Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 6 (Indian and Iranian).djvu/104

68 gains the sun. He is also described as causing bad harvests, while his name must mean either "Scorcher" or "Hisser"; and apparently he is a demon of drought. With him is sometimes coupled Śambara, the son of Kulitara, the Dāsa of ninety-nine forts, whom Indra destroys, though he deemed himself a godling. Pipru and Varcin also fall before Indra, the first with fifty thousand black warriors, and the second with a hundred thousand. As either is at once Asura and Dāsa, perhaps they were the patron gods of aboriginal tribes which were overthrown by the Aryans; but their names may mean in Sanskrit "the Resister" and "the Shining." Dhuni and Cumuri, the Dāsas, were sent to sleep by Indra for the sake of the pious Dabhīti; and their castles were shattered along with those of Śambara, Pipru, and Varcin. Dhuni means "Roarer," but Cumuri is not, it would seem, Aryan, and he perhaps, with Ilībiśa, Sṛbinda, and others of whom we know practically nothing, may be aboriginal names of foes or gods hostile to the Aryans.

A more perplexing figure and one famous in later literature is Namuci, which Indian etymology renders as "He Who Will Not Let Go." He is at once Asura and Dāsa, and in vanquishing him Indra has the aid of Namī Sāpya. The peculiarity of his death is that his head is not pierced, like Vṛtra's, but is twirled or twisted with the foam of the waters, and that Indra is said to have drunk wine beside him when the Aśvins aided and Sarasvatī cured him.

The king of the dead is Yama, who gathers the people together and gives the dead a resting-place in the highest heaven amid songs and the music of the flute. He is the son of Vivasvant, just as in the Avesta Yima is the son of Vīvanghvant, the first presser of the soma. His sister is Yamī, and a curious hymn (x. 10) contains a dialogue in which she presses her brother to wed her and beget offspring, while he urges religious objections to her suit. The story suggests what is confirmed by the later Persian record that Yama and Yima were really the twin parents of mankind. The Avesta also tells us that he lives