Susanoo, expelled from heaven, comes down by the Hi river in Izumo and finds an old couple with their last daughter, weeping because the eight-headed, eight-tailed serpent Yamata no Orochi has taken the other seven and is due again. The creature is described as spanning eight valleys and eight hills with moss and cypresses growing on its back and its belly perpetually bloody. Susanoo turns the girl into a comb and puts her in his hair, has the couple brew sake refined eight times and set out eight vats behind eight gates; the serpent drinks, sleeps, and he cuts it apart. His blade chips on something in the middle tail: the sword Kusanagi, which he sends up to Amaterasu as a peace offering and which becomes one of the three imperial regalia. He then marries the girl and composes what is traditionally called the first Japanese poem. The story is performed constantly as kagura and as Noh, and the serpent is generally read as the flood-prone river itself.