to the pronoun ye: 'Warscheinlicher ist, dass wir hier eine archaistische anwendung der form auf e fur fem. vor uns haben,' and Griffith says that ye is 'apparently used for the feminine.' I do not believe in this possibility, but for ye (ya) the true reading may be ya'(h). In this case the seven vanis would be subject: 'They who have risen out of the drink of the white-backed one, the seven sounds have entered the two parents.' The meaning of this may be: The sacrificial songs, rising as it were out of the offering made to Agni, and in the same way the streams of water which, in the shape of clouds of smoke rise out of the offering (comp. I, 164, 51), have gone to Heaven and Earth.

That the parents in the third Pada are again Heaven and Earth is shown by X, 65, 8. parikshita pitara ... dya'vaprithivi'. It may be observed that the author of X, 65 (see especially the verses 6-8) evidently imitated the expressions of the hymn, III, 7. 'The coming together of Heaven and Earth marks the beginning of the day and of the year.' M. M.

Verse 2.

Note [3:7:2:1]1. On divakshas, comp. Joh. Schmidt, Pluralbildungen der Neutra, 417 seq.

Note [3:7:2:2]2. The milch-cows, mares, or goddesses seem to be the celestial waters or Dawns.

Note [3:7:2:3]3. Comp. X, 65, 6, quoted at the end of this note. Is the cow (Vak, according to Sayana) the Dawn which daily returns in her due way? Or the butter offered to Agni? In our verse and in the parallel passage, X, 65, 6, the vartani of the cow is mentioned; it may be observed that the vartani of Ushas is referred to in X, 172, 1. 4. And Ushas is represented in I, 123, 9 as coming to the nishkrita: comp. X, 65, 6. ya' gauh vartanim pari-eti nih-kritam.

Verse 3.

Note [3:7:3:1]1. See verse 2.

Note [3:7:3:2]2. The meaning may possibly be the following. The Waters dwell in the plants as their sap (comp. H. O.,

[paragraph continues] Religion des Veda, 113). Agni, when burning or drinking as it were, the brushwood, destroys this dwelling of the Waters; he makes the Waters depart from the wood.

Verse 4.

Note [3:7:4:1]1. On Agni as the son of Tvashtri, see Hillebrandt, Vedische Mythologie, I, 522 seq.

Note [3:7:4:2]2. 'Could vahatah be the suyamah of verse 3?' M. M.

Verse 6.

Note [3:7:6:1]1. Or, 'when the singer's bull ... has grown strong according to his own law'? The bull, of course, is Agni.

Verse 7.

Note [3:7:7:1]1. See above, 5, 5. 6.

Note [3:7:7:2]2. The flames of Agni?

Verse 9.