say that they are necessarily modern, even if by modern we mean only later than 1000 b.c. Nothing can bring the perplexity of the ancient mind, if once drawn into this vortex of speculation, more clearly before us than if we read:

X, 72, 4-5. âditeh dákshah agâyata dákshât ûm (íti) áditih pári,—áditih hí áganishta dáksha yâ´ duhitâ´ táva, tâ´m devâ´h ánu agâyanta bhadrâ´h amríta-bandhavah.

Daksha was born of Aditi, and Aditi from Daksha. For Aditi was born, O Daksha, she who is thy daughter; after her the gods were born, the blessed, who share in immortality.

Or, in more mythological language:

X, 64, 5. dákshasya vâ adite gánmani vraté râ´gânâ mitrâ´-várunâ â´ vivâsasi.

Or thou, O Aditi, nursest in the birthplace of Daksha the two kings, Mitra and Varuna.

Nay, even this does not suffice. There is something again beyond Aditi and Daksha, and one poet says:

X, 5, 7. ásat ka sát ka paramé ví-oman dákshasya gánman áditeh upá-sthe.

Not-being and Being are in the highest heaven, in the birthplace of Daksha, in the lap of Aditi.

At last something like a theogony, though full of contradictions, was imagined, and in the same hymn from which we have already quoted, the poet says:

X, 72, 1-4. devâ´nâm nú vayám gâ´nâ prá vokâma vipanyáyâ, ukthéshu sasyámâneshu yáh (yát?) pásyât ut-tare yugé. 1.

bráhmanah pátih etâ´ sám karmâ´rah-iva adhamat, devâ´nâm pûrvyé yugé ásatah sát agâyata. 2.

devâ´nâm yugé prathamé ásatah sát agâyata, tát â´sâh ánu agâyanta tát uttâná-padah pári. 3.

bhû´h gagñe uttâná-padah bhuváh â´sâh agâyanta, áditeh dákshah agâyata, dákshât ûm (íti) áditih pári. 4.

1. Let us now with praise proclaim the births of the gods, that a man may see them in a future age, whenever these hymns are sung.

2. Brahmanaspati a blew them together like a smith (with

his bellows); in a former age of the gods, Being was born from Not-being.

3. In the first age of the gods, Being was born from Not-being, after it were born the Regions (space), from them Uttânapada;

4. From Uttânapad the Earth was born, the Regions were born from the Earth. Daksha was born of Aditi, and Aditi from Daksha.