Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/20

 curious myth is that of the maiden Vispalá who, having had her leg cut off in some conflict, was at once furnished by the Asvins with an iron limb.

The higher gods of the Rigveda are almost entirely personifications of the elements and the other natural phenomena, such as the fire and the wind, the sun and the dawn. But we often find also herbs and plants endowed with potent and active properties, raised to the dignities of the gods and addressed as such. The Soma plant is an object of particular adoration and the Vedic worshippers are in ecstacy over the exhilarating effects of the fermented juice expressed from it.See Eggeling's Intro. to "Satapatha Bráhmana." Pt. 11, pp. 1 et seq. also Roth; Ueber den Soma; "Zeit. deut. morg. Ges." XXXV. pp. 680-692; also ibid, XXXVIII. 134-139: Wo wächst der Soma? And Windischmann: Ueber den Somacultus der The Soma rasa (juice) began even to be regarded as the amrita; this immortal draught, allied to the Greek ambrosia, is "the stimulant which conferred immortality upon the gods . . . it is medicine for a sick man and the god Soma heals whatever is