itious practice may be antique, there is small probability for
assuming a contemporaneous origin of the hymns of the two collections.
The many verses cited, apparently pell-mell, from the Rig Veda, might,
it is true, revert to a version older than that in which they are
found in the Rig Veda, but there is nothing to show that they were not
taken from the Rig Veda, and re-dressed in a form that rendered them
in many cases more intelligible; so that often what is respectfully
spoken of as a 'better varied reading' of the Atharvan may be better,
as we have said in the introductory chapter, only in lucidity; and the
lucidity be due to tampering with a text old and unintelligible.
Classical examples abound in illustrations.

Nevertheless, although an antiquity equal to that of the whole Rig
Veda can by no means be claimed for the Atharvan collection (which, at
least in its tone, belongs to the Brahmanic period), yet is the mass
represented by the latter, if not contemporaneous, at any rate so
venerable, that it safely may be assigned to a period as old as that
in which were composed the later hymns of the Rik itself. But in
distinction from the hymns themselves the weird religion they
represent is doubtless as old, if not older, than that of the Rig
Veda. For, while the Rig Vedic _soma-_cult is Indo-Iranian, the
original Atharvan (fire) cult is even more primitive, and the basis of
the work, from this point of view, may have preceded the composition
of Rik hymns. This Atharvan religion--if it may be called so--is,
therefore, of exceeding importance. It opens wide the door which the
Rik puts ajar, and shows a world of religious and mystical ideas which
without it could scarcely have been suspected. Here magic eclipses
Soma and reigns supreme. The wizard is greater than the gods; his
herbs and amulets are sovereign remedies. Religion is seen on its
lowest side. It is true that there is 'bad magic' and 'good magic'
(the existence of the former is substantiated by the maledictions
against it), but what has been received into the collection is
apparently the best. To heal the sick and procure desirable things is
the object of most of the charms and incantations--but some of the
desirable things are disease and death of one's foes. On the higher
side of religion, from a metaphysical point of view, the Atharvan is
pantheistic. It knows also the importance of the 'breaths,'[1] the
vital forces; it puts side by side the different god