n her girdle.

The empress now prepared her fleet for Corean invasion. Three thousand
barges were built and launched, and two old kami with long streaming
gray hair and wrinkled faces, were made admirals. Their names were Suwa
Daimi[=o] Jin (Great Illustrious, Spirit of Suwa) and Sumiyoshi Daimi[=o]
Jin, the kami who lives under the old pine tree at Takasago, and presides
over nuptial ceremonies.

The fleet sailed in the tenth month. The hills of Hizen soon began to
sink below the horizon, but no sooner were they out of sight of land than
a great storm arose. The ships tossed about, and began to butt each other
like bulls, and it seemed as though the fleet would be driven back; when
lo! Kai Riu O sent shoals of huge sea-monsters and immense fishes that
bore up the ships and pushed their sterns forward with their great
snouts. The shachihoko, or dragon-fishes, taking the ship's cables in
their mouths towed them forward, until the storm ceased and the ocean
was calm. Then they plunged downwards into the sea and disappeared.

The mountains of Corea now rose in sight. Along the shore were gathered
the Corean army. Their triangular fringed banners, inscribed with
dragons, flapped in the breeze. As soon as their sentinels caught sight
of the Japanese fleet, the signal was given, and the Corean line of war
galleys moved gaily out to attack the Japanese.

The empress posted her archers in the bows of her ships and waited for
the enemy to approach. When they were within a few hundred sword-lengths,
she took from her girdle the Jewel of the Ebbing Tide and cast the
flashing gem into the sea. It blazed in the air for a moment, but no
sooner did it touch the water, than instantly the ocean receded from
under the Corean vessels, and left them stranded on dry land. The
Coreans, thinking it was a tidal wave, and that the Japanese ships were
likewise helpless in the undertow, leaped out of their galleys and rushed
over the sand, and on to the attack. With shouting and drawn swords their
aspect was terrible. When within range of the arrows, the Japanese bowmen
opened volleys of double-headed, or triple-pronged arrows on the Coreans,
and killed hundreds.

But on they rushed, until near the Japanese ships, when the empress
taking out the Flood-Tide Jewel, cast it in the sea. In a snap of the
finger, the ocean rolled up into a wave many tens of feet high and
engulfed the Corean army, drowning them almost to a man. Only a few were
left