Page:Hutcheson Macaulay Posnett - Comparative Literature (1886).djvu/312

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WORLD-LITERATURE IN INDIA AND CHINA.
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wish for wealth? 2. Whose prayers have the youth accepted? Who has turned the Maruts to his own sacrifice? By what strong devotion may we delight them, they who float through the air like hawks?

"Dialogue. The Maruts speak; 3. From whence, O Indra, dost thou come alone, thou who art mighty? O lord of men, what has thus happened to thee? Thou greetest (us) when thou comest together with (us), the bright Maruts? Tell us, then, thou with thy bay horses, what thou hast against us!

"Indra speaks; 4. The sacred songs are mine, (mine are) the prayers; sweet are the libations! My strength rises, my thunderbolt is hurled forth. They call for me, the prayers[1] yearn for me. Here are my horses, they carry me towards them.

"The Maruts speak; 5. Therefore in company with our strong friends, having adorned our bodies, we now harness our fallow deer with all our might; for, Indra, according to thy custom thou hast been with us.

"Indra speaks; 6. Where, O Maruts, was that custom of yours, that you should join me who am alone in the killing of Ahi? I, indeed, am terrible, strong, powerful—I escaped from the blows of every enemy.

"The Maruts speak; 7. Thou hast achieved much with us as companions. With the same valour, O hero, let us achieve then many things, O thou most powerful, O Indra! whatever we, O Maruts, wish with our hearts.

"Indra speaks; 8. I slew Vrita, O Maruts, with (Indra's) might, having grown strong through my own vigour; I, who hold the thunderbolt in my arms, have made these all-brilliant waters to flow freely for man.

"The Maruts speak; 9. Nothing, O powerful lord, is

  1. Similar personifications might be easily quoted from our European mystery-plays.