here can be little doubt that the Japanese festival called
Tanabata was originally identical with the festival of the Chinese
Weaving-Goddess, Tchi-Niu; the Japanese holiday seems to have
been especially a woman's holiday, from the earliest times; and
the characters with which the word Tanabata is written signify a
weaving-girl. But as both of the star-deities were worshiped on the
seventh of the seventh month, some Japanese scholars have not been
satisfied with the common explanation of the name, and have stated
that it was originally composed with the word _tan['e]_ (seed, or
grain), and the word _hata_ (loom). Those who accept this etymology
make the appellation, Tanabata-Sama, plural instead of singular, and
render it as "the deities of grain and of the loom,"--that is to say,
those presiding over agriculture and weaving. In old Japanese pictures
the star-gods are represented according to this conception of their
respective attributes;--Hikoboshi being figured as a peasant lad
leading an ox to drink of the Heavenly River, on the farther side of
which Orihim['e] (Tanabata) appears, weaving at her loom. The garb of
both is Chinese; and the first Japanese pictures of these divinities
were probably copied from some Chinese original.

In the oldest collection of Japanese poetry extant,--the
Many[=o]sh[=u], dating from 760 A.D.,--the male divinity is usually
called Hikoboshi, and the female Tanabata-tsum['e]; but in later times
both have been called Tanabata. In Izumo the male deity is popularly
termed O-Tanabata Sama, and the female M['e]-Tanabata Sama. Both are
still known by many names. The male is called Kaiboshi as well as
Hikoboshi and Kengy[=u]; while the female is called Asagao-him['e]
("Morning Glory Princess")[1], Ito-ori-him['e] ("Thread-Weaving
Princess"), Momoko-him['e] ("Peach-Child Princess"), Takimono-him['e]
("Incense Princess"), and Sasagani-him['e] ("Spider Princess"). Some
of these names are difficult to explain,--especially the last, which
reminds us of the Greek legend of Arachne. Probably the Greek myth and
the Chinese story have nothing whatever in common; but in old Chinese
books there is recorded a curious fact which might well suggest a
relationship. In the time of the Chinese Emperor Ming Hwang (whom the
Japanese call Gens[=o]), it was customary for the ladies of the court,
on the seventh day of the seventh month, to catch spiders and put them
into an incense-box for purposes of divination. On