294 
the Yedic Soma, the Iranian Haoma, the Assyrian cc water of 
life, the drink of the gods/' the living water of Egypt, the 
mead in the halls of Odhinn, and the bowls of wine in the 
Garden of Delight of the Koran, and in summing up the phase 
of Bakchos Theoinos, I observed : — “ We recognize reverence 
for the principle of humidity, without which all is parched and 
sterile, when earth pants and gasps under the influence of the 
burning Typhou, the scorching dog-star of ruin, the choking, 
rain-restraining Yedic snake, or the consuming Athamas. 
Opposed to these are the all-fostering Okeanos, the rivers, 
symbols of the force and flow of life, the beloved Zeus-rain, 
and Dionysos lord and first cause, not only of wine, but of the 
whole humid nature.* * * § But, secondly, and distinct from the 
foregoing train of thought, is the yearning for immortality 
coupled with the idea that as ordinary food and drink sustain 
ordinary mortal existence, so superhuman nourishment, 
‘ angels'* food/ will sustain, or is required to sustain, the im- 
mortal life, which it is possible for some at least to become 
possessed of/’t 
30. The Physical Agni. 
A single Yedic divinity remains for examination, Agni, who 
stands in the front rank, and whose importance at once 
appears by the fact that no less than fifty-three out of one 
hundred and ninety-one hymns of the first book of tho Bile 
are addressed to him either solely or with others. But Agni, 
who is seen in the West as ignis, a name, not a god, is a vast 
and difficult concept. We may, therefore, say with the 
Stranger in Plato’s Sophistes, “ The object of our inquiry is 
no trivial thing, but a very various and complicated one. 
This is a very questionable animal — one not to bo caught with 
the left hand, as the saying is.”J Agni appears in almost as 
many aspects as Osiris, and thei’efore the question for con- 
sideration is. What concept of Agni will include all other 
narrower and derivative concepts, and hold true throughout 
their divergent modifications? Working from the known to 
the unknown, from the obvious to the obscure, we notice Agni 
in his first and simplest phase as ordinary terrestrial fire; 
and as such he is described in the hymns with great power 
and variety of imagery. Thus, he is the son of the ten fingers 
and of the two sticks, § wriggles like a serpent, cannot bo 
* Plutarch, Peri Is. kai Os. xxxv. 
+ The Great Dionysiak Myth, ii. 111. 
X It. W. Mackay, The Sophist es of Plato, p. 8!). 
§ As to the “ Suastika,” a word which, according to some, is equivalent 
