This is the great sword Kusanagi (Herb-queller)."_ On the occasion of his marriage to Kushinada hime, Susa no wo composed the following verses:-- _Many clouds arise,_ _On all sides a manifold fence:_ _To receive within it the spouses,_ _They form a manifold fence,_ _Ah! that manifold fence!_ Eventually he entered the Nether Land. Few of my readers will require to have pointed out to them the striking resemblance of this story to that of Perseus and Andromeda, or will need to be referred to Mr. Sidney Hartland's 'Legend of Perseus,' in which everything relating to its numerous variants has been so thoroughly examined. I would direct special attention to chapter xviii. of this work, where the hypothesis is offered, "that we have in this incident a reminiscence of the abolition of human sacrifices to deities in the shape of the lower animals.... In certain stages of civilization, sacrifices of the kind are practised, and are frequently offered to water-spirits conceived in animal form.... It may, of course, be that the monster sent to devour Andromeda is to be regarded simply as the personification of water, or of specific rivers in their sinister aspect."[78] The circumstance that the scene of this episode in Susa no wo's career is the bank of a river is therefore by no means immaterial. Indeed, we may plausibly conjecture that the description of the serpent with its eight (or many) heads and eight tails, its length extending over eight valleys and eight hills, its body overgrown with moss, pines, and cedars, and its propensity for devouring human beings is nothing more than a fanciful representation of the river, with its serpentine course, its numerous tributaries and branches, its wooded banks, and the danger by drowning in its pools or at its fords. The poem ascribed to Susa no wo cannot be older than the sixth or seventh century. The word translated "on all sides," is _idzumo_. There is therefore a punning allusion to the province of that name. The "manifold fence," is the "nuptial hut," already referred to.[79] =Ohonamochi=.--Susa no wo had numerous children, among whom were Oho-toshi (great harvest), and Uka no mitama[80] (food-spirit). The most famous of his progeny was a God called Ohonamochi. This is the Great Deity of Idzumo, a place second only to Ise for sanctity.