. Indian myth and legend. re twice fivesisters, but the reference is clearly explained in anotherpassage: The ten fingers have given him birth, theancient, well-loved Agni, well born of his mothers .* Dawn, with its darkness-consuming fires, and starryNight, are the sisters of Agni; they celebrate his threebirths, one in the sea, one in the sky, one in the waters(clouds) . Typical of the Oriental mind is the mysteriousreference to Agnis mothers owing their origin to poet sings: Who among you hath understood the hidden (god) ?The calf has by itself given birth to itsmothers. Professor O
. Indian myth and legend. re twice fivesisters, but the reference is clearly explained in anotherpassage: The ten fingers have given him birth, theancient, well-loved Agni, well born of his mothers .* Dawn, with its darkness-consuming fires, and starryNight, are the sisters of Agni; they celebrate his threebirths, one in the sea, one in the sky, one in the waters(clouds) . Typical of the Oriental mind is the mysteriousreference to Agnis mothers owing their origin to poet sings: Who among you hath understood the hidden (god) ?The calf has by itself given birth to itsmothers. Professor Oldenberg, who suggests that the waters arethe mothers, reasons in Oriental mode: Smoke isAgni, it goes to the clouds, the clouds become waters .^ In his early humanized form Agni bears some resem-blance to Heimdal, the Teutonic sentinel god, who has ^ RignjeJa, v, 2. * Rig-veda, i, 95. • Rig-veda, iv, 6. 8. * Rig-veda, iii, 23. 3. Rig-veda, i, 95. 4, and note, Oldenbergs VeJic Hymns {Sacred Books of the East,vol. xlvi).. AGNI, THE FIRE GOD From a painting by Nanda Lall Base (By permission of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, Calcutta) THE GREAT VEDIC DEITIES 21 nine mothers, the daughters of sea-dwelling Ran, and isthus also a son of the waters; he is clad in silvernarmour, and on his head is a burnished helmet with ramshorns. Horsed on his swift steed, Gulltop, he watchesthe demons who seek to attack the citadel of the gods. ..His sight is so keen that he can see by night as well as by-day. . Heimdal is loved both by gods and by men,and he is also called Gullintani because his teeth are ofgold. There was a time when he went to Midgard (theearth) as a child; he grew up to be a teacher among menand was named Scef. Scef is identified as the patriarchScyld in Beowulf^ who came over the sea as a child androse to be the king of a tribe. Mankind were descendedfrom Heimdal-Scef: three sons were born to him ofhuman mothers—Thrall, from whom thralls are descended;Churl, the sire o
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