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The Japanese Dragon: Idzumo

FIG. 61.-JAPANESE DRAGON (IN BBONZE). • We The second legend is : "When the So-sa-no-o no mikoto went to the sources of the river Hi-no-ka-mi at Idzumo, he heard lamentations from a house; he therefore approached it and inquired the cause. He saw an old man and woman clasping a young girl. They told him that in that country there was a very large serpent, which had eight heads and eight tails, and came annually and swallowed one person. had eight children, and we have already lost seven, and now have only one left, who will be swallowed; hence our grief.' The mikoto said, 'If you will give that girl to me, I will save her.' The old man and woman were rejoiced. The mikoto changed his form, and assumed that of the young girl. He divided the room into eight partitions, and in each placed one saki tub and waited its approach. The serpent arrived, drank the saki, got intoxicated, and fell asleep. "Then the mikoto drew his sword and cut the serpent into small pieces. When he was cutting the tail his sword was a little broken; therefore he split open the tail to find the reason, and found in it a valuable sword, and offered it to the god O-mi-ka-mi, at Taka-maga-hara. "He called the sword Ama no mourakoumo no tsurogi,† because there was a cloud up in the heaven where the serpent lies. Finally he married the girl, and built a house at Suga in Idzumo."