_"'As the many-piled clouds of Heaven are scattered by the breath of the Wind-Gods; as the morning breezes and the evening breezes dissipate the dense morning vapours and the dense evening vapours; as a huge ship, moored in a great harbour, casting off its stern moorings, casting off its bow moorings, drives forth into the great sea-plain; as yonder thick brushwood is smitten and cleared away by the sharp sickle forged in the fire, so shall all offences be utterly annulled. Therefore he (the Mikado) is graciously pleased to purify and cleanse them away. The Goddess called Se-ori-tsu-hime who dwells in the rapids of the swift streams whose cataracts tumble headlong from the tops of the high mountains and from the tops of the low mountains will bear them out into the great sea-plain. Thereupon the Goddess called Haya-aki-tsu-hime, who dwells in the myriad meetings of the tides of the myriad brine-paths of the myriad ways of the currents of the boisterous sea will swallow them up. And the God Ibuki-do nushi, who dwells in the Breath-blowing-place,[268] will puff them away to the Root-country, the Bottom Country.[269] Then the Goddess Haya-sasura-hime,[270] who dwells in the Root-country, the Bottom-country, will banish and abolish them. When they have been so destroyed, every one, from the servants of the Imperial Court to the four quarters of the Under-Heaven, will remain void of all offences whatsoever._ _"'Attend, therefore, all of you to this Great Purification, by which he is graciously pleased at sunset on this interlunar day of the sixth (or twelfth) month of this year to purify and cleanse you, having led hither a horse as an animal that pricks up its ears to the Plain of High-Heaven.'_[271] _"He says: 'Ye diviners (Urabe) of the four provinces, remove them to the great river-way and abolish them.'"_[272] In addition to the Oho-harahi, or National Purifications, there were local and individual celebrations. In the latter case, of which Susa no wo's punishment is the mythical type, the _harahi-tsu-mono_ were naturally furnished by the person for whose benefit they were performed, and so amounted practically to a fine on the offender. The _Nihongi_ (A.D. 646) mentions a number of cases in which travellers and others were compelled by the country people to do _harahi_, that is, to pay a fine, under various pretences. For example, when a man returning from forced labour fell down by the roadside and died, the villagers of the place said, "Why should a man be allowed to die on our road?" and detained the companions of the deceased until they had done _harahi_. Cases of drowning were followed by similar claims, and even the cooking of rice by the roadside or the upsetting of a borrowed pot. An Imperial decree was issued prohibiting these extortions, which are described as habitual with the unenlightened vulgar.