ore life; III. 6, a curse against 'whom I
hate'; III. 23, to obtain offspring. On the stars and night,
see hymn at XIX. 8 and 47. In V. 13, a guard against poison;
_ib._ a hymn to a drum; _ib._ 31, a charm to dispel evil
magic; VI. 133, magic to produce long life; V. 23, against
worms, etc., etc. Aditi, VII. 6. 1-4 (partly Rik).]

[Footnote 9: Compare Muir, OST. II. 447 ff.]

[Footnote 10: This old charm is still used among the
clam-diggers of Canarsie, N.Y.]

[Footnote 11: _Ind. Lit_^2 p. 164.]

[Footnote 12: _M[=a]it. Up._. vii. 9. He is 'the gods'
Brahm[=a]' (Rik.)]

[Footnote 13: _Indische und germanische Segenssprueche_; KZ.
xiii. 49.]

[Footnote 14: One long hymn, xii. 1, of the Atharvan is to
earth and fire (19-20). In the Rik, _atharvan_ is
fire-priest and bringer of fire from heaven; while once the
word may mean fire itself (viii. 9, 7). The name Brahmaveda
is perhaps best referred to _brahma_ as fire (whence
'fervor,' 'prayer,' and again 'energy,' 'force'). In
distinction from the great _soma_-sacrifices, the fire-cult
always remains the chief thing in the domestic ritual. The
present Atharvan formulae have for the most part no visible
application to fire, but the name still shows the original
connection.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER VIII.

EARLY HINDU DIVINITIES COMPARED WITH THOSE OF OTHER ARYANS.

Nothing is more usual than to attempt a reconstruction of Aryan ideas
in manners, customs, laws, and religious conceptions, by placing side
by side similar traits of individual Aryan nations, and stating or
insinuating that the result of the comparison shows that one is
handling primitive characteristics of the whole Aryan body. It is of
special importance, therefore, to see in how far the views and
practices of peoples not Aryan may be found to be identical with those
of Aryans. The division of the army into clans, as in the Iliad and
the Veda; the love of gambling, as shown by Greeks, Teutons, and
Hindus; the separation of captains and princes, as is illustrated by
Teuton and Hindu; the belief in a flood, common to Iranian, Greek, and
Hindu; in the place of departed spirits, with the journey over a river
(Iranian, Hindu, Scandinavian, Greek); in the after-felicity of
warriors who die on the field of battle (Scandinavian, Greek, and
Hindu); in the re