them to fall; but the
thunder-bolt of Indra flashed; the demon was driven away howling, and
the emancipated streams refreshed the thirsty earth. Varuna was not
indeed dethroned, but he was obscured, by the achievements of the
warlike Indra; and the supersensuous, moral conceptions that were
connected with the former gradually faded from the minds of the people,
and Varuna erelong became quite a subordinate figure in the Pantheon.

[Sidenote: Number and relations of deities uncertain.]
The deities are generally said in the Veda to be "thrice eleven" in
number. We also hear of three thousand three hundred and thirty-nine.
There is no _system_, no fixed order in the hierarchy; a deity who in
one hymn is quite subordinate becomes in another supreme; almost every
god becomes supreme in turn; in one hymn he is the son of some deity and
in another that deity's father, and so (if logic ruled) his own
grandfather. Every poet exalts his favorite god, till the mind becomes
utterly bewildered in tracing the relationships.

We have already spoken of Agni, Varuna, and Indra, as well as Soma. Next
to these in importance may come the deities of light, namely, the sun,
the dawn, and the two Asvina or beams that accompany the dawn. The winds
come next. The earth is a goddess. The waters are goddesses. It is
remarkable that the stars are very little mentioned; and the moon holds
no distinguished place.

[Sidenote: Hardly any fetichism in the Rig Veda.]
In the religion of the Rig Veda we hardly see fetichism--if by fetichism
we mean the worship of small physical objects, such as stones, shells,
plants, etc., which are believed to be charged (so to speak) with
divinity, though this appears in the fourth Veda--the Atharva. But even
in the Rig Veda almost any object that is grand, beneficent, or terrible
may be adored; and implements associated with worship are themselves
worshiped. Thus, the war-chariot, the plow, the furrow, etc., are
prayed to.

[Sidenote: Early tendency toward pantheism.]
A pantheistic conception of nature was also present in the Indian mind
from very early times, although its development was later. Even in the
earliest hymns any portion of nature with which man is brought into
close relation may be adored.[6]

[Sidenote: Reverence of the dead.]
We must on no account overlook the reverence paid to the dead. The
_pitris_ (_patres_) or fathers are frequently referred to in the Veda.
They are clearly distinguished fr