yst become
loving, that thou mayst not depart from me,' etc. In the following
verses the Horsemen gods are invoked to unite the lovers.
Characteristic among bucolic passages is the cow-song in II. 26, the
whole intent of which is to ensure a safe return to the cows on their
wanderings: 'Hither may they come, the cattle that have wandered far
away,' etc.

The view that there are different conditions of Manes is clearly
taught in XVIII. 2. 48-49, where it is said that there are three
heavens, in the highest of which reside the Manes; while a distinction
is made at the same time between 'fathers' and 'grandfathers,' the
fathers' fathers, 'who have entered air, who inhabit earth and
heaven.' Here appears nascent the doctrine of 'elevating the Fathers,'
which is expressly taught in the next era. The performance of rites in
honor of the Manes causes them to ascend from a low state to a higher
one. In fact, if the offerings are not given at all, the spirits do
not go to heaven. In general the older generations of Manes go up
highest and are happiest. The personal offering is only to the
immediate fathers.

If, as was shown in the introductory chapter, the Atharvan represents
a geographical advance on the part of the Vedic Aryans, this fact
cannot be ignored in estimating the primitiveness of the collection.
Geographical advance, acquaintance with other flora and fauna than
those of the Rig Veda, means--although the argument of silence must
not be exaggerated--a temporal advance also. And not less significant
are the points of view to which one is led in the useful little work
of Scherman on the philosophical hymns of the Atharvan. Scherman
wishes to show the connection between the Upanishads and Vedas. But
the bearing of his collection is toward a closer union of the two
bodies of works, and especially of the Atharvan, not to the greater
gain in age of the Upanishads so much as to the depreciation in
venerableness of the former. If the Atharvan has much more in common
with the Br[=a]hmanas and Upanishads than has the Rig Veda, it is
because the Atharvan stands, in many respects, midway in time between
the era of Vedic hymnology and the thought of the philosophical
period. The terminology is that of the Br[=a]hmanas, rather than that
of the Rig Veda. The latter knows the great person; the Atharvan, and
the former know the original great person, _i.e._., the _tausa movens_
under the _causa efficiens_, etc. In the Atharvan app