66 The Religion of the Veda

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trivial reel properties of the sacrifice to the luminous gods whom they praise so well.

The most beautiful hymns of the Rig-«Veda. are addreseod to Ushas or Aurora, the maiden Down, the Goddess Down, the daughter of lilyuush Fitter-«m» (Zezis‘ fftl’TiifJ), Father I'Ieovonmmllmnor’e Roseufiziger Ross. A poet sings her ecstztticolly:

“ We have crossed to the other side of darkness,

Gleaming Aurore. hath prepared the way. Delightful as the rhythm of poem,‘ Sheerniles and shines,

To happiness her beauteous face aroused use.” (Ringwa I, 92. 6.)

We feel that we We going to be held willing cop.- tives of a primitive Shelley or Keats, until we are sobered by another stanza of the some hynm (stanza. 5):

“ Her bright sheen hath Shown itself to us; She spreads, and strikes the black dire gloom. A5 one paints the sacrificial post at the sacrifice, So hath Heaven’s daughter put on her brilliance.”

What a. comparison! The petty sacrificial post (were), destined to hold fast an animal victim, gaudin ornamented with pointmit is described tech“ nioally as having a knob for a. head, along with sundry other barbaric beauties—whrings us down with a. thud from heaven to the mockeries of the

1 The expression czidnda mi here and at 8. 7. 36 is to be rendered so, or simply “like a. poem.” There is no occasion for an adjective! stem Made in the eense of “singer,” or the like, as the lexicons

and translators generally assume.