Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/53

 pe The Veda 37 Secondly, they occur in the Sama-Veda itself in a form called arcika, that is, "collection of stanzas." This is a kind of libretto, or text-book contain- ing the stanzas which are to be memorised for "making upon them," as the Hindus say, the saman-melodies. Here also there is a system of accents, peculiar in its notation, but appar- ently still with reference to the unsung sämans. In the third saman-version, the Ganas' or song-books, we find the real samans as they are to be sung. Here not only the text but also the musical notes are given. Still this is not a complete saman yet. In the middle of the sung stanzas certain phantastic exclamatory syllables are introduced, the so-called stobhas, such as om, hau, hai, hoyi, or him; and at the end of the stanzas certain concluding exclama- tions, the so-called nidhanas, such as atha, à, im, and sät. They remind us in a way of the Swiss and Tyrolese "yodels "which are introduced into the songs of these countries as a sort of cadenzas, intended to heighten the musical effect. The Sama-Veda is devoted a good deal to the worship of Indra, a blustering, braggart god, who 1 The word gāna, again, is derived from the root gai, "sing." The Pancavinça Brähmana relates that the poet Kanva was for a good while puzzled to find a nidhana for his saman, until he heard a cat sneeze ash! Then he took ash for the nidhana of his saman.