Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/477

Rh their wont the form of new-born babes," ^ a phrase which exhibits the CHAP, germ, and more than the germ, of the myth of Hermes returning like a child to his cradle after tearing up the forests. Their voice is louder than that of Stentor.

" ^'^lither now ? " asks the poet. " On what errand of yours are you going, in heaven not on earth ? Wliere are your cows sporting ? From the shout of the Maruts over the whole space of the earth men reeled forward." ^

" They make the rocks to tremble ; they tear asunder the kings of the forest," like Hermes in his rage.

" Lances gleam, Maruts, upon your shoulders, anklets on your feet, golden cuirasses on your breasts, and pure (waters shine) on your chariots : lightnings blazing with fire glow in your hands, and golden tiaras are towering on your heads."*

In the traditions of Northern Europe these furious Maruts become the fearful Ogres, who come tearing along in their ships (the clouds), while the wind roars and growls after them, and who, after desperate conflicts, are vanquished by Shortshanks in the Norse tale.* The ogre of this story carries with him " a great thick iron club," which sends the earth and stones flying five yards in the air at each stroke.

But pre-eminently, as the name denotes, the INIaruts are the The Crush- crs or crushers or grinders ; and thus, as made to share in the deadly strife Grinders, between Indra and Vritra, they assume an exclusively warlike character. The history of the root which furnishes this name has been already traced,® and has linked together the Greek war-god Ares, the gigantic Aloadai and Moliones, the Latin Mars and Mors, and the Teutonic Thor Midlnir. They are the children of Rudra, worshipped as the destroyer and reproducer, for these functions were blended by the same association of ideas which gave birth to the long series of correlative deities in Aryan mythology.

" Adorned with armlets, the Maruts have shone like the skies with their stars ; they have glittered like showers from the clouds, at the time when the prolific Rudra generated you, Maruts, with jewels on your breasts, from the shining udder of Prisni." ^ Among the monstrous overgrowths of wild fancies in the later Rudra. Hindu literature we find some of the more prominent attributes of the cognate Greek deity ascribed to Rudra in his character as Father ' Max Miiller, /?. V. S. i. 3. called Stribog. — Ralston, Son^s of the » H. H. Wilson, R. V. S. vol. ii. p. » P. 16. 333. ^ R. V. ii. 34, 2; Muir, Skr, Texts,
 * lb. 65. Russian People, I02.
 * The Slavonic god of the winds is part iv. p. 260.