BABYLON AND PERSIA

ARYAN MYTHS. 47ceed in piercing. his shaggy hide, and letting out theimprisoned waters. This epithet became a specialby-word for Indra, as being the demon's most coiistantadversary, whose own particular weapon, thelightning-spear, alone can end the fray. Anotherand still'more popular cloud-demon is Ahi, "theserpent" who sits on the mountain and defies thedevas. It is the dark storm-cloud of many coils,which it slowly winds and unwinds on top of themountain,clouds banked up against the horizon.It is usually the indefatigable Indra who fights andkills him, and the story is told in a hundred moreor less dramatic versions in the Rig-Veda. Thissame serpent-fiend is one of the most active andubiquitous, and we find him again and again, in eposand story, in a variety of situatioils and combina¬tions, where his original nature as cloud- and stormdemonis forgotten.15. A notable peculiarity of the Aryan conceptionof nature, earthly and divine, is the extremely dig¬nified attitude apportioned to man in his relations tothe higher powers. As in every religion, prayer andsacrifice are required, but in a somewhat differentspirit : he does not passively entreat feivor, he in ameasure also grants it ; he is supposed to help hisbright devas in the good fight against the demons.His songs of praise and thanksgiving encourage them ;the sacrificial offerings to which he bids them asguests, and of which they partake as friends partakeof a feast in the house of a friend, increase theirvigor, just as food increases that of men ; above all,the drink-offering, the exhilarating Soma-juice, fills