Note 11 — Chapter XX · The Dragon-Slayer and His Rival
Reading edition
Next day Susa-no-wo shot a “humming arrow”11 into the middle of a moor, and made Ohonamochi fetch it back. But when the young god went out on the moor Susa-no-wo set fire to it all round. Ohonamochi could perceive no way of escape. As he stood there, a mouse12 came and told him of a hollow place in which he could shelter himself. Ohonamochi hastened to the hole and hid in it till the fire had gone past. Then the mouse discovered and brought the humming arrow to Ohonamochi. “The feathers of the arrows were brought in their mouths by all the mouse’s children” (Ko-ji-ki, p. 73).13