Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/125

 The Prehistoric Gods 109 "shine," shows that the word came from the lumin- ous manifestations of nature by day and night, and determines authoritatively the source from which the Indo-Europeans derived their first and most pervasive conception of divine power. On more limited Indo-European territory appears another general term, Slavic bugi, Old Persian baga Avestan bagha "god," Sanskrit bhaga "god of for- tune." : The word is again of clear origin: it means "spender of goods, or blessings." It contains the abstract conception of a good god, embodying an eternal and never slumbering wish of mankind. The same eastern region of the Indo-European territory has in common another sacred word, used as an attribute of divinity, namely, Avestan (Persian) spenta, Lithuanian scventas, Old Slavic svçtů "pure " or "holy." This secures for prehistoric religion an important spiritual concept. Two important con- ceptions expressing sentiment towards the gods, that of reverence (Sanskrit yaj, Avestan yas, Greek ay in touar,"revere"), and that of belief (Sanskrit çraddhā, Latin credo, Celtic cretim, “believe") come from old times, though they need not necessarily have been in vogue in every part of the territory The "Phrygian "Zeus Bagaios reported by the Greek glosso- grapher Hesychios is nothing but the Persian Baga; see the author in Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. xxxv., p. xxxi.