Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/201

 Religious Conceptions and Feeling 185

In the ﬁrst place, Vedic poets engage in a sort of scramble for the gods. The goals cannot be in one and the some place at the same time, and cannot grant all the conflicting wishes of their numerous supplinnts. I have dealt with this theme which may interest the broader students of the history of relig— ions, in 21 recent paper presented to the XIVth Inter» national Congress of Oriontalists, held at Algiers in 1905.1 The title of the paper, 0172 Cwyé'z‘cfz'rzg Prayers and Samzyims, tells a. good deal of the story. The notion which comes out quite persistently is that it requires art to “hog ” the gods, and it is not a. very delectable notion either from the aesthetic or the eth- ical point of View. Yet not less so perhaps than the To D3257}: [eudmzms over the slaughter of enemies, which has been known to be chanted by both sides at the some time when each side claimed victory,2

I See some [Elohim University Cirmlem of 1906, N1“. £0,111. 1: f. 9 Or consider:

“ Gieh regen und gieh sonnensohein Fm Reuse and Sehleuss 11nd Lohenstein ; Und wollen nndre such was ha’n So mogen sie’s clir selber sa’n.”

My colleague, Professor Gildersloeve,proposes the following Eng- lish transfusion :

“ Give rain and sunshine we implo’ For us upon the Eastern sho’ ; If any others want a share Themselves may offer up the prayer.”