In the laudation of Varuna the fancy of the poet exhausts itself in lofty imagery, and reaches the topmost height of Vedic religious lyric.  In the praise of Dawn it descends not lower than to interweave beauty with dignity of utterance.  Nothing in religious poetry more graceful or delicate than the Vedic Dawn-hymns has ever been written.  In the daily vision of Dawn following her sister Night the poet sees his fairest goddess, and in his worship of her there is love and admiration, such as is evoked by the sight of no other deity.  “She comes like a fair young maiden, awakening all to labor, with an hundred chariots comes she, and brings the shining light; gleam forth, O Dawn, and give us thy blessing this day; for in thee is the life of every living creature.  Even as thou hast rewarded the singers of old, so now reward our song” (I. 48).

The kine of Dawn are the bright clouds that, like red cattle, wander in droves upon the horizon.  Sometimes the rays of light, which stretch across the heaven, are intended by this image, for the cattle-herding poets employed their flocks as figures for various ends.

The inevitable selfish pessimism of unripe reflection is also woven into the later Dawn-hymns:  “How long will it be ere this Dawn, too, shall join the Dawns departed?  Vanished are now the men that saw the Dawns of old; we here see her now; there will follow others who will see her hereafter; but, O Dawn, beam here thy fairest; rich in blessings, true art thou to friend and right.  Bring hither (to the morning sacrifice) the gods” (I. 113).

Since the metre (here ignored) of the following hymn is not all of one model, it is probable that after the fourth verse a new hymn began, which was distinct from the first; but the argument from metre is unconvincing, and in any event both songs are worth citing, since they show how varied were the images and fancies of the poets:  “The Dawns are like heroes with golden weapons; like red kine of the morning on the field of heaven; shining they weave their webs of light, like women active at work; food they bring to the pious worshipper.  Like a dancing girl is the Dawn adorned, and opens freely her bosom; as a cow gives milk, as a cow comes forth from its stall, so opens she her breast, so comes she out of the darkness (verses 1-4) ...She is the ever new, born again and again, adorned always with the same color.  As a player conceals the dice, so keeps she concealed the days of a man; daughter of Heaven she wakes and drives away her sister (Night).  Like kine, like the waves of a flood, with sunbeams she appears.  O rich Dawn, bring us wealth; harness thy red horses, and bring to us success” (I. 92).  The homage to Dawn is naturally divided at times with that to the sun:  “Fair shines the light of morning; the sun awakens us to toil; along the path of order goes Dawn arrayed in light.  She extendeth herself in the east, and gleameth till she fills the sky and earth”; and again:  “Dawn is the great