tempest. They are in intimate alliance with Indra, to whom their violent nature is closely akin. Their attributes are simple. A notion of them may perhaps be gained from these verses:—
1. "What then now? When will you take (us) as a dear father takes
his son by both hands, O ye gods, for whom the sacred grass has been
trimmed? 2. Whither now? On what errand of yours are you going,
in heaven, not on earth? Where are your cows sporting? 3. Where
are your newest favors, O Maruts? Where the blessings? Where
all delights?. . . 6. Let not one sin after another, difficult to be
conquered, overcome us; may it depart together with lust. 7. Truly
they are furious and powerful; even to the desert the Rudriyas bring
rain that is never dried up. 8. The lightning lows like a cow, it follows
as a mother follows after her young, that the shower (of the Maruts)
may be let loose. 9. Even by day the Maruts create darkness with the
water-bearing cloud, when they drench the earth. 10. From the shout
of the Maruts over the whole space of the earth, men reeled forward.
11. Maruts on your strong-hoofed steeds go on easy roads after those
bright ones (the clouds) which are still locked up. 12. May your felloes
be strong, the chariots, and their horses; may your reins be well fashioned.
13. Speak out forever with thy voice to praise the Lord of
prayer, Agni, who is like a friend, the bright one. 14. Fashion a hymn
in thy mouth! Expand like a cloud! Sing a song of praise. 15. Worship
the host of the Maruts, the brisk, the praiseworthy, the singers.
May the strong ones stay here among us" (R. V. S., vol. i. p. 65.—Rig-Veda,
i. 38).
The most charming member of the Vedic pantheon, and the
one who seems to have called forth from the Rishis the deepest
poetical feeling, is Ushas ([Greek: Eôs]), the Dawn. Her continual reappearance,
or birth, morning after morning, seems to have
filled them with delight and tenderness. The hymn now to be
quoted—too long to be extracted in full—gives expression to
the feelings with which they gazed upon this ever-recurring
mystery:—
2. "The fair and bright Ushas, with her bright child (the Sun), has
arrived; to her the dark (night) has relinquished her abodes; kindred to
one another, immortal, alternating Day and Night go on changing color.
3. The same is the never-ending path of the two sisters, which they
