sacked
for a parallel to the naive filthiness of the passage forming
Sec. IV. of the following translation, or to the extraordinary
topic which the hero Yamato-Take and his mistress Miyadz[)u] are
made to select as the theme of poetical repartee. One passage
likewise would lead us to suppose that the most beastly crimes
were commonly committed."[6]

Indeed, it happens in several instances that the thread by which the
marvellous patchwork of unrelated and varying local myths is joined
together, is an indecent love story.

A thousand years after the traditions of the Kojiki had been committed
to writing, and orthodox Shint[=o] commentators had learned science from
the Dutch at Nagasaki, the stirring of the world mud by Izanagi's
spear[7] was gravely asserted to be the cause of the diurnal revolution
of the earth upon its axis, the point of the axis being still the jewel
spear.[8] Onogoro-jima, or the Island of the Congealed Drop, was
formerly at the north pole,[9] but subsequently removed to its present
position. How this happened is not told.

Life in Japan During the Divine Age.

Now that the Kojiki is in English and all may read it, we can clearly
see who and what were the Japanese in the ages before letters and
Chinese civilization; for these stories of the kami are but legendary
and mythical accounts of men and women. One could scarcely recognize in
the islanders of eleven or twelve hundred years ago, the polished,
brilliant, and interesting people of to-day. Yet truth compels us to say
that social morals in Dai Nippon, even with telegraphs and railways, are
still more like those of ancient days than readers of rhapsodies by
summer tourists might suppose. These early Japanese, indeed, were
possibly in a stage of civilization somewhat above that of the most
advanced of the American Indians when first met by Europeans, for they
had a rude system of agriculture and knew the art of fashioning iron
into tools and weapons. Still, they were very barbarous, certainly as
much so as our Germanic "forbears." They lived in huts. They were
without writing or commerce, and were able to count only to ten.[10]
Their cruelty was as revolting as that of the savage tribes of America.
The family was in its most rudimentary stage, with little or no
restraint upon the passions of men. Children of the same father, but not
of the same mother, could intermarry. The instances of men marrying
their sisters or a