Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/258

226 BOOK II. The Seven Rishis. The Ark- shas or Shiners.

stamps his iron mace on the floor. To the number of these sleepers must be added Arthur who slumbers in Avallon, waiting for the time when he shall wake up to free Britain once more ; Sebastian of Portugal ; the three Tells of Riith ; the priest of the Church of Hagia Sophia, who bides the day when the Turk shall be driven from Constantinople ; and Boabdil, the last of the Moorish kings of Spain, who lies spell-bound within the hill of the Alhambra in a slumber broken only on the eve of St. John,^ who himself slumbers at Ephesus.

The same mystic number is found in the seven Rishis of ancient Hindu tradition. These Rishis are the media or instruments through which the divine Veda was imparted to mankind. In its widest meaning the word was taken to denote the priestly bards who conducted the worship of the gods ; but they are spoken of some- times as the poets who compose the songs and present them to the deities whom they celebrate, and sometmies as the mere mouthpieces of these gods. They are mortal, and yet they aie united with immor- tals, and are rivals of the gods. But although the idea most pro- minently associated with them is that of wisdom, they are sometimes mentioned in language which carries us back to the etymological meaning of the name. With their true hymns, we are told, they caused the dawn to arise and the sun to shine for the afflicted Vayu and Manu.^ The names of the Rishis are variously given, Manu with Bhrigu, Angiras and others, being sometimes reckoned among them : but of the whole number seven attained a pre-eminent dignity. With Manu, according to one version, they entered into the ark while the earth lay beneath the waters of the flood, and therein abode with him until the vessel rested on the peak called Naubandhana from the binding of the ship. In the account of this flood the Brahmana story introduces a fish which guides the ark as the Delphian Apolion guides the vessel of the Cretan mariners to Krisa.

The main story connected with the Rishis has already been noticed as the result of an equivocal word.^ The notion of making bright conveyed also the idea of gladdening and cheering, and hence arkshah became a name not only for the sun, but for a hymn or song of praise, and the makers or singers of these hymns were naturally termed Rishis or gladdeners. It v.as not less natural that, as the

• Washington Irving, Talcs of the Alhambra, "Legend of the Two Dis- creet Statues." Sanskrit Texts, part iii. p. 1 19. During this time of oppression and sorrow, it is said that Vishnu thrice measured the mundane regions for Manu. Ji. V. -i. 49, 13 ; Muir, //'. part iv. p. 71. 526.
 * /'. /'. viii. 76, 4, and 91, I ; Muir,
 * Ma. MiiUer, Sanskrit Literature,
 * Book i. ch. iii