And the fair Goddess Amé-no-Uzumé was led forth to dance, her flowing sleeves bound up with the creeping plant Masaki, and her head-dress of trailing Kadsura vine, gathered from the mountains of Heavenly Fragrance, and in her hands the branches of young bamboos hung with tiny bells. These she waved rhythmically to and fro to the sound of her stepping, and as the humming of the bow-strings rose and fell, the eighty Myriad Gods sat around her and joyfully beat the measure. She sang of the beauty of an unknown goddess, and as her body swayed in cadence, the great assembly of gods laughed aloud till the vault of heaven shook. The Sun-Goddess wondered greatly at all this mirth and music, and said: “How is it that while the whole Plain of Heaven and the Land of the Reed-Plains is darkened, Uzumé sings and frolics, and the eighty Myriad Gods do laugh?” She peeped inquisitive out of the cave. Uzumé still sang of the beauty of the Unknown Goddess, and the words of the first song were these: Gods! from the cavern’s gloom Comes she majestical. Shall not our hearts rejoice? Mine is the victory! Who can resist my charms? Hail, Ever-Shining One! And wondering—longing—yet unwilling to venture forth, Amaterasu looked from the depths of the cave and listened to the strains, and heard the gods make merry; till, opening wider the door, she stood upon the threshold. Two gods hastily held forward the mirror, and she saw, amazed, the vision of her own exceeding loveliness. Then the first flush of dawn appeared suddenly in the east, there was a stir as of awakening birds, the mountain-tops blushed pink, and all the gods held their breath. She stepped forward softly, still gazing entranced, while broad shafts of light shot upward in the sky, and her glory filled the air with rosy radiance. As she looked on her ineffable beauty, the Wise God, twisting a rice-straw rope, stretched it across the mouth of the cave—for never more could she desire to hide her face from a sorrowing world. And thus with the sunshine came music and dancing, for the delight of men. * * * * * In Norse mythology, the story is told that the heavenly bodies were formed of the sparks from Muspelheim. The gods did not create them, but they placed them in the heavens to give light to the world, and assigned them a prescribed locality and motion. Mundilfare was the father of the sun and moon. He had two children, a son and a daughter, so lovely and graceful that he called the boy Maane (Moon), and the girl Sol (Sun), and Sol he gave in marriage to Glener (the Shining One). The gods, however, were much incensed at the presumption of Mundilfare, so they took his two children and placed them in the heavens, where they let Sol drive the horses of the Sun, while Maane guides the Moon and regulates its increasing and waning aspect.