Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/50

 1 The Religion of the Veda The Hindus have always had reason to fear ser- pents; they must have at times been stung by serpents whom they mistook for ropes, because the two things are often correlated in their literature. A Hindu figure of speech (or kenning) for serpent is "toothed rope.' "For instance, a theosophic text of Upanishad character establishes the following comparison: "As a rope which is not clearly seen in the dark is mistaken for a serpent, so the un- enlightened mistake the character of their own self." a That is to say, they do not comprehend the divine nature of their self. This is sensible, and there is sense also in the following: Kings are con- ceived as rulers of the earth. Therefore, at the ceremony of consecration the king looks down upon the earth, and prays: "O mother Earth, do not injure me, nor let me injure thee!" But often prayer passes over into litany, here as in other secondary stages of religious literature. The fol- lowing is an all too typical case: "May life prosper through the sacrifice! May life's breath prosper through the sacrifice! May the eye prosper through the sacrifice! May the ear prosper through the sacrifice! May the back prosper through the sac- 34 ¹ See the author in Hymns of the Atharva-Veda (Sacred Books of the East, vol. xlii.), pp. 147, 368. 2 Mändükya-Kärikā, 2. 17. Cf. the adage in Petronius, 45: colubra restem non parit, "a serpent does not beget a rope." 1