Note 1. Besides ní ahâsata, we find úd ahâsata, I, 9, 4, and ápa ahâsata, IX, 73, 6. On ki, see verse 14, and V, 55, 7. It is often impossible to say whether the Vedic Aorist should be translated in English by the perfect or the imperfect. If we take the verse as describing an historical fact, it would be, 'When you saw your way, or, as soon as you had seen your way, the clouds fell.' If it is meant as a repeated event, it would be, 'when, i. e. whenever you have seen your way, the clouds have fallen.' The difficulty lies in English, and though the grammars lay down rules, usage does not conform to them. The difference in the use of tenses in English is so great that in the revised version of the Bible, a number of passages had to be translated differently for the English and for the American public. Thus in Rom. ii. 12, the English edition gives, 'For as many as have sinned without law, shall perish without law.' The American edition changes this into 'As many as sinned without the law.' Gal. iii. 22, English: 'The scripture hath shut up;' American: 'The scripture shut up.' It was on account of this and other changes of

idiom which have sprung up between English and American, that different editions of the revised version had actually to be printed for England and America. No wonder, therefore, that an American critic should in his innocence have charged me with not knowing the difference between the aorist, the imperfect, and the perfect in Vedic Sanskrit!

Verse 7.

Note 1. Arunapsu, perhaps reddish-coloured, an epithet of the dawn. here applied to the Maruts. The Maruts are sometimes called vrishapsu, ahrutapsu, I, 52, 4; VIII, 20, 7.

Verse 8.

Note 1. The relation between the light cast forth by the Maruts and the path of the sun is not quite clear, except that in other places also the Maruts are connected with the morning. The darkness preceding a thunderstorm may be identified with the darkness of the night, preceding the sunrise. See Bergaigne, II, 379 seq.

Verse 9.

Note 1. The meaning of ribhukshan is doubtful. It is applied to Indra and the Maruts. See Bergaigne, II, 403; 404 note; 412.

Verse 10.

Note 1. The Prisnis in the plural fem. are the clouds, see VIII, 6, 19. Mythologically there is but one Prisni, the mother of the Maruts. See also Bergaigne, II, 397.