clearly two other meanings of váhni which must be admitted in the Veda, first that of a carrier, vehicle, and, it may be, horse; secondly that of minister or priest.

vi. 57, 3. agấh anyásya váhnayah hárî (íti) anyásya sámbhritâ.

The bearers of the one (Pûshan) are goats, the bays are yoked for the other (Indra).

i. 14, 6. ghritá-prishthâh manah-yúgah yé tvâ váhanti váhnayah.

The horses with shining backs, obedient to thy will, which carry thee (Agni).

viii. 3, 23. yásmai anyé dása práti dhúram váhanti váhnayah. A horse against whom other ten horses carry a weight; i. e. it requires ten horses to carry the weight which this one horse carries. (See x. 11, 7. váhamânah ásvaih.)

ii. 37, 3. médyantu te váhnayah yébhih ĭyase. May thy horses be fat on which thou goest.

ii. 24, 13. utá ấsishthâh ánu srinvanti váhnayah.

The very quick horses (of Brahmanaspati) listen. These may be the flames, but they are conceived as carriers or horses.

i. 44, 13. srudhí srut-karna váhni-bhih.

Agni, who hast ears to hear, hear, on thy horses. Unless váhni-bhih is joined with the words that follow, devaih sayava-bhih.

iii. 6, 2. vakyántâm te váhnayah saptá-gihvâh*.

May thy seven-tongued horses be called. Here váhnayah is clearly meant for the flames of Agni, yet I doubt whether we should be justified in dropping the simile, as the plural of váhni is nowhere used in the bald sense of flames.

In one passage váhni is used as a feminine, or at all events applied to a feminine subject:

viii. 94, 1. yukta váhnih ráthânâm.

She is yoked as the drawer of the chariots.

The passages in which váhni is applied to Soma in the 9th and 10th Mandalas throw little light on the subject. (ix. 9, 6; 20, 5; 6; 36, 2; 64, 19; 89, 1; X. 101, 10.) Instead of visẩm vispátih, lord of men (vii. 7, 4), we find

* Cf. i. 58, 7. saptá guhväh.

ix. 108, 10. visẩm váhnih ná vispátih. One feels inclined to translate here váhnih by leader, but it is more likely that váhni is here again the common name of Soma, and that it is inserted between visẩm ná vispátih, which is meant to form one phrase.

In ix. 97, 34, tisráh väkah îrayati prá váhnih, we may take váhni as the common appellation of Soma. But it may also mean minister or priest, as in the passages which we have now to examine. Cf. x. 11, 6.

For besides these passages in which váhni clearly means vector, carrier, drawer, horse, there is a large class of verses in which it can only be translated by minister, i. e. officiating minister, and, as it would seem, chiefly singer or reciter.

The verb vah was used in Sanskrit in the sense of carrying out (ud-vah, ausführen), or performing a rite, particularly as applied to the reciting of hymns. Hence such compounds as ukthá-vâhas or stóma-vâhas, offering hymns of praise. Thus we read:

v. 79, 4. abhí yé tvâ vibhâ-vari stómaih grinánti váhnayah.

The ministers who praise thee, splendid Dawn, with hymns.

i. 48, 11. yé tvâ grinánti váhnayah.

The ministers who praise thee.

vii. 75, 5. ushẩh ukkhati váhni-bhih grinânẩ. The dawn lights up, praised by the ministers. vi. 39, 1. mandrásya kavéh divyásya váhne. Of the sweet poet, of the heavenly priest

vii. 82, 4. yuvẩm ít yut-sú prítanâsu váhnayah yuvẩm kshémasya pra-savé mitá-gñavah îsânẩ vásvah ubháyasya kârávah índrâvarunâ su-hávâ havâmahe.

We, as ministers, invoke you only in fights and battles; we, as supplicants, (invoke) you for the granting of treasure; we, as poets, (invoke) you, the lords of twofold wealth, you, Indra and Varuna, who listen to our call.

vi. 32, 3. sáh váhni-bhih ríkva-bhih góshu sásvat mitágñubhih puru-krítvâ gigâya.

He (Indra) was victorious often among the cows, always with celebrating and suppliant ministers.

I have placed these two passages together because they

seem to me to illustrate each other, and to show that although in the second passage the celebrating and suppliant ministers may be intended for the Maruts, yet no argument could be drawn from this verse in favour of váhni by itself meaning the Maruts. See also viii. 6, 2; 12, 15;

X. 114, 2.

iv. 21, 6. hótâ yáh nah mahẩn sam-váraneshu váhnih. The Hotar who is our great priest in the sanctuaries. i. 128, 4. váhnih vedhah ágâyata.

Because the wise priest (Agni) was born.

The same name which in these passages is applied to Agni, is in others, and, as it will be seen, in the same sense, applied to Indra.

ii. 21, 2. tuvi-gráye váhnaye.

To the strong-voiced priest or leader.

The fact that váhni is followed in several passages by ukthaíh would seem to show that the office of the váhni was chiefly that of recitation or of addressing prayers to the gods.

iii. 20, 1. agním ushásam asvínâ dadhi-krẩm ví-ushtishu havate váhnih ukthaíh.

The priest at the break of day calls with his hymns Agni, Ushas, the Asvins, and Dadhikrâ.

i. 184, I. tẩ vâm adyá taú aparám huvema ukkhántyâm ushási váhnih ukthaíh.

Let us invoke the two Asvins to-day and to-morrow, the priest with his hymns is there when the dawn appears.

In a similar sense, it would seem, as váhnih ukthaíh, the Vedic poets frequently use the words váhnih âsa. This âsa is the instrumental singular of âs, mouth, and it is used in other phrases also of the mouth as the instrument of praise.

vi. 32, 1. vagríne sám-tamâni vákâmsi âsa sthávirâya taksham.

I have shaped with my mouth blessed words to the wielder of the thunderbolt, the strong Indra.

X. 115, 3. âsa váhnim ná sokíshâ vi-rapsínam.

He who sings with his flame as the poet with his mouth. See also i. 38, 14. mimîhí slókam âsyẽ, make a song in thy mouth.

Thus we find váhnih âsa in the same place in the sixth

and seventh Mandalas (vi. 16, 9; vii. 16, 9), in the phrase váhnih âsa vidúh-tarah, applied to Agni in the sense of the priest wise with his mouth, or taking váhnih âsa as it were one word, the wise poet.

i. 129, 5. váhnih âsa, váhnih nah ákkha,"

Indra, as a priest by his lips, as a priest coming towards us. From the parallelism of this passage it would seem that Professor Roth concluded the meaning of âsa* to be near,

or coram.

i. 76, 4. praga-vatâ vákasâ váhnih âsa a ka huvé ní ka satsi ihá devaíh.

With words in which my people join, I, the poet, invoke, and thou (Agni) sittest down with the gods.

vi. 11, 2. pâvakáyâ guhva váhnih âsa.

Thou, a poet with a bright tongue, O Agni!

The question now arises in what sense váhni is used when applied without further definition to certain deities. Most deities in the Veda are represented as driving or driven, and many as poets or priests. When the Asvins are called váhnî, viii. 8, 12; vii. 73, 4, it may mean riders. But when the Visve Devas are so called, i. 3, 9, or the Ribhus, the exact

*

Âs, mouth, the Latin os, oris, has been derived from a root as, to breathe, preserved in the Sanskrit as-u, spirit, asu-ra, endowed with spirit, living, the living god. Though I agree with Curtius in admitting a primitive root as, to breathe, from which as-u, breath, must have sprung, I have always hesitated about the derivation of âs and âsya, mouth, from the same root. I do not think, however, that the lengthening of the vowel in âs is so great a difficulty as has been supposed (Kuhn, Zeitschrift, vol. xvii. p. 145). Several roots lengthen their vowel a, when used as substantives without derivative suffixes. In some cases this lengthening is restricted to the Anga base, as in anadvâh; in others to the Anga and Pada base, as in visvavât, visvavâdbhih, &c.; in others again it pervades the whole declension, as in turâshât: (see Sanskrit Grammar, §§ 210, 208, 175.) Among ordinary words vâk offers a clear instance of a lengthened vowel. In the Veda we find ritisháham, vi. 14, 4, and ritîshấham (Sanhitâ), i. 64, 15. We find vâh in apsu-vâh (Sâm. Ved.), indra-vâh, havya-vâh. Sah at the end of compounds, such as nri-sah, pritanâ-sah, bhûri-sah, satrâ-sah, vibhâ-sah, sadâ-sah, varies between a long and short â: (see Regnier, Étude sur l'idiome du Védas, p. 111.) At all events no instance has yet been pointed out in Sanskrit, showing the same contraction which we should have to admit if, as has been proposed, we derived âs from av-as, or from an-as. From an we have in the Veda âná, mouth or face, i. 52, 15. From as, to breathe, the Latin omen, originally os-men, a whisper, might likewise be derived.

meaning is more doubtful. The Maruts are certainly riders, and we can even prove that they were supposed to sit on horseback and to have the bridle through the horse's nostrils (v. 61, 2). But if in our verse i. 6, 5, we translate váhni as an epithet, rider, and not only as an epithet, but as a name of the Maruts, we cannot support our translation by independent evidence, but must rely partly on the authority of Sâyana, partly on the general tenour of the text before us, where the Maruts are mentioned in the preceding verse, and, if I am right, in the verse following also. On the other hand, if váhni can thus be used as a name of the Maruts, there is at least one other passage which would gain in clearness by the admission of that meaning, viz.

X. 138, 1. táva tyé indra sakhyéshu váhnayah—ví adardiruh valám.

In thy friendship, Indra, these Maruts tore asunder the cloud.

Verse 5, note 2. I have translated vîlú by stronghold, though it is only an adjective meaning firm. Dr. Oscar Meyer, in his very able essay Quæstiones Homericæ, specimen prius, Bonnæ, 1867, has tried to show that this vîlú is the original form of "IXtos, and he has brought some further evidence to show that the siege and conquest of Troy, as I pointed out in my Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii. p. 470, was originally described in language borrowed from the siege and conquest of the dark night by the powers of light, or from the destruction of the cloud by the weapons of Indra. It ought to be considered, however, that vîlú in the Veda has not dwindled down as yet to a mere name, and that therefore it may have originally retained its purely appellative power in Greek as well as in Sanskrit, and from meaning a stronghold in general, have come to mean the stronghold of Troy.

Verse 5, note 3. The bright cows are here the cows of the morning, the dawns, or the days themselves, which are represented as rescued at the end of each night by the power of Indra, or similar solar gods. Indra's companions in that daily rescue are the Maruts, the storms, or the