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 sacrificial beasts! We see from this that the Soma-juice was quite an ardent spirit.

Soma was the vedic poets' chief drink till the end of the period when Sura (barley beer?) was discovered. The original Soma plant did not grow in the Punjab and it had to be collected in the mountains (Hindu Kush) and brought over. So the status of Soma juice become changed. While Sura became the drink of the people, Soma, despite t he fact that it was not so agreeable a liquor, became reserved for its old association, as the purest drink, a sacrosanct beverage, not for the vulgar and not esteemed by the priest, except as it kept up a rite.

In the Atharva-Veda we find in the after-life i. e. after death the devout are provided with seas of wine, butter, sugar, milk ete. (4-34-6.)

With a hymn of Soma we retire from the Vedas :—

"Where there is eternal light, in the world where sun is placed, in that immortal, imperishable world place me, O Soma! flow thou for Indra.

"Where the son of Vivasvat reigns as King where the secret place of heaven is, where the mighty waters are, there make me immortal. Flow thou for Indra.

"Where life is free in the third heaven of heavens,