4.  “These libations of Soma, mixed with milk, have been prepared for
   Indra:  thou, armed with the thunderbolt, come with the steeds to drink
   of them for thy delight; come to the house!

   5.  “May he hear us, for he has ears to hear.  He is asked for riches;
   will he despise our prayers?  He could soon give hundreds and
   thousands;—­no one could check him if he wishes to give.”

   13.  “Make for the sacred gods a hymn that is not small, that is well
   set and beautiful!  Many snares pass by him who abides with Indra
   through his sacrifice.

   14.  “What mortal dares to attack him who is rich in thee?  Through faith
   in thee, O mighty, the strong acquires spod in the day of battle.”

   17.  “Thou art well known as the benefactor of every one, whatever
   battles there be.  Every one of these kings of the earth implores thy
   name, when wishing for help.

   18.  “If I were lord of as much as thou, I should support the sacred
   bard, thou scatterer of wealth, I should not abandon him to misery.

   19.  “I should award wealth day by day to him who magnifies; I should
   award it to whosoever it be.  We have no other friend but thee, no other
   happiness, no other father, O mighty!”

   22.  “We call for thee, O hero, like cows that have not been milked; we
   praise thee as ruler of all that moves, O Indra, as ruler of all that
   is immovable.

   23.  “There is no one like thee in heaven and earth; he is not born, and
   will not be born.  O mighty Indra, we call upon thee as we go fighting
   for cows and horses.”

“In this hymn,” says Mueller, “Indra is clearly conceived as the Supreme God, and we can hardly understand how a people who had formed so exalted a notion of the Deity and embodied it in the person of Indra, could, at the same sacrifice, invoke other gods with equal praise.  When Agni, the lord of fire, is addressed by the poet, he is spoken of as the first god, not inferior even to Indra.  While Agni is invoked Indra is forgotten; there is no competition between the two, nor any rivalry between them and other gods.  This is a most important feature in the religion of the Veda, and has never been taken into consideration by those who have written on the history of ancient polytheism."[43]

“It is curious,” says Mueller, “to watch the almost imperceptible transition by which the phenomena of nature, if reflected in the mind of the poet, assume the character of divine beings.  The dawn is frequently described in the Veda as it might be described by a modern poet.  She is the friend of men, she smiles like a young wife, she is the daughter of the sky.”  “But the transition from devi, the bright, to devi, the goddess, is so easy; the daughter of the sky assumes so readily the same personality which is given to the sky, Dyaus, her father, that we can only guess whether in every passage the poet is speaking of a bright apparition, or of a bright goddess; of a natural vision, or of a visible deity.  The following hymn of Vashishtha will serve as an instance:—­