Man’s original skin was put by the gods upon the cow; hence a cow runs away from a man because she thinks he is trying to get back his skin.  The gods cluster about at an oblation, each crying out ‘My name,’ i.e., each is anxious to get it.  The gods, with the evil spirits—­’both sons of the Father’—­attract to themselves the plants; Varuna gets the barley by a pun.  They build castles to defend themselves from the evil spirits.  Five gods are picked out as worthy of offerings:  Aditi, Speech, Agni, Soma, the Sun (five, because the seasons are five and the regions are five).  Indra and Wind have a dispute of possession; Praj[=a]pati, the Father, decides it.  The heavenly singers, called the Gandharvas, recited the Veda to entice (the divine female) Speech to come to them; while the gods, for the same purpose, created the lute, and sang and played to her.  She came to the gods; hence the weakness of women in regard to such things.  Indra is the god of sacrifice; the stake of the sacrifice is Vishnu’s; V[=a]yu (Wind) is the leader of beasts; Bhaga is blind;[32] P[=u]shan (because he eats mush) is toothless.  The gods run a race to see who shall get first to the sacrifice, and Indra and Agni win; they are the warrior-caste among the gods, and the All-gods are the people (vicve, vic.).  Yet, again, the Maruts are the people, and Varuna is the warrior-caste; and, again, Soma is the warrior-caste.  The Father-god first created birds, then reptiles and snakes.  As these all died he created mammalia; these survived because they had food in themselves; hence the Vedic poet says ’three generations have passed away.’[33]

Varuna is now quite the god of night and god of purification, as a water-god.  Water is the ‘essence (sap) of immortality,’ and the bath of purification at the end of the sacrifice (avabh[r.]tha) stands in direct relation to Varuna.  The formula to be repeated is:  “With the gods’ help may I wash out sin against the gods; with the help of men the sin against men” (Cat.  Br. iv. 4. 3. 15; ii. 5. 2. 47).  Mitra and Varuna are, respectively, intelligence and will, priest and warrior; and while the former may exist without the latter, the latter cannot live without the former, ’but they are perfect only when they cooeperate’ (ib. iv. 1. 4. 1).

Of the divine legends some are old, some new.  One speaks of the sacrifice as having been at first human, subsequently changing to beast sacrifice, eventually to a rice offering, which last now represents the original sacrificial animal, man.[34] Famous, too, is the legend of the flood and Father Manu’s escape from it (Cat.  Br. i. 8. 1. 1 ff.).  Again, the Vedic myth is retold, recounting the rape of soma by the metrical equivalent of fire (T[=a]itt.  Br. i. 1. 3. 10; Cat.  Br. i. 8. 2. 10).  Another tale takes up anew the old story of Cupid and Psyche (Pur[=u]ravas and Urvac[=i]); and another that of the Hindu Prometheus story, wherein M[=a]taricvan fetches fire from heaven, and gives it to mortals (T[=a]itt.  Br. iii. 2. 3. 2; Cat.  Br. xi. 5. 1. 1; i. 7. 1. 11).[35]