"The idol worship in general increased greatly in Japan during the emperor's reign. Abundance of idols, and idol carvers, and priests, came from several countries beyond sea.

"In the eighth year of his reign the first image of Siaka was brought over from beyond sea, and carried to Nara into the temple of Kobusi, where it is still kept in great veneration, possessed of the chief and most eminent place in that temple.

"In the fourteenth year of his reign one Moria, a great antagonist and professed enemy of Sotoktais, occasioned great troubles and religious dissensions in the empire. He bore a mortal hatred to all the Fotoge or idols of the country, which he took out of the temples and burnt wherever he could come at them: but within two years time his enemies got the better of him, for he was overcome, and paid with his life for his presumptuous enterprise. It is added, that having thrown the ashes of the idols, which he had burnt, into a lake, there arose suddenly a most dreadful storm of thunder, lightning, and rain."​—History of Japan by Kempfer, vol. i. page 167.

It is remarkable, that a peculiar people seem to have traversed Mexico in the following century, and according to Humboldt in like manner to have left behind them traces of cultivation and civilization. "The Toultecs," says that eminent author, "appeared first in 648, the Chichimecs in 1170, the Nahualtics in 1178, and the Aztecs in 1196. The Toultecs introduced the cultivation of maize and cotton; they built cities, made roads, and constructed those great pyramids which are yet admired, and of which the faces are very accurately laid out. They knew the use of hieroglyphical paintings; they could found metals and cut the hardest stones, and they had a solar year more perfect than that of the Greeks or Romans. The form of their government indicated that they were the descendants of a people, who had experienced great vicissitudes in their social state." "But where," asks Humboldt, "is the source of that cultivation; where is the country from which the Toultecs and Mexicans issued?"​—Humboldt's Political Essay on New Spain.

[255] In these annals, the princess Chándra Kirana of Daha is represented as being demanded in marriage by the son of the Mahomedan Raja of Malacca, and the story, in which an account is evidently given of a visit to Java at a much later period of its history, blended with the earlier romances of Java, after detailing the particulars by which the prince of Tanjung-pura became Raja of Majapáhit, is thus told:

"The Batára had a daughter, named Raden Galu Chandra Kirana, "whose beauty was celebrated far and wide, and many Rajas sought her in marriage. Her fame reached Malacca, and Sultan Mansur became enamoured of her by description. He ordered Paduka Raja, the Bendahara, to fit out a fleet of five hundred large prahus with innumerable small ones. At Singapura were fitted out a hundred with three masts, and at Singi Raya as many more of the same sort.

"Then the prince selected forty nobles of the country, and forty virgins of noble family. He summoned Maha Ruja Merlang of Indragiri, and the Raja of Palémbang, the Raja of Jambi, and the Raja of Linga, to attend him to Majapahit; all the young warriors attending the prince, and all the great men remaining for the government of the country.

"When they reached Majapahit, they were well received by the Batara. At this time the Rajas of Daha and Tanjungpura, the younger brothers of the prince, were present at Majapahit.

"Among the chieftains who accompanied the Raja of Malacca was the celebrated Hang Tuah or Laxamana, who was highly admired, and exhibited wonderful feats.

"The Batara gave his daughter, Chandra Kirana, in marriage to the Raja of Malacca; and the Batara, delighted with his son-in-law, caused him to be placed on a seat of equal honour with himself, both on public occasions and at meals.