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216
VEDIC HYMNS.
Let us not be like outsiders, O Indra, not like strangers to thee.
WILSON: Ever accepting the sweet (libation), as (they would) a son, they sport playfully at sacrifices, demolishing (all intruders).
LUDWIG: Wie einen nicht absterbenden Sohn das Madhu bringend.
Verse 4.
Note 1. Avyata, a Vedic second aorist of vî (ag), to stir up, to excite. From it pravayana, a goad, pra-vetar, a driver. The Greek oi-o-rpos, gad-fly, has been referred to the same root. See Fick, Wörterbuch, p. 170.
Roth (Wenzel, Instrumental, p. 54) translates: 'While you quickly throw yourselves into the mists;' from a verb vyâ.
Note 2. Adhragan, from dhrag, a root which, by metathesis of aspiration, would assume the form of dragh or dragh. In Greek, the final medial aspirate being hardened, reacts on the initial media, and changes it to t, as bâhu becomes Tĥxus, budh ve, bandh Teve. This would give us Tрex, the Greek root for running, Goth. thrag-jan.
Note 3. Harmyá is used here as an adjective of bhúvana, and can only mean living in houses. It does not, however, occur again in the same sense, though it occurs several times as a substantive, meaning house. Its original meaning is fire-pit, then hearth, then house, a transition of meaning analogous to that of aedes. Most of the ancient nations begin their kitchen with a fire-pit. They dig a hole in the ground, take a piece of the animal's raw hide, and press it down with their hands close to the sides of the hole, which thus becomes a sort of pot or basin. This they fill with water, and they make a number of stones red-hot in a fire close by. The meat is put into the water, and the stones dropped in till the meat is boiled. Catlin describes the process as awkward and tedious, and says that since the Assinaboins had learnt from the Mandans to make pottery, and had been supplied with vessels by the traders, they had entirely done away the .custom, "excepting at public festivals; where they seem, like all others of the human family, to take pleasure in cherishing and perpetuating
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