ed to
drink together with men visibly, but now they do so invisibly (_ib_.
II. 3. 4. 4; III. 6. 2. 26). How did such gods obtain their supremacy?
The answer is simple, 'by sacrifice' (_Cat. Br_. III. 1. 4. 3;
_[=A]it. Br_. II. I. I). So now they live by sacrifice: 'The sun would
not rise if the priest did not make sacrifice' (_Cat. Br_. II. 3. 1.
5). Even the order of things would change if the order of ceremonial
were varied: Night would be eternal if the priests did so and so; the
months would not pass, one following the other, if the priests walked
out or entered together, etc. (_ib._ IV. 3. 1. 9-10). It is by a
knowledge of the Vedas that one conquers all things, and the sacrifice
is part and application of this knowledge, which in one passage is
thus reconditely subdivided: 'Threefold is knowledge, the Rig Veda,
the Yajur Veda, and the S[=a]ma Veda.[15] The Rig Veda, _i.e_., the
verses sung, are the earth; the Yajus is air; the S[=a]man is the sky.
He conquers earth, air, and sky respectively by these three Vedas. The
Rik and S[=a]man are Indra and are speech; the Yajus is Vishnu and
mind' (_ib._ IV. 6. 7. 1 ff.). An item follows that touches on a
modern philosophical question. Apropos of speech and mind: 'Where
speech (alone) existed everything was accomplished and known; but
where mind (alone) existed nothing was accomplished or known' (_ib._
I. 4. 4. 3-4, 7). Mind and speech are male and female, and as
yoke-fellows bear sacrificed to the gods; to be compared is the
interesting dispute between mind and speech (_ib._ 5. 8). As dependent
as is man on what is given by the gods, so dependent are the gods on
what is offered to them by men (_T[=a]itt. Br._ II. 2. 7. 3; _Cat.
Br._ I. 2. 5. 24). Even the gods are now not native to heaven. They
win heaven by sacrifice, by metres, etc. (_Cat. Br._ IV. 3. 2. 5).

What, then, is the sacrifice? A means to enter into the godhead of the
gods, and even to control the gods; a ceremony where every word was
pregnant with consequences;[16] every movement momentous. There are
indications, however, that the priests themselves understood that much
in the ceremonial was pure hocus-pocus, and not of such importance as
it was reputed to be. But such faint traces as survive of a freer
spirit objecting to ceremonial absurdities only mark more clearly the
level plain of unintelligent superstition which was the feeding-ground
of the ordinary priests.

Some of the cases of revolted common-se