ongs, so life in the Brahmanas is a
sequence of sacrifices. Sacrifice makes the sun rise and set, and the
rivers run this way or that.

The study of Indian myth is obstructed, as has been shown, by the
difficulty of determining the relative dates of the various legends, but
there are a myriad of other obstacles to the study of Indian mythology.
A poet of the Vedas says, "The chanters of hymns go about enveloped in
mist, and unsatisfied with idle talk".(1) The ancient hymns are still
"enveloped in mist," owing to the difficulty of their language and the
variety of modern renderings and interpretations. The heretics of
Vedic religion, the opponents of the orthodox commentators in ages
comparatively recent, used to complain that the Vedas were simply
nonsense, and their authors "knaves and buffoons". There are moments
when the modern student of Vedic myths is inclined to echo this petulant
complaint. For example, it is difficult enough to find in the Rig-Veda
anything like a categoric account of the gods, and a description of
their personal appearance. But in Rig-Veda, viii. 29, 1, we read of one
god, "a youth, brown, now hostile, now friendly; a golden lustre
invests him". Who is this youth? "Soma as the moon," according to the
commentators. M. Langlois thinks the sun is meant. Dr. Aufrecht thinks
the troop of Maruts (spirits of the storm), to whom, he remarks, the
epithet "dark-brown, tawny" is as applicable as it is to their master,
Rudra. This is rather confusing, and a mythological inquirer would like
to know for certain whether he is reading about the sun or soma, the
moon, or the winds.

(1) Rig-Veda, x. 82, 7, but compare Bergaigne, op. cit., iii. 72,
"enveloppes de nuees et de murmures".

To take another example; we open Mr. Max Muller's translation of the
Rig-Veda at random, say at page 49. In the second verse of the hymn
to the Maruts, Mr. Muller translates, "They who were born together,
self-luminous, with the spotted deer (the clouds), the spears, the
daggers, the glittering ornaments. I hear their whips almost close by,
as they crack them in their hands; they gain splendour on their way."
Now Wilson translates this passage, "Who, borne by spotted deer, were
born self-luminous, with weapons, war-cries and decorations. I hear the
cracking of their whips in their hands, wonderfully inspiring courage in
the fight." Benfey has, "Who with stags and spears, and with thunder and
lightning, self-luminous, were