forms-dog, owl, cuckoo, hawk, birds that whirr through the darkness, defiling sacrifices-and ends with a prayer to Indra, for protection against “the fury of the wizards" and the wiles of witches, and for the destruction of both them and "the idols with the crooked necks." On the whole it seems as though Vasishtha and his particular people—i. e., the tribe whose purohita he was, for whom he prayed and sacrificed-were molested and beset in this man

ner to an unusual extent. Which may not appear strange if we remember that Vasishtha was the uncompromising foe of the native races, the fierce champion of Aryan exclusiveness, the founder of Brahmanic orthodoxy and priestcraft in their more offensive forms. It is no wonder that those whose enlightenment he opposed, whom he despised, abominated, and cursed, should have retaliated in all direst ways known to them. (See pp. 320 ff.)

18. The few instances we find in the Rig-Veda of the active use of spells may certainly be classed under the head of "white"-or harmless-magic, since they consist almost entirely of the gathering and handling of herbs, apparently not even accompanied by conjuring except in the case of a woman, who digs up a plant to make a love potion of, for the routing of a rival in her husband's affections (X., 145). She appears to have been successful, for there is a song of triumph and exultation at having got rid of all intruders and secured her proper place as sole ruler of her household. But the general and approved

1 Grassmann.

uses of herbs and plants were evidently for healing purposes, as shown in the so-called "Song of the Physician "really an herb-healer, who wanders about the country with his box of ashvattha-wood. The good man makes no secret of the fact that his chief object is a livelihood. This charming Culturbild abounds in little homely touches which throw just the side-lights we are so eager for on the manners and ways of those otherwise unattainable times. The healer begins by formally announcing that he will sing the praise of "the herbs, the verdant" which are among the oldest of things.

Hundred-fold are your ways, thousand-fold your growth, endowed with hundred various powers: make me this sick man well. Give me victory as to a prize-winning mare. . . For

I must have cattle, horses, and clothes. You will be worth much to me, if you make my sick man well. He in whose hands herbs are gathered as numerous as nobles [or princes, râjans] in the assembly, he is accounted a skilful healer, a tamer of fiends and diseases.-The watery, the milky, the nourishing, the strengthening, -here they all are together, to heal what is wrong with him.—The herbs' fragrance escapes [from the box] as a herd from the stable, to earn a good price for me—and thy life for thee, good man. No let or hindrance keeps them back; they are as the thief who breaks through fences. When I, O ye simples, grasp you sternly in my hands, sickness flees away, as a criminal who fears the grip of the law. In your progress from limb to limb, and from one articulation to another, ye drive sickness before you, as surely as a severe judge's sentence.-Flee then, sickness, flee away-with magpies and with hawks; flee on the pinions of the winds, nay of the whirlwinds."1

19. That our herb-healer was no exception with his "eye to business," is most graphically shown by

1 Roth's translation is here followed,

the following short and humoristic piece, which, besides, is of importance as bearing witness to the absence of caste divisions in the thorough confusion of pursuits which it describes:

‘We men have all our various fancies and designs. The carpenter seeks something that is broken, the doctor a patient, the priest somebody who will sacrifice.-The smith, with well-dried wood, with anvil and with feather fan, to activate the flame, seeks after a man with plenty of gold.—I am a poet, my father is a doctor, my mother a grinder of corn. With our different views, seeking for gain, we run (after our respective objects) as after cattle."

20. It is, of course, possible to extract from the hymns infinitely more material—mostly fragmentary -than we could attempt here for the reconstruction of Vedic life. This has been done exhaustively by H. Zimmer, in his unique and most valuable work, Altindisches Leben, to which we refer the more inquiring of our readers; with the remark, however, that he takes his material from all the four Samhitas, and therefore presents probably a somewhat later picture of Aryan culture than that which we have, in this chapter, striven to evolve almost entirely from the Rig-Veda alone.

CHAPTER X.

THE RIG-VEDA: SACRIFICE.

1. IT seems at first sight as though a chapter on Vedic culture must be wofully incomplete if it does not include a picture of the status of the priests in the social and moral order of those early Aryan communities, and a description of their ministrations, which may all be comprised under the one head of YAJNA-Sacrifice. But it is just because of the immense extent of the subject, and its immense import not merely in the actual life, outer and inner, but in the evolution of the religious and philosophical thought of one of the world's great races, that it cannot possibly be disposed of among other matters, but imperatively demands-when it cannot have a book -a chapter to itself.

2. The priests who confront us in the Rig-Veda, though already forming a distinct class (not caste), are simpler in attitude and in organization than their successors, the Brâhmans. Instead of the large array of priests of various rank, specialists in numberless details of ritual, there is the priest generally-hotar, and the tribal or family priest-purohita. That the ritual, however, was already complicated and exceed

ingly precise, is shown very clearly through all the Rig texts. The priests' services were appreciated and rewarded accordingly. There is a whole class of texts-usually verses appended or interpolated— known under the name of dánastutis. They consist of lists of the presents received from wealthy chieftains and royal patrons, intermingled with praises and blessings, and frequently mentioning the occasion which prompted the largess

dakshina is the technical word. Historically these are, of course, among the most valuable texts, from the glimpses of contemporary life and manners which they afford. We meet there, too, familiar names—of tribes known to us from the historical portions; of famous kings belonging to the more powerful dynasties. Thus Divodâsa, king of the Tritsu, is one of three kings who are named as having given a large bounty out of the booty gained in a successful expedition against Shambara, the mountain chieftain: 10 steeds, 10 baskets full of raiment and other articles, 10 lumps of gold, 100 head of cattle. Another time Sudâs, Divodâsa's son, is one of the givers. Then it is a king of the Turvasu who presents two illustrious priestly families with 60,000 head of cattle, while a king of the Yadu rewards the Kanvas for a victory over the Parsu (a Persian tribe) which is attributed to the efficacy of their prayers, with a dakshina of 300 horses, 10,000 cattle, many double teams of oxen. Again Trâsadasyu, grandson of the powerful Puru king Kutsa, sends the Kanvas 50 women slaves. Handsome chariots and harness are highly prized; the horses are