by the Tupis after successes in battle, Southey says — " lliey selected their appellations from visible objects, pride or ferocity influencing their choice": whence obviously results naming after savage animals. Writing of the Karens, Mason enumerates among animal-names — * Tiger,' 'Yellow- Tiger,' ' Fierce-Tiger,' ' Gaur,' ' Goat-antelope,' ' Horn-bill,' * Heron,' ' Prince-bird,' and 'Mango-fish ': the preference for the formidable beast being obvious. In New Zealand a native swift of foot is called ' Kawaw,' a bird or fowl; and Burton gives as names of the Dacotah women, the ' White Martin,' the ' Toung Mink,' the ' Muskrat's Paw.' All over the world this nicknaming after animals is habitual. Lauder speaks of it among the Yorubans; Thunberg, among the Hottentots; and that it prevails throughout Korth America every one knows. As implied in cases above, selfexaltation is sometimes the cause, and sometimes exaltation by others. Livingstone tells us that when a Makololo chief arrives at a village, the people salute him with the titld, ' Great Lion.' The writers of Four Years in Ashantee, de- scribe King Koffi's attendants as exclaiming — '' Look before thee, 0 Lion." In the Harris papyrus. King Men-cheper- ra (Tothmes III.) is called ' the Furious Lion.' In early As- syrian inscriptions we read — " Like a bull thou shalt nile S0S THE DATA OV SOCIOLOGY.
over tb^ obio& " i a simile whiohj as we shall see ia another case^ r^dily parses iato metaphor. Thus ia the third Salli^r papyrus it iq said of Bameses — -' As a bull, terrible with pointed horns h^ rose ''; and then in a subsequent pas- sage tl\6 4^f^ted a4dr-es8 him — '^5orus, conquering bull.'^ Bemembering that this habit surviyes among ourselres, so that, the Q\umiiig person is called a lox, the rude a bear, the h^QcntiP^ A orpcQilile, the dirty a pig, the ]ceen a hawlc^ ai^A ^Q on-^=r^b9erving tliat in those ai^pient races who had prop^ U^mof} o( a developed l:ind, animal-oicknaming still pr^Yfliiled; \^% \)9 ask what resulted from it in the earliest stages, 5 X7l. Qu reeallipg th© extreme vagueness o| primitive sp^e^, th§ ftpsww will be manifest. Verbal sig^s being at &X^% so ina4e(iuat^ that gestui*e-sign^ are needful to eke them Wtj tb© dis^iAction betwee|[i metaphor c^nd fact cannot b§ eipvessedii i^uch less preserved in traditipn. If, as shown by iluBtauqea }lix. Tylor givps, even the higher ^^c^s mistake luetaphorp for facts — ^if the statement in the Koran that &o4 opened afid cleansed Mahomet^s heart, beoomes a belief th^t hi^ hpart was aotually taken out, washed, and replaced— =rif from tribes without governors, described as withQi:(t heads, th^re has arisen a^ong civilized people the belief that i]\ere are headless races of men; we oauuot be surprised i| the saVftg^i lacking knowledge and with rude language, gets the idoa that an ancestor named '^ the Tiger ^' was an actual tiger. From phildhood upwards he hears his father's father spoken of by this name. Ho one thinks of him as liable to misinterpret it: error beings indeed, a gene- ral notion the savage has scarcely reached* And there are no words serving to convey a correction, even if the need is peroeived. Inevitably, then, he grows up believing that his father descended fropi a tiger — thinking of himself as one of the tiger stock. Everywhere the results of such mistakes meet us.
'' A characteristio feature in O^iiti*^ ABifi.tiQ trii4itio9i||'^ says Mitohell, " is the derivatiou of th^ir origin from poiftQ animal/' According to Brooke^ the Sea Dyi^s shrink superstitioqsly from eating certain animalaj; bec^K9§ they suppose these animals hear a prozimity to some of ^heiv forefathers, who were begotten by them or hegot them. Of the Beohuana tribes I^iyingstone teUii us '^ the term iPiakatU means, ^ they of the monkey '; Sakuena, ' they of the ^li-e gator ' i!3atla@si, ' they of the fish ': each tribe having a superstitions dread of th^ animal after which it h called/^ Falkner describes the Patagonian^ ai^ possessing ^' a inulti*- plicity of these deities j each of whom they believe to pre- side over one particular caste or family of Indians, of which he is supposed to have been the creator. Some make th^m- sefyes of the caste of the tiger, some of the lion, some of the guanaco, and others of the ostrich." Leaving the many illustrations supplied by other regions, we will look more nearly at those coming from North America, Ross says the tribes north of the Columbia *' f)retend to be derived from a musk-rat/' In the words of Mr. Powers, " all the aboriginal inhabitants of Calif ornil^j without excep- tion, believe that their first anqestors were created directly from the earth of their respective dweUing'plftces, and, in very many cases, that these ancei^tors were coyotes " [prairie- wolves]. And hero are extracts of Uka moaning from the elaborate work of Mr. Bancroft, Of the Zapoteoa it is said that -* some, to boast, of t^^ir valour^ made themselves out the sons of lions and diyers wild beastsi/' By the Haidahs, '' descent from tJie crows is quite gravely affii*med and steadfastly maintain^d," '^ Among tlie Abts of Vancouver Island, perhaps th^ commonest notion of origin is that men at first existed as bir4s, animals^ l^nd fishes." The Chipewayans " derive their prigin from a dog. At one time they were so strongly imbued with resppct for their canine ancestiy, that they entirely ceased to employ dogs in drawing their sledges," The Koniagaa ''have 364 THE DATA OF SOCIOU)GT.
their legendary Bird and Dog, — ^the latter taking the place occupied in the mythology of many other tribes by the wolf or coyote."
So well-organized are these beliefs that, in some cases, accounts are given of the transitions. Galifomian Indians descending from the prairie-wolf, explain the loss of their tails: they say, '^ an acquired habit of sitting upright, has utterly erased and destroyed that beautiful member." Cer- tain Northern Calif omians who ascribe their origin in part to grizzly bears, assert that in old times these walked '^ on their hind legs like men, and talked, and carried clubs, using the fore-limbs as men use their arms." Even more strangely are these ideas of relationship shown by Frank- lin's account of the Dog-rib Indians: — " These people take their names, in the first instance, from their dogs. A yonng man is the father of a certain dog, but when he is married and has a son, he styles himself the father of the boy. The women have a habit of reproving the dogs very tenderly when they observe them fighting. ' Are you not ashamed,' say they, ' to quarrel with your little brother?' " § 172. This last illustration introduces us to the various sequences from the conception of animal-ancestry, thus arising by misinterpretation of nicknames.
Animals must think and understand as men do; for are they not derived from the same progenitors as the tribe, or as other tribes? Hence the belief of the Papagos, that in primeval days ^'men and beasts talked together: a common language made all brethren." Hence the practice of the Kamtschadales, who, according to Grieve, when fishing, ^' entreat the whales or sea-horses not to overthrow their boats; and in hunting, beseech the bears and wolves not to hurt them." Hence the habit of the Dacotahs, who ask snakes to be friendly; and of whom Schoolcraft says — "^I have heard Indians talk and reason with a horse, the same as with a person." Hence the notion betrayed by the negro attendants of Livingstone, who tells us — "I asked ANIMAL-WOBSHIP. 865 my men wliat tRo hyaenas were laughing at; as they usnally give animals credit for a share of intelligence. They said they wore laughing because we could not take the whole [of the elephant]^ and that they would have pleniy to eat as well as we/* A second sequence is that animals^ thus conceived as akin to men^ are often treated with consideration. Schoolcraft states that the Chippewas^ thinking they will have to en- counter in the other world the spirits of slain animals, apologized to a bear for killing him, asked forgiveness, and pretended that an American was to blame; and, similarly, we are told by Harris that the Ostyaks, after destroying a bear, '^ ask his pardon,'^ and tell him that the Russians were his murderers. In like maimer of the Kookies, we learn from M'Culloch that ''the capture of an elephant, tiger, bear, wild hog, or any savage wild beast, is followed by a feast in propitiation of its manes.'* Kindred practices are followed by the Stiens of Cambodia, the Sumatrans, the Dyaks, the Kaffirs, the Siamese, and even the Arabs.
Naturally, as a further sequence, there comes a special regard for the animal which gives the tribal name, and is considered a relative. As the ancestor conceived under the human form is thought able to work good or ill to his descendants, so, too, is the ancestor conceived under the brute-form. Hence, as Bancroft tells us, ''no Indian tracing his descent from the spirit mother and the grizzly, as here described, will kill a grizzly bear.'' In like manner the Osages will not destroy the beaver: believing themselves derived from it. "A tribe never eats of the animal which is its namesake," says Livingstone of the Bechuanas. Like ideas and practices occur in Australia in a less settled form. *' A member of the family will never kill an animal of the species to which his kobong [animal-namesake] belongs, should he find it asleep; indeed, he always kills it re- luctantly, and never without affording it a chance of escape." Joined with this regard for the animal-namesake considered 360 TUB DATA OF SOCIOLOGY.
as a relative) there goes belief in its guardianship; and hence arises the faith> so widely diffused^ in omens derired from birds and quadrupeds. The ancestor under the brute form is supposed to be solicitous for the welfare of his kindred; and so tells them by signs and sounds of their dangw.
§ 173^ Do we not in these observances see the be- ginnings of a Worship? If tihe East Africans^ as Living- stone tells us> think the souls of departed chiefs enter into liond and lender them sacred; we may conclude that sacred- ness will equally attach to i^e animals whose human souls were aneesttlaL If the Cotigo people^ holding this belief aboiHt lions^ tiiink '' the lion spares thosd whom he meets^ when he is courteously saluted^'; the implication is that there will be propitiations of the beast-chief who was the pm- genitor of the tribe. Prayers and offerings may be expected to develop into a cult^ and the animal-namesake to become a deity.
When^ therefore^ among the North American Indians^ whose habit of naming from animals still continues^ and whosd legends of animal-progehitors are so specific, we find animals taking rank as creators and divinities — when wt3 read in Bancroft that " ' raven ' and ' wolf ' are the names of t-fae two gods of the Klinkits, who are supposed to be the foukiders of the Indian race '* 5 we have just the result to he anticipated. And when of this tribe we further t*ead that " the Baven trunk is agi^ divided into sab-clans, called the Progj the Goose) the Sea-Lion^ the Owl, and the Salmon,'* while '' thte Wolf family comprises the Bear, Eagle> Dolphin, Shark, and Alca ^^; we see that deification of the ancestor under the animal form follows the same course as deification of the ancestor under the human form. In either case, more recent progenitors of sub-i^ibes acquire a sacredness second to that of the ancient progenitors of the entire tribe.
Guided by these various clues, we cannot, I think, hesitate AKlMAL-WORSHH?. 8^7 to infer tbat much of the diaveloped amixiaU);<^orBhi{> of the ancient historic racB8> grew ottt of this misinterpretation of nicknames. Even noW, among partialiy-oivilized peoples^ the re-genesis of such worship is shown OBt In the appendix to Fmir Years in Ashantiee^ wid read that certain of the kihg's attendants) whose duty il is to p)*aise him^ or *'give him names/' cry out *imong other titles— *'• Bore/' (the name of a Venomous serpent) '' you are most l^eantiful, but your bite is deadly/' As these Afrloian kingd oidin- arily undergo apotheosis — as this laudatory titl\e ''Bore/' may he ejqpected to sUl^ve Vilong with the oilier titles^ and to be used in propitiations — «« th© Zulus^ #ho> led by another suggestion, think dead men become 6nakes> distin- guish certain Venomous snakes as chiefs $ w\d Inust adm^t that from this complimentary nickname of a king who be- came a god, may readily grow tip the worship of a sei-pent — a serpent who, neverthetess, had a hutoian history. Similarly when we h&k What is likely to happeh from the animal-name by which the king is honoured in Madagascar. As Ellis tells us in his history — ^ ' God is gon\6 to the west — Eadama is a mighty bull,' Were expi-essions used by the Malagasy women in their songs in piraise of their king, who was absent on a warlike expedition." Here we have the three titles simultaneously applied — the god> the kin|^, the bull. If, then, we read that by the Egyptian*, evten in their later times, the king was deified^ — ^it the same papyrus which shows us Bameses II. invoking hi6 father as a god, also cbntains the title ^' conquering bull," giVeA to Bameses by thfe subjugated; can We doubt that ficoto like occurrences in earlfer times arose the Worship of Apis T Can We doubt that the bovine deities of the Hindus, the Assyrians, and bther ancient peoples, similarly origiuated f So that misinterpretation of metaphorical titles which in- evitably occurs in early speech, being given, the rise of animal-worship is a natural sequence. Mammals, birds, rfeptiles, fishes, all yield nicknames; are all in one place or 868 THE DATA OF SOOIOLOOT.
other regao^ded as progenitors; all acquire^ among this or that people^ a sacredness rising in many cases to adoration. Even where the nickname was one of reproach — even where the creature is of a kind to inspire contempt rather than respect^ we see that identification with the ancestor ex- plains worship of it. The Veddahs, who are predominantly ancestor-worshippers, also worship a tortoise. Though among them the reason is not traceable, we find an indica- tion of it elsewhere. Mr. Bates, during his Amazon ex- plorations, had two attendants sumamed Tortoise; and their surname had descended to them from a father whoso slowness had suggested this permanent nickname. Hero we see the first step towards the formation of a tortoise tribe; having the tortoise for ancestor, totem, deity.
§ 174. Some strange facts, completely explicable on the hypothesis above set forth, may be added. I refer to the worship of beings represented as half man half brute.
If, in the genealogy of future Ashantee kings, tradition preserves the statement that their ancestor was the veno- mous serpent " Bore " — ^if there goes down to posteriiy the fact that '' Bore '* was a ruler, a law-maker, an articulate speaking person — ^if legend says both that he was a snake and that he was a man; what is likely to happen? Believing implicitly all he is told by his seniors, the savage will accept both these assertions. In some cases he will sit down contentedly under the contradiction; in others he will attempt a compromise. Especially if he makes a graphic or sculptured effigy, will he be led to unite the in- congruous characters as best he can — ^will produce a figure partly human and partly reptilian. It cannot be reasonably doubted that if Malagasy stories and songs tell of the conquering Badama as " a mighty bull,'' as a king, as a god, development of the resulting cult, joined with development of the plastic arts, may end in a representation of the god Radama either as a man or as a bull, or as a bull-headed AKIMAL-WOBSHIF. 869 AKIMAL-WOBSHIF. 869 man, or as a creature having a bovine body with a human head.
In another way is this type of deity suggested by misin- terpretation of metaphorical titles. Ancestors who survive in legends under their animal-names, and of whom the legends also say that they took to wife ancestors bearing either different animal-names or human names, will be sup- posed to have had offspring combining the attributes of both parents. A passage from Bancroft's account of the Aleutians shows us the initial stage of such a belief.
" Some say that in the beginning a Bitch inhabited Unalaska, and that a great Dog swam across to her from Eadiak; from wMch pair the human race have sprang. Others, naming the bitch-mother of their race Mahakh, describe a certain Old Man, called Iraghdadakh, who came from the north to Tisit this Mahakh. The result of this visit was the birth of two creatures, male and female, with such an extraordinary mixing up of the elements of nature in them that they were each half man half fox."
Now such a legend, or such a kindred one as that of the Quiches concerning the descent of mankind from a cave- dwelling woman and a dog that could transform himself into a handsome youth, or such a one as that of the Dikokamenni Kirghiz, who say they are descended " from a red greyhound and a certain queen with her forty hand- maidens,'' can hardly fail to initiate ideas of compound gods. Peoples who advance far enough to develop their rude effigies of ancestors placed on graves, into idols in- closed in temples, will, if they have traditions of this kind, be likely to represent the creators of their tribes as dog- headed men or human-faced dogs.
An intelligible origin for the hybrid deities which so many semi- civilized people have had, is thus furnished. The Chaldeans and Babylonians had in common their god Nergal, the winged man-lion, and also Nin, the fish-god — a fish out of which grew near its head a human head, and near its tail human feet: the adjacent Philistines, too, having their kindred god Dagon, with the face and hands of a man BB 870 THE DATA Of SOCIOLOOT.
and the tail of a fish.. Then in Assyria there was the winged man-bnll^ representative of Nin; and in Phoenicia there was Astarte^ sometimes represented as partially human and partially bovine. Egypt had a great variety of these compound supernatural beings. In addition to the god Ammon^ figured as a man with a ram^s head, Horus, with the head of a hawk, the goddesses Muth and Hathor with that of a lion and that of a oow, Thoth with that of an ibis, Typhon with that of an ass, and brute-headed demons too numerous to mention; we have the various sphinxes, which to a lion^s body unite the heads of men, of rams, of ikawks, of snakes, etc. We have also more involved com- pounds as winged mammals with hawks' heads, and winged crocodiles with hawks' heads. Nay, there was even one named Sak, which, says Wilkinson, " united a bird, a quad- ruped, and a vegetable production in its own person.'^ Such grotesque conceptions, of which otherwise there seems no feasible explanation, are explicable as due to the misinterpretation of several metaphorical names borne by the same person. We have seen that to the present king of Ashantee both '^ Lion '' and '^ Snake '* are given as names of honour 5 and as we shall presently see, the multiplication of such names of honour was cckrried to a great extent by the Egyptians.
§ 175. To abridge as &r as may be what remains of this long exposition, I will merely indicate the additional groups of supporting facts.
The Egyptians, whose customs were so persistent and whose ancestor-worship was so elaborate, show us, just where we might expect them, all the results of this misinterpre- tation. They had clans whose sacred animals differed, and who treated each other's sacred animals with abhorrence and enmity: a fact pointing to an early stage when these animals gave the names to chiefs of antagonistic tribes. Animal-naming, thus indicated as primitively practised.
ANIMAL-WOBSHIP. 871 ANIMAL-WOBSHIP. 871 continned down to late periods in their history: after their kings had human proper names^ they had still animal-names joined with these. They had sacred animals; and some of the names of these were identical with those given in honour. They embalmed animals as they embalmed men. They had animal-gods; they had deities half brute half human; they had figures of other compound beings.
Where we find most dominant the practice of naming after animals^ and where there result these legends of descent from animals and regard for them as divinities^ we also find developed to the greatest extent^ the legends about animal-agency in human affairs. As Bancroft sayi^ concerning the Indians of the Pacific States — '^ Beasts and birds and fishes fetch and carry^ talk and act^ in a way that leaves even uffisop^s heroes in the shade.'' All the multitu- dinous fables of this class^ found among many peoples^ fall naturally into their places on the hypothesis here set forth.
His hypothesis explains^ also^ the cases in which the order of genesis is inverted. Bancroft tells us that '^ the Salish, the Nisquallies, and the Yakimas * * * aU hold that beasts^ fishes^ and even edible roots are descended from human originals.'' Clearly this is a conception which the misinterpretation of nicknames may originate. If ''the Bear " was the founder of a tribe whose deeds were pre- served in tradition^ the alternative interpretations might be either that he was the bear from whom men descended^ or that he was the man from whom the bears descended. Many of the metamorphoses of classic mythology have probably arisen in a kindred way, when the human ante- cedents, either of parentage or adventures, were so distinct as to negative the opposite view.
Of course the doctrine of metempsychosis, thus initiated, becomes comprehensible j and its developments no longer look so grotesque. Where a man who had several animal- names was spoken of in this legend as the eagle and in that as the wolf, there would result the idea that he was BB 2 372 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOOT.
now one and now the other; and from this suggestion^ mi- checked credulity might not unnaturally elaborate the belief in successive transformations.
Stories of women who have borne animals^ similarly fall into their places. St. John says that ^'the Land Dyaks consider it wrong to kill the cobra de capella; because one of their female ancestors was pregnant for seven years^ and ultimately brought forth twins — one a human being, the other a cobra.'^ In like manner we are told by Cook that the Batavians "believe that women, when delivered of a child, are frequently delivered at the same time of a young crocodile as a twin, and that this is taken to the river by the midwife.'' May we not conclude that twins of whom one gained the nickname of the crocodile, gave rise to a legend which originated this monstrous belief f If the naming after animals was a mode of distinguishing individuals which preceded the use of human proper names — ^if, when there arose such proper names, these did not at first displace the animal-names, but were joined with them — if, at a still later stage, animal-names fell into disuse and the conventional surnames became predominant; then it seems inferable that the brute-god arises first, that the god half -brute and half-human belongs to a later stage, and that the anthropomorphic god comes latest. Amid the entanglements due to the survivals of old worships in the midst of newer ones, and due to the mixtures of mythologies^ it is difficult to show this; but there seems reason for sus- pecting that it has been so among peoples who originally practised animal-naming extensively.
§ 176. Sundry minor groups of facts thus join the major groups in upholding the belief that animal-worship is a dis- guised form of ancestor-worship. There are three ways in which the primitive man is led to identify the animal with the ancestor.
The other-self of the dead relative is supposed to como ANniAL-WOBSHIF. 873 back^ liabitually or occasionally^ to his old abode: how else is it possible for the survivors, sleeping there, to see him in their dreams f Here are creatures which commonly, unlike wild creatures in general, come into houses — come in, too, secretly in the night. The implication is clear. That snakes, which especially do this, are the returned dead, is inferred by peoples in Africa, Asia, and America: the haunting of houses being the common trait of the kinds of snakes reverenced or worshipped; and also the trait of cer- tain insects and birds similarly regarded.
The ghost, sometimes re-visiting the house, is thought also to linger in the neighbourhood of the corpse. Crea- tures commonly found in caves which have been used for burials, hence come to be taken for the new shapes assumed by departed souls. Bats and owls are conceived to be winged spirits; and from them arise the traditional ideas of devils and angels.
Lastly, and chiefly, comes that identification of the animal with the ancestor, which is caused by interpreting meta- phorical names literally. That primitive speech is unable to transmit to posterity the difEerence between an animal and a person named after that animal, has been shown. Hence the confusion of the two; hence the regard for the animal as progenitor; hence the growth of a worship. Besides explaining animal-gods, this hypothesis accounts for sundry anomalous beliefs — the divinities half -brute, half -human; fche animals that talk, and play active parts in human affairs; the doctrine of metempsychosis, etc.
By modification upon modification, leading to complica- tions and divergences without limit, evolution brings into being products extremely unlike their germs; and we here have an instance in this derivation of animal-worship from the propitiation of ghosts.
CHAPTER XXm.
PLANT-WORSHIP.
§ 177. WiiKTnBB produced by fastings feyer, hysteria^ or U\mu\iy, any oxtromo oxcitement is^ by savage and semi- civilizod pooploM^ aHcribod to a possessing spirit: tbis we saw in (§ \2i)- -81. Kimilar is the interpretation of an nnasoal ninntal Niiiio causod by a nervous stimulant. It is thought thai a finpornaiural beings contained in the solid or liquid Mwallowol, produces it.
Hpcuiking of opium-eaters, V&mb6ry says — ^''What sar- prinnil mo most was that those wretched people were re- gardod aH eminently religious, of whom it was thought that from ilioir love to God and the Prophet they had become mad, and Miupcflod themselves in order that in their excited nUiio i\wy might bo nearer the Beings they loved so well.'' Dawtian tollH us that the Mandingoes intoxicate themselves to (Miior into relation with the godhead: the accompanying b(ili(«f ovidonily being that the exaltation experienced is a divine inspiration. This was the view definitely expressed by the Arafura (Papuan Islander) who, when told about the (Ihrintian God, said — "Then this God is certainly in your arra(^lc, for I never feel happier than when I have drunk jiloniy of it."
May we not hence expect certain derivative beliefs re- PLANT-WORSHIP. 375 Bpecting plants wliioh yield intoxicating liquors f Obviously; and our search for them will not be fruitless.
§ 178. As a typical case may be taken the worship of the Soma. This plant, represented as growing in certain mountains, as gathered by moonlight, and as drawn with ceremonies to the place of sacrifice, was crushed between stones, and its juice expressed and filtered. When fer- mented, the juice (in some places described as sweet) pro- duced an intoxicating liquor, which was drunk by the devotees; who, judging from the expressions, '' a rishi, a drinker of the Soma,'* were of the priestly class. After the manner indicated above, the exhilarating effects of the beverage were attributed to inspiration by a supernatural being, who was therefore lauded and adored. In his essay on the subject, partly translated by Dr. Muir, Windisch- mann describes the Soma as ''the holiest offering of the ancient TnfliftTi worship '*; or, in the words of Muir, " the rishis had come to regard Soma as a god, and apparently to be passionately devoted to his worship.'* Here, from the Sanscrit Texts of the latter writer, are passages showing the genesis of the belief. First may be placed some imply- ing the exaltation caused by the fermented Soma-juice.
Kig Veda tI. 47, 3. '* This [soma] when drunk, stimnlates my speech [or hymn]; this called forth the ardent thought."
B. y. ix. 25, 5. "The ruddy Soma, generating hymns, with the powers of a poet.'* B. V. viii. 48, 3. " We have drunk the soma, we have become im- mortal, we have entered into light, we have known the gods," etc.
Not only the rishis are inspired by soma, biit also their deities. ''The gods drink the offered beverage," and are '' thrown into a joyous intoxication.'' Indra '' performs his g^eat deeds under its influence.'' It is said — " We summon his soul [that of Varuna] with Soma." Elsewhere the con- tained supernatural being is addressed personally.
R V. Ix. 110, 7. " The former [priests] having strewed the sacred grass, offered up a hymn to thee, O Soma, for great strength and food."
876 THE DATA OF 80CI0L00T.
R V. ix. 96, 11. " For throogh thee, O pure Soma, our wise fore- fathers of old performed their sacred rites."
R y. 96, 18. " Soma, rishi-minded, rishi-maker. bestower of good, master of a thousand songs, the leader of sages."
How literal was the belief that by a draagbt of soma the drinker became possessed^ is proved by the prayer — ^^ Soma * * * do thou enter into us, full of kindness/' And then, showing how the resulting mental power was regarded as a divine afflatus, revealing transcendent knowledge, we have the passage in R. V. ix, 97, 7 — ^^ Uttering, like Usanas, the wisdom of a sage, the god (Soma) declares the births of the gods/' Other passages, along with this deification of the Soma, join the belief that he is present in the beverage partaken of alike by the other gods and by men. Instance, in R. V. ix. 42, 2, the words — '^ This god, poured forth to the gods, with an ancient hymn, purifies with his stream/' Further, there are implied identifications of this super- natural being with a once-living person. One of the less specific in R. V. 107, 7, runs — " A rishi, a sage, intelligent, thou (Soma) wast a poet, most agreeable to the gods/' In other places his identity is more specifically stated. Thue, in the Taittiriya Brahmana, ii., 8, 10, 1, it is said — '' Praja- pati created king Soma. After him the three Yedas were created/' And still more specific are the legends which describe king Soma as having wives, and narrate his dis- agreements with some of them. Much more exalted, how-