come to my sacrifice! Whether thou be together with the
Adityas, the Vasus or the Maruts, let the cloud (par_g_anya) rain for
_S_antanu."

And again: "Stir up the rainy cloud" (par_g_anya).

In several places it makes no difference whether we translate
par_g_anya by cloud or by rain, for those who pray for rain, pray for
the cloud, and whatever may be the benefits of the rain, they may
nearly all be called the benefits of the cloud. There is a curious
hymn, for instance, addressed to the frogs who, at the beginning of
the rains, come forth from the dry ponds, and embrace each other and
chatter together, and whom the poet compares to priests singing at a
sacrifice, a not very complimentary remark from a poet who is himself
supposed to have been a priest. Their voice is said to have been
revived by par_g_anya, which we shall naturally translate "by rain,"
though, no doubt, the poet may have meant, for all we know, either a
cloud, or even the god Par_g_anya himself.

I shall try to translate one of the hymns addressed to Par_g_anya,
when conceived as a god, or at least as so much of a god as it was
possible to be at that stage in the intellectual growth of the human
race.[239]

1. "Invoke the strong god with these songs! praise
Par_g_anya, worship him with veneration! for he, the roaring
bull, scattering drops, gives seed-fruit to plants.

2. "He cuts the trees asunder, he kills evil spirits; the
whole world trembles before his mighty weapon. Even the
guiltless flees before the powerful, when Par_g_anya
thundering strikes down the evil-doers.

3. "Like a charioteer, striking his horses with a whip, he
puts forths his messenger of rain. From afar arise the
roarings of the lion, when Par_g_anya makes the sky full of
rain.

4. "The winds blow, the lightnings[240] fly, plants spring
up, the sky pours. Food is produced for the whole world,
when Par_g_anya blesses the earth with his seed.

5. "O Par_g_anya, thou at whose work the earth bows down,
thou at whose work hoofed animals are scattered, thou at
whose work the plants assume all forms, grant thou to us thy
great protection!

6. "O, Maruts, give us the rain of heaven, make the streams
of the strong horse run down! And come thou hither with thy
thunder, pouring out water, for thou (O Par_g_anya) art the
living god, thou art our father.

7. "Do tho