The rivers intended may be the Shauyook,
Ladak, Abba Seen, and Burrindu, and one of the four rivers, the Rasa,
has assumed an almost fabulous character in the Veda. After the Indus
has joined the Kubha or the Kabul river, two names occur, the Gomati
and Krumu, which I believe I was the first to identify with the modern
rivers the Gomal and Kurrum. (Roth, Nirukta, Erlaeuterungen, p. 43,
Anm.) The Gomal falls into the Indus, between Dera Ismael Khan and
Paharpore, and although Elphinstone calls it a river only during the
rainy season, Klaproth (Foe-koue-ki, p. 23) describes its upper course
as far more considerable, and adds: 'Un peu a l'est de Sirmagha, le
Gomal traverse la chaine de montagnes de Soliman, passe devant Raghzi,
et fertilise le pays habite par les tribus de Dauletkhail et de
Gandehpour. Il se desseche au defile de Pezou, et son lit ne se
remplit plus d'eau que dans la saison des pluies; alors seulement il
rejoint la droite de l'Indus, au sud-est de bourg de Paharpour.' The
Kurrum falls into the Indus north of the Gomal, while, according to
the poet, we should expect it south. It might be urged that poets are
not bound by the same rules as geographers, as we see, for instance,
in the verse immediately preceding. But if it should be taken as a
serious objection, it will be better to give up the Gomati than the
Krumu, the latter being the larger of the two, and we might then take
Gomati, 'rich in cattle,' as an adjective belonging to Krumu."--From a
review of General Cunningham's "Ancient Geography of India," in
_Nature_, 1871, Sept. 14.]

LECTURE VI.

VEDIC DEITIES.

The next important phenomenon of nature which was represented in the
Veda as a terrestrial deity is Fire, in Sanskrit Agni, in Latin
_ignis_. In the worship which is paid to the Fire and in the high
praises bestowed on Agni we can clearly perceive the traces of a
period in the history of man in which not only the most essential
comforts of life, but life itself, depended on the knowledge of
producing fire. To us fire has become so familiar that we can hardly
form an idea of what life would be without it. But how did the ancient
dwellers on earth get command and possession of fire? The Vedic poets
tell us that fire first came to them from the sky, in the form of
lightning, but that it disappeared again, and that then Matari_s_van,
a being to a certain extent like Prometheus, brought it back and
confided it to the safe keeping of the c