smite their enemies. Or when it is dark in his heavenly house he strikes fire, and that is lightning. To this day the Philanders call a thunderstorm an ' ukko,' or an 'ukkonen,' that is, 'a little ukko,' and when it lightens they say, 'There is Ukko striking fire!'[1]
What is the Aryan conception of the Thunder-god, but a poetic elaboration of thoughts inherited from the savage state through which the primitive Aryans had passed? The Hindu Thunder-god is the Heaven-god Indra, Indra's bow is the rainbow, Indra hurls the thunderbolts, he smites his enemies, he smites the dragon-clouds, and the rain pours down on earth, and the sun shines forth again. The Veda is full of Indra's glories: 'Now will I sing the feats of Indra, which he of the thunderbolt did of old. He smote Ahi, then he poured forth the waters; he divided the rivers of the mountains. He smote Ahi by the mountain; Tvashtar forged for him the glorious bolt.' — 'Whet, O strong Indra, the heavy strong red weapon against the enemies!' — 'May the axe (the thunderbolt) appear with the light; may the red one blaze forth bright with splendour!' — 'When Indra hurls again and again his thunderbolt, then they believe in the brilliant god.' Nor is Indra merely a great god in the ancient Vedic pantheon, he is the very patron-deity of the invading Aryan race in India, to whose help they look in their conflicts with the dark-skinned tribes of the land. 'Destroying the Dasyus, Indra protected the Aryan colour' — 'Indra protected in battle the Aryan worshipper, he subdued the lawless for Manu, he conquered the black skin.'[2] This Hindu Indra is the offspring of Dyaus the Heaven. But in the Greek religion, Zeus is himself Zeus Kerauneios, the wielder of the thunderbolt, and thunders from the cloud-capped tops of Ida or Olympos. In like manner the Jupiter Capitolinus of Rome is himself Jupiter Tonans:
2 'Rig-Veda,' i. 32. 1, 55. 5, 130. 8, 165; iii. 34. 9; vi. 20; x. 44. 9, 89, 9. Max Müller, 'Lectures,' 2nd S. p. 427; 'Chips,' vol. i. p. 42, vol. ii. p. 323. See Muir, 'Sanskrit Texts.'
