houghts, who the great manly deeds of you, great ones? You
shake the earth like a speck of dust, when you are carried forth for
granting welfare. These kinsmen are like red horses, like heroes eager
for battle, and they have rushed forward to fight. They are like
well-grown manly youths, and the men have grown strong, with streams of
rain they dim the eye of the sun. At their outbreak there is none among
them who is the eldest, or the youngest, or the middle: they have grown
by their own might, these sons of Prisni, noble by birth, the boys of
Dyaus; come hither to us!

Those who like birds flew with strength in rows from the ridge of the
mighty heaven to its ends, their horses shook the springs of the
mountain cloud, so that people on both sides knew it. May Dyaus Aditi
roar for our feast, may the dew-lighted Dawns come striving together;
these, the Maruts, O poet, the sons of Rudra, have shaken the heavenly
bucket cloud, when they had been praised.

[Footnote 1: The Maruts are the "Storm-Gods".]

[Footnote 2: The lightning.]

[Footnote 3: The voice of thunder.]

[Footnote 4: The dawn.]

TO THE MARUTS AND INDRA

The Prologue

The sacrificer speaks:

To what splendor do the Maruts all equally cling, they who are of the
same age, and dwell in the same nest? With what thoughts?--from whence
are they come? Do these heroes sing forth their own strength, wishing
for wealth? Whose prayers have the youths accepted? Who has turned the
Maruts to his own sacrifice? By what strong desire may we arrest them,
they who float through the air like hawks?

The Dialogue

The Maruts speak:

From whence, O Indra, dost thou come alone, thou who art mighty? O lord
of men, what has thus happened to thee? Thou greetest us when thou
comest together with us. Tell us then, thou with thy bay horses, what
thou hast against us!

Indra speaks:

The sacred songs are mine, the prayers; sweet are the libations! My
strength rises, my thunderbolt is hurled forth. They call for me, the
hymns yearn for me. Here are my horses, they carry me hither.

The Maruts speak:

From thence, in company with our strong friends, having adorned our
bodies, we now harness our fallow deer with all our might;--for, Indra,
according to custom, thou hast come to be with us.

Indra speaks:

Where, O Maruts, was that custom with you, when you left me alone in the
killing of Ahi? I indeed am terrible, powerful, strong,--I escaped from
the blows