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xxiv
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
The striking coincidences between the Vedic Agnishtoma and the Homa ceremony of the Parsis, pointed out by Martin Haug (Ait. Br. I, p. 59 seq.), leave no doubt as to the complete development of the Soma-ritual in its essential features before the separation of the Indo-Iranians. The exact identity of the plant from which their sacred liquor was prepared is still somewhat doubtful. An official inquiry which has been set on foot in consequence of two papers published by Prof. Roth (Journal of Germ. Or. Soc. 1881 and 1883), and translated by Mr. C. J. Lyall, secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Assam, and which, it is understood, is now carried on, on the part of the Government of India, by Dr. Aitchison, botanist to the Afghan Boundary Commission, will probably ere long settle the matter once for all. The appearance of the first official blue-book on the subject has already led to a renewed discussion of the matter, in the columns of a weekly journal", in which Profs. Max Müller and R. v. Roth, as well as several distinguished botanists, especially Drs. J. G. Baker and W. T. Thiselton Dyer, have taken part. Of especial interest in this discussion is a letter?, by Mr. A.Houttum-Schindler, dated Teheran, December 20, 1884, in which an account is given of the plant from which the present Pârsîs of Kerman and Yezd obtain their Hům juice, and which they assert to be the very same
one vast reservoir of flame, which was propelled from its voluminous bed by some invisible but omnipotent agency, and threatened to fling its fiery ruin upon everything around. In some parts, however, of the pitchy vapour by which the skies were by this time completely overspread, the lightning was seen only occasionally to glimmer in faint streaks of light, as if struggling, but unable, to escape from its prison, igniting, but too weak to burst, the impervious bosoms of those capacious magazines in which it was at once engendered and pent up. So heavy and continuous was the rain, that scarcely anything, save those vivid bursts of light which nothing could arrest or resist, was perceptible through it.... Day after day the same scene was repeated with somewhat less violence, though at intervals the might of the hurricane was truly appalling .... The breaking up of the monsoon is frequently even more violent, if possible, than its setting in, and this happened to be the case during the first season after my arrival in India. It was truly stupendous, and I shall never cease to remember it to the latest moment of my existence. .
The Academy, Oct. 25, 1884-Feb. 14, 1885. * Ibid., Jan. 31, 1885.
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