shu and died on the spot.

There was an end of the wicked Kokai, but not of trouble in the Empress
Jokwa's Kingdom, as you shall see. The force with which the wizard fell
against the rocks was so great that the mountain burst, and fire rushed
out from the earth, and one of the pillars upholding the Heavens was
broken so that one corner of the sky dropped till it touched the earth.

Shikuyu, the Fire King, took up the body of the wizard and carried it
to the Empress Jokwa, who rejoiced greatly that her enemy was
vanquished, and her generals victorious. She showered all manner of
gifts and honors upon Shikuyu.

But all this time fire was bursting from the mountain broken by the
fall of Kokai. Whole villages were destroyed, rice-fields burnt up,
river beds filled with the burning lava, and the homeless people were
in great distress. So the Empress left the capital as soon as she had
rewarded the victor Shikuyu, and journeyed with all speed to the scene
of disaster. She found that both Heaven and earth had sustained damage,
and the place was so dark that she had to light her lamp to find out
the extent of the havoc that had been wrought.

Having ascertained this, she set to work at repairs. To this end she
ordered her subjects to collect stones of five colors--blue, yellow,
red, white and black. When she had obtained these, she boiled them with
a kind of porcelain in a large caldron, and the mixture became a
beautiful paste, and with this she knew that she could mend the sky.
Now all was ready.

Summoning the clouds that were sailing ever so high above her head, she
mounted them, and rode heavenwards, carrying in her hands the vase
containing the paste made from the stones of five colors. She soon
reached the corner of the sky that was broken, and applied the paste
and mended it. Having done this, she turned her attention to the broken
pillar, and with the legs of a very large tortoise she mended it. When
this was finished she mounted the clouds and descended to the earth,
hoping to find that all was now right, but to her dismay she found that
it was still quite dark. Neither the sun shone by day nor the moon by
night.

Greatly perplexed, she at last called a meeting of all the wise men of
the Kingdom, and asked their advice as to what she should do in this
dilemma.

Two of the wisest said:

"The roads of Hea