1. The Ukashi Brethren

1So then there were in Uda two persons, Ukashi the Elder Brother and Ukashi the Younger Brother. So [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] sent the crow eight feet [long] in advance to ask these persons, saying: “The august child of the Heavenly Deity has made a progress [hither]. Will ye respectfully serve him?” Hereupon Ukashi the Elder Brother waited for and shot at the messenger with a whizzing barb to made him turn back. So the place where the whizzing barb fell is called Kabura-zaki. Saying that he intended to wait for and smite [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko], he [tried to] collect an army. But being unable to collect an army, he said deceitfully that he would respectfully serve [His Augustuess Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko], and built a great palace, and in that palace set a pitfall, and waited. Then Ukashi the Younger Brother came out to [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] beforehand, and made obeisance, saying: “Mine elder brother Ukashi the Elder Brother has shot at and turned back the messenger of the august child of the Heavenly Deity, and, intending to wait for and attack thee, has [tried to] collect an army; but, being unable to collect it, he has built a great palace, and set a gin within it, intending to wait for and catch thee. So I have come out to inform [thee of this].” Then the two persons His Augustness Michi-no-Omi, ancestor of the Ohotomo Chieftains, and His Augustness Ohokume, ancestor of the Kume Lords, summoned Ukashi the Elder Brother and reviled him, saying: “Into the great palace which thou hast built to respectfully serve [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko], be thou the first to enter, and declare plainly the manner in which thou intendest respectfully to serve him;”—and forthwith grasping the hilts of their cross-swords, playing with their spears, and fixing arrows [in their bows], they drove him in, whereupon he was caught in the gin which he himself had set, and died. So they forthwith pulled him out, and cut him in pieces. So the place is called Uda-no-Chihara. Having done thus, [His Augustness Kamu-yamato-ihare-biko] bestowed on his august army the whole of the great banquet presented [to him] by Ukashi the Younger Brother. At this time he sang, saying:

2“The woodcock, for which I laid a woodcock-snare and waited in the high castle of Uda, strikes not against it; but a valiant whale strikes against it. If the elder wife ask for fish, slice off a little like the berries of the standing soba; if the younger wife ask for fish, slice off a quantity like the berries of the vigorous sakaki.”

3So Ukashi the Younger Brother (he is the ancestor of the Water-Directors of Uda).