Note 1. I take khandahstúbh in the sense of stepping (according to) a measure, as explained in my Preface (1st ed.), p. cii, though I do not doubt that that meaning was afterwards forgotten, and replaced by the technical meaning of stubh, to shout. See Böhtlingk-Roth, s. v. stubh, and

stobhagrantha, Sâma-veda, Bibl. Ind., II, p. 519. It can hardly be supposed that such artificial performances of Vedic hymns, as are preserved in the Sâma-veda, could have suggested the first names of the ancient metres.

Note 2. Kubhanyú can only be derived from bhan, to shout.

Note 3. The kîrínah are probably intended here for strolling minstrels who, when they approached the well of a village (here the cloud), might be taken either for friends or foes.

Note 4. Drisí tvishé. Grassmann translates: 'Wie Räuberbanden schienen sie geschart zum Andrang meinem Blick.' Ludwig better: 'Helfer waren sie, glanz zu sehn.' We must either read drisé tvishé, to see the light, or drisé tvishí, to be seen by light. See, however, P. G., Ved. Stud. p. 225.

Verse 13.

Note 1. Vedhas, wise. The different possible meanings of this word have been discussed by Ludwig, Z. D. M. G. XL, p. 716; and by Bartholomae, in Kuhn's Zeitschrift, XXVII, p. 361.

Verse 14.

Note 1. On dânâ´, see Lanman, pp. 533, 335; P. G., Ved. Stud. p. 101.

Note 2. Dhrishnavah ógasâ to be read   ̄  ̆  ̄  ̆  ̄.

Verse 15.

This verse, as Roth says, is very obscure, and the translation is purely tentative. Grassmann derives vakshánâ from vah in the sense of an offering. It may more easily be derived from vaksh, i. e. what gives increase, and be taken as an instrumental. Pischel shows that in many passages vakshanâ in the plural has the meaning of yoni, also of the yoni on the altar. But even this meaning does not throw much light on our passage. The first pâda may possibly be taken in an interrogative and conditional sense, or we may translate: 'Now, having perceived them, may he, as a refreshing draught goes to the gods, come

together with the Maruts for his reward.' Whatever the verse may mean, eshâm devâ´n cannot mean the gods of the Maruts, or prove the existence of idols, as Bollensen (Z. D. M. G. XXII, 587) and even Muir (S. T. V, 454) imagined. The translation of Pischel, Ved. Stud. p. 101, sûríbhih añgíbhih mit 'Herren, die schmieren, d. h. ordentlich bezahlen,' seems too exclusively German. Could añgin be an adjective, in the sense of possessed of añgis?

Verse 16.