of comparison is usually easy to find.  ’The earth nourishes,’ and ‘P[=u]shan nourishes,’ hence Pushan is the earth; or ‘the earth belongs to all’ and Agni is called ‘belonging to all’ (universal), hence the two are identified.  The All-gods, merely on account of their name, are now the All; Aditi is the ‘unbounded’ earth (ib.  III. 9. 1. 13; IV. 1. 1. 23; i. 1. 4. 5; III. 2. 3. 6).  Agni represents all the gods, and he is the dearest, the closest, and the surest of all the gods (ib.  I. 6. 2. 8 ff.).  It is said that man on earth fathers the fire (that is, protects it), and when he dies the fire that he has made his son on earth becomes his father, causing him to be reborn in heaven (ib.  II. 3. 3. 3-5; VI. 1. 2. 26).

The wives of the gods (dev[=a]n[=a]m patn[=i]r yajati), occasionally mentioned in the Rig Veda, have now an established place and cult apart from that of the gods (ib.  I. 9. 2. 11).  The fire on the hearth is god Agni in person, and is not a divine or mystic type; but he is prayed to as a heavenly friend.  Some of these traits are old, but they are exaggerated as compared with the more ancient theology.  When one goes on a journey or returns from one, ’even if a king were in his house’ he should not greet him till he makes homage to his hearth-fires, either with spoken words or with silent obeisance.  For Agni and Praj[=a]pati are one, they are son and father (ib.  II. 4. 1. 3, 10; VI. 1. 2. 26).  The gods have mystic names, and these ’who will dare to speak?’ Thus, Indra’s mystic name is Arjuna (ib.  II. 1. 2. 11).  In the early period of the Rig Veda the priest dares to speak.  The pantheism of the end of the Rig Veda is here decided and plain-spoken, as it is in the Atharvan.  As it burns brightly or not the fire is in turn identified with different gods, Rudra, Varuna, Indra, and Mitra (ib.  II. 3. 2. 9 ff.).  Agni is all the gods and the gods are in men (ib.  III. 1. 3. 1; 4. 1. 19; II. 3. 2. 1:  Indra and King Yama dwell in men).  And, again, the Father (Praj[=a]pati) is the All; he is the year of twelve months and five seasons(ib.  I. 3. 5. 10).  Then follows a characteristic bit.  Seventeen verses are to be recited to correspond to the ‘seventeenfold’ Praj[=a]pati.  But ’some say’ twenty-one verses; and he may recite twenty-one, for if ’the three worlds’ are added to the above seventeen one gets twenty, and the sun (ya esa tapati) makes the twenty-first!  As to the number of worlds, it is said (ib.  I. 2. 4. 11, 20-21) that there are three worlds, and possibly a fourth.