[22] Zipangu and Cipangu are renderings of the Chinese Jih-pên (“the place the sun comes from”), with the word Kuo, “country”, added. The Japanese Nihon or Nippon, [[334]]and our Japan, are other renderings of the Chinese name which was first used officially in Japan in the seventh century A.D. Earlier Japanese names include Yamato and Ō-mi-kuni, “the great dragon (mi) land”, &c. [↑]
[23] Yule, The Book of Ser Marco Polo (Book III, chapter iii), Vol. III, p. 200. Kunz, Folk-lore of Precious Stones (Memoirs Internat. Congr. Anthrop., Chicago, 1894), pp. 147 et seq. G. A. Cooke, System of Universal Geography, Vol. I (1801), p. 574. J. W. Jackson, Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture (London, 1917), pp. 106 et seq. [↑]
[24] Korea and her Neighbours (London, 1898), Vol. II, pp. 95 et seq. [↑]
[25] The Chinese dragon, K’üh-lung, originated from a sea-plant called hai-lü. De Visser, The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 72. [↑]
[26] The Dragon in China and Japan, p. 137. [↑]
[27] The temple of the Mexican dragon- and rain-god, Tlaloc, was called “Ep-coatl”, which signifies “pearl-serpent” or “serpent-pearl”. Young children sacrificed to Tlaloc by being thrown into the whirlpool (pan tit lan) of the lake of Mexico, were also called “Ep-coatl”. This sacrifice took place at the water festival in the first month of the Mexican year. The infants were sacrificed at several points, some being butchered on holy hills, including the “place of mugwort”, sacred to the mugwort and gem-goddess Chalchihuitlicue, wife of Tlaloc. But only the children thrown into the lake were called “Ep-coatl”. [↑]
[28] Shinto (London, 1905), pp. 27 et seq. [↑]
[29] This does not seem to be the reason for the sanctity of a round object. [↑]
[30] Or shaped like the teeth of tigers or bears. [↑]
[31] Archæologia, 1897 (The Dolmens and Burial Mounds in Japan), p. 478. [↑]