This last myth bears repetition. The Empress Jingo dreamt that the west lay a land fabulously wealthy, "as dazclingly fair as a beautiful woman." Its" name was: Chosen and a spirit told the Empress Jingo that she should odd to her realms, Among the treasures the Empress Jingo possessed were the Jewels of the Blood-tide and the Ebb-tide respectively.
Dragon-fish and sea monsters) propelled her flotilla and when the Koreans perceived the Japanese fleet, they set forth to attack it. The Empress Jingo allowed the Korean vessels to approach very close to her fleet and then threw into the Sea the Jewel of the Ebb-Tid Directly it touched the water, onused the tide to recede from w: der the very keels of the Korean ips, 80 that they were left strand upon dry land. The Koreans did of suspect any magic and, believing their stranded condition "to have been the result of a sudden tidal freak and! moreover that the Japanese vessels would succumb to the back-wash, sprang from their and Tushed towards the Japanese feet.
The Empress Jingo then flung forth the Jewel of the Flood-Tide and immediately a great wave rushed over and destroyed the flower of the Korean forces, This story bears a very close and interesting resemblance to the Biblical version of the destruction of the cohorts of Pharaoh, The Symbolic Spear"
High on the top of the leading float dazzles a spear. This spear explains the main significance of the Gion Festival, being said to be Elaborate Processions In the streets through which the procession, in the shape of a faseinating parade of hako (big floats) and varna (smaller ones), passes, there ix hardly elbow room. But a Hight-hearted and merry atmosphere pervades everyone and The Japanese crowd is splendidly behaved one, stranger docs not feel any appre-pensions in being amonget a swarming multitude of unknown men and women. Occasionally, there are some young-bloods who have looked upon the wine when it was red, but Ddeyond a glance or two at the foreigner and a few well-directed shafts at a bevy of geisha (who, incidentally, return "the—repartees with the quickness of machine. fire), even these carousers behave: Ju, s0 proper a "manner as would chi of many another crowd, blush of shame to. the
Quite a number bedeck themselves in carnival attire, the gener? dilection being for emball themselves in the attire of samurai (warriors) of old, even up to the top-knots on their heads and the double, swords thrust into the girdles of their kimonoes, while 3 number of the women, not to be utter annihilation throug? mic of plague. When the city was) stricken, the priest Urabe-no- Hira-maro set up. spear at the shrine over which he was in charge and commanded that a procession be led rious parts of the city to this shrine. This ceremony, it was believed, drove away the evil spit that brought the pestilence and the present annual celebration is partly in honour of the shrine and partly to thank Susa-no-o, (The Impetuous Male) prank-loving brother of Amaterasu, the Sun-Goddess, who with his consort and their' eight children are believed by the devout to still live in Kyoto.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.