34 ANCIENT BELIEFS. BOOK I» must be the wood of certain trees. As the Greeks and Italians ofier it wine, the Hindu pours upon it a fer- mented liquor, which he calls soma. Meals, too, are religious acts, and the rites are scrupulously described in the Laws of Manu. They address prayers to the file, as in Greece ; they offer it the first fruits of i ice, butter, and honey. We read that " the Brahmin ohould not eat the rice of the new harvest without having offered the first fruits of it to the hearth-fire ; for the sacred fire is greedy of grain, and when it is not hon- ored, it will devour the existence of the negligent Brahmin." The Hindus, like the Greeks and the Ro- mans, pictured the gods to themselves as greedy not only of honors and respect, but of food and drink. Man believed himself compelled to satisfy their hunger and thirst, if he wished to avoid their wrath. Among the Hindus this divinity of the fire is called Agni. The Rig-Veda contains a great number of hymns addressed to this god. In one it is said, " Q Agni, thou art the life, thou art the protector of man. ... In return for our praises, bestow upon the father of the family who implores thee glory and riches. . . . Agni, thou art a prudent defender and a father; to thee we owe life; we are thy family." Thus the fire of the hearth is, as in Greece, a tutelary power. Man asks abundance of it: "Make the earth ever lib- eral towards us." He asked health of it: "Grant that I may enjoy long life, and that I may arrive at old age, like the sun at his setting." He even asks wisdom of it: "O Agni, thou placest upon the good way the man who has wandered into the bad. . . . If we have committed a fault, if we have gone far from thee, par- don us." This fire of the hearth was, as in Greece, essentially pure : the Brahmin was forbidden to throw anything filthy into it, or even to warm his feet by it.
