altar and the angel that personifies it. The difficulty is still more increased when we see the fire on the hearth conceived of as speaking and blessing as a person. The householders pray that the fire may ever burn and blaze in their houses.[1] In the Vedas, Agni is a friend of the man who entertains him as a guest and feeds him with fuel.[2] The fire of Mazda, likewise, solicits devotional offerings from those persons for whom he cooks the evening and the morning meal, he looks at the hands of all passers-by, to see if they bring some present for him or not, even as a friend for a friend. When the faithful bring to him fuel, dry and exposed to the light, he is propitiated, and in the fulfilment of his wish blesses the votary with a flock of cattle and a multitude of men, an active mind and an active spirit, and a joyous life.[3] During the three watches of the night Atar wakes up the master of the house, the husbandman, and calls Sraosha for help.[4] Here also it is not so much the angel Atar that acts, as it is the fire itself, for the master of the house and the husbandman are asked to wash their hands and bring fuel to it, lest the demon Azi should extinguish it.[5] The man who responds with alacrity, and is the first to wake up and tend the fire with dry wood, receives Atar's blessings.[6] The man who sacrifices unto fire with fuel in his hand, with the Baresman in his hand, with milk in his hand, with the mortar for crushing the branches of the sacred Haoma in his hand, is given happiness.[7] Phoenix of Colophon (280 b.c.), cited in Athenaeus, speaks of the fire ritual of the Magi and mentions the Baresman.[8] In the litany to the fire, the faithful are enjoined to feed the fire with fuel that is dry and well exposed to the light,[9] and Strabo tells us that the fire-priests fed the sacred fire with dry wood, fat, and oil; and he further adds that some portions of the caul of the sacrificed animal were also placed on it.[10]
Atar's boons. Atar is invoked to grant well-being and sustenance in abundance, knowledge, holiness, a ready tongue, comprehensive, great, and imperishable wisdom, manly valour, watchfulness, an innate offspring worthy to sit in the assembly and work for the renown of his house and village, town and country,
