"_'This Reed-plain-1500-autumns-fair-ears Land is the region which my descendants shall be lords of. Do thou, my August Grandchild, proceed thither and govern it. Go! and may prosperity attend thy dynasty, and may it, like Heaven and Earth, endure for ever.' When he was about to descend, one who had been sent in advance to clear the way, returned and said: 'There is one God who dwells at the eight-crossroads of Heaven, the length of whose nose is seven hands, and whose stature is more than seven fathoms. Moreover, a light shines from his mouth and from his posteriors. His eye-balls are like an eight-hand mirror, and have a ruddy glow like the physalis.' Thereupon he sent one of his attendant Deities to go and make inquiry. Now among all the eighty myriads of Deities, there was not one who could confront him and make inquiry. Therefore he specially commanded Ame no Uzume, saying: 'Thou art superior to others in the power of thy looks. Thou hadst better go and question him.' So Ame no Uzume forthwith bared her breasts, and, pushing down the band of her garment below her navel, confronted him with a mocking laugh. Then the God of the crossways asked her saying: 'Ame no Uzume! What meanest thou by this behaviour?' She answered and said: 'I make bold to ask who art thou, that dost thus remain in the road by which the child of Ama-terasu no Oho-kami is to make his progress?' The God of the crossways answered and said: 'I have heard that the child of Ama-terasu no Oho-kami is now about to descend, and therefore I have come respectfully to meet and attend upon him. My name is Saruta-hiko no Oho-kami.' Then Ame no Uzume again inquired of him, saying: 'Wilt thou go before me, or shall I go before thee?' He answered and said: 'I will go before and be his harbinger.' Ame no Uzume returned and reported these circumstances. Thereupon the August Grandchild, leaving the heavenly rock-seat, and thrusting apart the eight-piled clouds of Heaven, clove his way with an awful way-cleaving, and descended to earth._" He alighted on a mountain in the western island of Kiushiu. He was attended by the ancestors of the five _be_, or hereditary government corporations, viz.: the Nakatomi, the Imbe, the Sarume, the mirror-makers _be_, and the jewellers _be_, to which some accounts add several others. Ninigi took to wife Konohana-sakuyahime (the lady blooming like the flowers of the trees). Her father Oho-yamatsu mi (great-mountain person) had offered him both his daughters, but the elder was rejected by Ninigi as being too ugly. Her name was Iha-naga-hime (rock-long-lady). The consequences of this choice were disastrous to his descendants. Iha-naga-hime, in her shame and resentment, uttered a curse and said: "The race of visible men shall change swiftly like the flowers of the trees and shall decay and pass away." This is the reason why the life of man is so short.