XII.—WHY WESTERN YEZO IS SO ROUGH AND DANGEROUS.

   "This is the way in which the maker of places is said have created the world.¹

   He and his younger sister made it between them; the sister's portion was the Western part of Yezo while the male deity made the Eastern part, and, it is said, they vied with each other in their work. Now, as the younger sister was but a woman, she, happening to fall in with the younger sister of the Divine Oina, instead of doing her work stopped to chatter. While this was going on the male deity came near completing p. 227 his portion of the task; seeing this, she, being surprised, made the Western part after the slovenly manner it now is. It was therefore because she did her work in too great a hurry that it was done so exceedingly badly; and hence it is that the Western part of Yezo has so many dangerous places about it. So runs the tale."

Footnotes

p. 226

¹ The world here means the Island of Yezo only.