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Rh smite their enemies. Or when it is dark in his heavenly house he strikes fire, and that is lightning. To this day the Philanders call a thunderstorm an ' ukko,' or an 'ukkonen,' that is, 'a little ukko,' and when it lightens they say, 'There is Ukko striking fire!'

What is the Aryan conception of the Thunder-god, but a poetic elaboration of thoughts inherited from the savage state through which the primitive Aryans had passed? The Hindu Thunder-god is the Heaven-god Indra, Indra's bow is the rainbow, Indra hurls the thunderbolts, he smites his enemies, he smites the dragon-clouds, and the rain pours down on earth, and the sun shines forth again. The Veda is full of Indra's glories: 'Now will I sing the feats of Indra, which he of the thunderbolt did of old. He smote Ahi, then he poured forth the waters; he divided the rivers of the mountains. He smote Ahi by the mountain; Tvashtar forged for him the glorious bolt.' — 'Whet, O strong Indra, the heavy strong red weapon against the enemies!' — 'May the axe (the thunderbolt) appear with the light; may the red one blaze forth bright with splendour!' — 'When Indra hurls again and again his thunderbolt, then they believe in the brilliant god.' Nor is Indra merely a great god in the ancient Vedic pantheon, he is the very patron-deity of the invading Aryan race in India, to whose help they look in their conflicts with the dark-skinned tribes of the land. 'Destroying the Dasyus, Indra protected the Aryan colour' — 'Indra protected in battle the Aryan worshipper, he subdued the lawless for Manu, he conquered the black skin.' This Hindu Indra is the offspring of Dyaus the Heaven. But in the Greek religion, Zeus is himself Zeus Kerauneios, the wielder of the thunderbolt, and thunders from the cloud-capped tops of Ida or Olympos. In like manner the Jupiter Capitolinus of Rome is himself Jupiter Tonans:

2 'Rig-Veda,' i. 32. 1, 55. 5, 130. 8, 165; iii. 34. 9; vi. 20; x. 44. 9, 89, 9. Max Müller, 'Lectures,' 2nd S. p. 427; 'Chips,' vol. i. p. 42, vol. ii. p. 323. See Muir, 'Sanskrit Texts.'