Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/53

Rh "O Soma! you have been crushed; you flow as a stream to Indra, scattering joy on all sides; you bestow immortal food.

"Seven women stir you with their fingers, blending their voices in a song to thee; you remind the sacrificer of his duties at the sacrifice.

"You mix with water with a pleasing sound; and the fingers stir you over a woollen strainer, and filter you. Your particles are thrown up then, and a sound arises from the woollen strainer.

"The woollen strainer is placed on a vessel, and the fingers repeatedly stir the Soma, which sends down a sweet stream into the vessel.

"O Soma! you are then mixed with milk. Water runs toward you with a pleasing sound."

From this description it would appear that the juice of Soma used to be taken mixed with milk. The poets of the Rig-Veda go into ecstasy over the virtues and the exhilarating powers of the Soma, and some of their descriptions have developed into the strange Puranic legends of the churning of the ocean and the discovery of the Amrita, or immortal drink. The sky in the Veda is considered watery and is often confused with the sea, and the milking of Soma from the sky is transformed in the Puranas into the churning of the ocean for the Amrita.

It would appear from many passages in the Rig-Veda that many arts were carried to a high state of excellence. Weaving was well known, of course, and deft female fingers wove the warp and woof. In one