Agni’s kinship with the race of men.

Truly, the association of ideas is very obvious. Of the heavenly birth and descent of Fire (which name, it must not be forgot, covers the conception  and manifestations of Heat generally) no doubt was entertained, whether in its patent—obvious—form, as sunlight and lightning, or in its latent—hidden—form, as the elementary principle concealed in the waters and the plants, and ever ready to escape therefrom. Now the warmth of the living body is a still clearer indication of the divine presence, and Agni may be said to have descended into men in the same way that he has descended into plants—not to mention another possibility : that of his passing into the human frame in the guise of the vegetable food it consumes, and then from generation to generation, as the “vital spark,” which, being perpetuated by heredity, is not destroyed even by death. In this sense also the god is “ immortal among mortals.” Well may he be called, “ he of many births.” Numerous are the passages in which “ community of race ” —kindred—is claimed with gods for men, explicitly, though in a general way : thus the verse “ We have in common with you, O gods, the quality of brothers in the mother’s bosom ” is fully explained by this other : “ Heaven (Dyaus) is my father, who bore me my mother is this wide earth (Prithivi).” The oldest Rishis are styled “ heaven-born,” and one poet invokes them all by name (Angiras and Manu in thenumber), as “ knowing his race ” and the fact that “ it reaches up to the gods, its stock is among them.” And if these claims and assertions seem too vague to be directly refex'red to Agni, no doubt is possible before the positive statement that he “ gave birth to men ” and “ found a way for his descendants ” and the direction to men “ to invoke him as the first father.” Marvellous to watch is this dim perception of the unity of nature, the kinship of man with the entire universe (or at least our own solar system), so lately established by modern science, struggling into expression at that early age, with nothing but poetic intuition to guide.

The funereal Agni.

We have now learned to know Agni : 1st, in heaven as the Sun ; 2d, in the atmosphere, as Lightning ; 3d, on earth, as the Domestic, and 4th, as the Sacrificial, Fire. We have still to be introduced to the god in his fifth aspect, in which he plays an exceedingly important part in the Hindu Arya’s life : as consumer of corpses and guide of departed souls to the abodes of “the Fathers.” For, unlike the Eranians, the Hindu did not hold that the impure contact of death could pollute the holy element, but on the contrary ascribed to the latter the power of purifying and sanctifying all things its flames consume  or only touch.3 Yet the “ funereal Agni ” was kept separate from all other forms of fire, and was not allowed either on the sacrificial altar or on the hearth.

Soma, the Eranian Haoma.

There is an entire book of the Rig-Veda—the ninth—which, contrary to all the others, is devoted  to the praises of only one deity—SOMA. Like Agni, with whom he is most intimately associated, Soma has many forms, and more than one dwelling-place like Agni, the place of his birth is not on earth ; likeAgni, the form under which he first presents himself  is an unmistakably material one : Agni is the fire and Soma is a plant. Only, whereas Agni, under this his earthly form, was put to many and widely differing uses, the Soma plant  had but one : an intoxicating beverage was prepared from it, which was offered at sacrifices, being partaken of by the worshippers and poured into the flame on the altar. And like the Fire-worship, the Soma-cult takes us back to the so-called Indo-Eranian period, the  time before the separation of the two great sister-races, for we have seen the Soma, under the name of Haoma, play exactly the same part in the worship and sacrificesof the Eranian followers of theAvesta. Indeed  we probably have here one of the very few relics of an even earlier time—that of the undivided Aryan, or as it is sometimes called, “ the Proto-Aryan period.” 1 For, as we noticed in its place, theAvesta bears evident traces of the use of the Haoma at the sacrifices being a concession made by Zarathushtra to old-established custom, not without subjecting it to a reforming and purifying process.

Soma the plant

In India, as in Eran, the Soma is mountainborn. It is said that King Varuna, who placed theSun in heaven and Fire in the waters, placed the Soma on the mountain. Like Fire, it is brought to men by superhuman agency : “ The one,” says a hymn already quoted, “ was brought from heaven by Matarishvan, the other by the falcon from the mountain.” The Soma used in India certainly grew on mountains, probably in the Himalayan highlands of Kashmir. It is certain that Aryan tribes dwelt in this land of tall summits and deep valleys in very early times—probably earlier than that when the Rig-hymns were ordered and collected, or the already complicated official ritual which they mostly embody was rigidly instituted. From numerous indications scattered through the hymns, it appears probable that this was the earliest seat of the Soma worship known to the Aryan Hindus, whence it may have spread geographically with the race itself, and that, as the plant did not grow in the lower and hotter regions, the aridity of some parts disagreeing with it as much as the steam-laden sultriness of others, they continued to get “ from the mountains ” the immense quantities needed for the consumption of the gradually widening and increasing Aryan settlements. A regular trade was carried on with the Soma plant, and the traders belonged to mountain tribes who were not Aryan, and, therefore, irreverently handled their sacred ware like any other merchandise, bargaining and haggling over it. This is evidently the reason why Soma-traders were considered a contemptible class ; so much so that, when customs hardened into laws, they were included in the list—comprising criminals of all sorts, breakers of caste and other social laws, followers of low professions, as usurers, actors, etc.—of those who are forbidden to pollute sacrifices by their presence. To an Aryan Hindu, the man who owned the Soma and did not press it was a hopeless reprobate. In fact he divided mankind into “pressers” and “ not pressers,” the latter word being synonymous with “enemy” and “godless barbarians.” They were probably itinerant traders, and the bargain was concluded according to a strictly prescribed ceremonial, the details of which seem singularly absurd and grotesque, until one learns that they had a symbolical meaning. The price (probably for a given quantity, though that is not mentioned) is a cow—light-colored, or, more precisely, reddish-brown, with lightbrown eyes, in allusion to the ruddy or “ golden ” color of the plant—which must not be tied, nor pulled by the ear — i. e., not handled roughly.

The pressing of the Soma plant and preparation of the sacrificial Soma-drink.

The Soma used in India is thought to be the Asclcpia acida or Sarcosteinma viminale  , a plant of the family of milk-weeds. It is described as having hanging boughs, bare of leaves along the stalks, of light, ruddy color (“ golden ”), with knotty joints, containing, in a fibrous, cane-like outer rind, an abundance of milky, acid, and slightly astringent sap or juice. It is this juice which, duly pressed out, . mixed with other ingredients, and fermented, yields  the intoxicating sacrificial beverage. The process — the most sacred and mystic act of the Vedic and  Brahmanic liturgy—is alluded to in the Rig-Veda innumerable times, but in such fanciful and often enigmatical ways that we might be puzzled to reconstruct it, had we not in some of the Bramanas most precise directions, amounting to a thorough and detailed description of the operation. Though pages might easily be written on the subject, the following brief description after Windischmann must suffice, as it is both graphic and comprehensive : “ . . . The plant, plucked up by the roots, collected by moonlight on the mountains, is carried on a car drawn by two goats to the place of sacrifice, where a spot covered with grass and twigs is prepared, 1 crushed between stones by the priests 2 ; and is then thrown, stalks as well as juice, sprinkled with water, into a sieve of loose woollen weave, whence, after the whole had been further pressed by the hand, the juice trickles into a vessel or kettle which is placed beneath. 3 The fluid is then mixed with sweet milk and sour milk, or curds, with wheaten and other flour, and brought into a state of fermentation ; it is then offered thrice a day and partaken of by the Brahmans. ... It was unquestionably the greatest and holiest offering of the ancient Indian worship. . . . The gods drink the offered beverage ; they long for it ; they are nourished by it and thrown into a joyous intoxication. . . . The beverage is divine, it purifies, it is a water of life, gives health and immortality, prepares the way to heaven, destroys enemies,” etc. inspiriting properties are especially expatiated upon. The chosen few who partook of it—few, for besides the officiating priests, only those were allowed a taste who could show that they had provisions enough stored up to last them three years—give most vivid expression to the state of exaltation, of intensified vitality, which raises them above the level of humanity. Some such effusions are neither more nor less than bragging; for instance.

 I think to myself : I must get a cow ; I must get a horse : have I been drinking Soma The beverages carry me along like impetuous winds : have I, etc.They carry me along as fleet horses a chariot : have I, etc. The hymn has come to me as a cow to her beloved calf : have I, etc. I turn my song over in my heart as a carpenter fashions a chariot : have I, etc. . The five tribes seem to me as nothing : have I, etc. One half of me is greater than both worlds : have I, etc.. My greatness reaches beyond the heavens and this great earth : have I, etc. Shall I carry this earth hither or thither? Have I, etc.—n. Shall I shatter thisearth here or there? Have I, etc.-One half of me is in the heavens and I have stretched the other down deep : have I, etc.  am most great ; I reach up to the clouds : have I, etc. The effects of the exhilarating beverage are not always described in such exaggerated strains. The following passages, culled here and there, although enthusiastic, depict no abnormal condition of body or mind, but may be produced by the moderate and wholesome use of a rich stimulant : “ He, the wise, has entered into me, who are simple.”—“ Make me burn as with fire, O Soma , . . . prolong our life as the sun renews the days each morning. . . . Our intelligence is excited by thee . . . thou hast descended into all our limbs. . . . Disease has fled, powerless . . . the powerful Soma has descended into us and our days are lengthened.”