ities, some of them being mere abstractions, while 'the Creator'
is often the only god in the woman's list, except, of course, the
priests: "Reverence to priests, and to the Creator ... May Hr[=i],
Cr[=i] (Modesty and Beauty), Fame, Glory, Prosperity, Um[=a] (Civa's
wife), Lakshmi (Vishnu's wife), and also Sarasvat[=i], (may all these
female divinities) guard thy path, because thou reverest thy elder
brother," is a woman's prayer (III. 37. 26-33).[45]

Of the sectarian cults just mentioned the _brahmamaha_, I. 164. 20,
elsewhere referred to, is the all-caste[46] feast in honor of
Brahm[=a] (or of the Brahmans); as _ib_. 143. 3 one finds a
_sam[=a]ja_ in honor of Civa; and distinctly in honor of the same god
of horror is the sacrifice, _i.e._, immolation, of one hundred kings,
who are collected "in the temple of Civa," to be slaughtered like
cattle in M[=a]gadha (II. 15. 23); an act which the heroes of the epic
prevent, and look upon with scorn.[47] As a substitute for the
_r[=a]jas[=u]ya_, which may be connected with the human sacrifice
(_Ind. Streifen_, I. 61), but is the best sacrifice because it has the
best largesse (III. 255. 12), the Vaishnava is suggested to
Duryodhana. It is a great _sattram_ or long sacrifice to Vishnu (_ib_.
15 and 19); longer than a Vishnuprabodha (26 Oct.). There is a Smriti
rite described in III. 198. 13 as a _svastiv[=a]canam_, a ceremony to
obtain a heavenly chariot which brings prosperity, the priests being
invoked for blessings (_svasti_). Quite modern, comparatively
speaking, is the cult of holy pools; but it is to be observed that the
blessings expected are rarely more than the acquirement of
_brahma_-worlds, so that the institution seems to be at least older
than the sectarian religions, although naturally among the holy pools
is intruded a Vishnu-pool. This religious rite cannot be passed over
in silence. The custom is late Brahmanic (as above), and still
survives. It has been an aspect of Hindu religion for centuries, not
only in the view taken of the pools, but even occasionally in the
place itself. Thus the Ganges, Gay[=a], Pray[=a]ga, and Kuru-Plain are
to-day most holy, and they are mentioned as among the holiest in the
epic catalogue.[48] Soma is now revamped by a bath in a holy pool (IX.
35. 75). As in every antithesis of act and thought there are not
lacking passages in the epic which decry the pools in comparison with
holy life as a means of salvation. Thus in III. 82. 9 ff