e summit of this he climbed and looked far out over the
westward sea. No land was visible to his eyes where she had declared the
rich realm of Shiraki lay, and he was confirmed in his doubts. On
returning to her he said,--

"I looked everywhere, and saw water alone; no land was to be seen. Is
there a country in the sky? If not, your words are false. And my
ancestors worshipped all the gods; or if there are any they did not
worship, I know them not. Why, then, should they not speak to me?"

"If you credit only your doubts," answered the god through the lips of
the empress, "and declare that there is no country where I have said a
country exists, you blaspheme, and shall never see this land, but the
empress, your wife, shall have the glory of its conquest."

Even this was not enough to overcome the doubts of the emperor. He was
not ready to believe that a god could speak through a woman, and refused
to risk his army on an unknown sea. On the contrary, he led it against
Kumaso, from which the rebels drove him back in defeat. Soon after he
died suddenly in camp, or, as some declare, was slain in battle by an
arrow. Takenouchi, his minister, kept his death a secret from the
soldiers, while the valiant Jingu continued the war and soon brought the
rebellion to an end.

The death of the mikado had left the power of the state and the command
of the army in the hands of his wife, who had shown her valor and
ability in the conquest of Kumaso. Her mind was now filled with the
promise of the god and the hope of new glory to be won beyond the sea.
But first she deemed it wise to obtain further signs from the celestial
powers.

Going to the shore of the sea, she baited a hook with a grain of rice
and threw it into the water, saying, "If a fish be caught with this
grain of rice, then the conquest of a rich country shall indeed be
mine."

When she drew up the line, to her delight she saw a fish on the hook.
"_Medzurashiki mono!_" ("wonderful thing!"), she exclaimed, viewing the
marvel as a sure signal that the gods approved her design. Her words
have been corrupted into Matsura, which is the name of the place to this
day, and here, every year, at the opening of the fourth Japanese month,
the women of the vicinity go fishing, no men being permitted to cast in
their lines on that day.

The pious empress, as if some of the doubts of the mikado had clung to
her mind, sought still another sign from the gods. She now let her long
hai