In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

42 The Beginning of Heaven and Earth On the earth there is a stone called gòjaku, Deusu told them. If you discover its whereabouts and live in that spot, something miraculous is sure to happen. The place Deusu was referring to is the very place where we are living.18 Now Jusuheru, who had hidden himself from Adan and Ewa earlier, was a dreadful sight to behold for his nose had grown long and his mouth wide. His arms and legs had sprouted scales, and horns jutted up out of his head.19 He bowed before Deusu and said, “It is all because of my evil heart that I have become like this. When I consider my destiny I become frightened.” He then begged Deusu, “Please, let me have the glory of Paraiso again.” But Deusu answered, “Oh, malignant one. You will never be the stuff for heaven, and because Ewa’s children are doing penance on the earth, it is not possible for you to stay there either. Therefore , you will become the god of thunder.” Jusuheru then earned the rank of ten forms and was allowed to reside in Middle Heaven. But, alas, all the anjo who had worshiped Jusuheru, every last one of them, was transformed into a tengu and sank down to Middle Heaven.20 2. The Evil Fruit Cast to Middle Heaven Deusu thought that the fruit of the masan was an evil thing for both heaven and earth, so he sent it to the tengu residing in Middle Heaven. Ewa’s children departed and met in the vicinity where they had discovered a lode of gòjaku. Then straight from heaven a naked sword came hurling down. It flew to earth piercing the ground in that very spot where the two had gathered. This was the miraculous deed that Deusu had foretold, and both Chikorò and Tanhò stood silent in great awe. The woman, Tanhò, without thinking hurled a needle that pierced the chest of the man and blood gushed out. Then the man in turn hurled a comb at the woman, and brother and sister thus broke their blood tie, and became man and wife.21 From then on woman became submissive to Translation 43 man, and the couple took a vow of fidelity. Seeing that all things foretold came to pass,22 they coupled and had many children. Since that time the number of humans increased at a steady pace so that food was in short supply. Turning their faces to heaven, the people prayed, “Please, give us food.” While they were praying , Deusu appeared in the open sky and gave them rice seeds. They planted these seeds in the fallen snow and in the sixth month of the following year, they reaped a bumper harvest: eight ears of rice produced eight koku of rice. The secondary crop produced nine. This is the origin of the Sowers’ Song, “Eight Koku for Eight Ears.”23 Agriculture spread at this time through fields and up into the hills until the food supply became abundant. But the world took a turn for the worse since evil and greed held sway. Three beings were unleashed and entered the world at this time: Ambition, Covetousness , and Selfishness. To satisfy their greedy desires, they stole food from righteous people. Deusu, despising those three, bound them together into a single bundle that bore three faces, and horns sprouted from all three. They were dreadful to look upon, and Deusu said to them, “You selfishly grabbed things that grew in the rice paddies and the fields all for yourselves. I, Deusu, have therefore come down from heaven in order to make you demons of a lower heaven.” So saying, he kicked them to the bottom of the sea.24 These three scoundrels, by the way, were also the doing of Jusuheru. As the population grew again gradually, people followed the evil precedent set by these three wicked ones: Ambition, Covetousness , and Selfishness. Everyone stole and people were relentlessly greedy and inclined toward evil. Although evil deeds increased by steady degrees, Deusu took compassion on the people and sent an oracle to Pappa Maruji, the ruling monarch of that land: when the eyes of the lion-dog of the temple turn red, a great tsunami will come and destroy the whole world. Since the time that the monarch Pappa Maruji received this oracle from Deusu, he visited the temple every day to pay his respects to the lion-dogs.25...

Share