study is more valuable in compiling the history than in elucidating the principles of religion.[1] For this scientific purpose, the more full and minute documents of Aryan religion can give a better answer. In various forms and under several names, the Fire-god is known. Nowhere does he carry his personality more distinctly than under his Sanskrit name of Agni, a word which keeps its quality, though not his divinity, in the Latin 'ignis.' The name of Agni is the first word of the first hymn of the Rig-Veda: 'Agnim île puro-hitam̃ yajnasya devam̃ ritvijam̃! — Agni I entreat, divine appointed priest of sacrifice!' The sacrifices which Agni receives go to the gods, he is the mouth of the gods, but he is no lowly minister, as it is said in another hymn:
'No god indeed, no mortal is beyond the might of thee, the mighty
one, with the Maruts come hither, O Agni!'
Such the mighty Agni is among the gods, yet he comes within the peasant's cottage to be protector of the domestic hearth. His worship has survived the transformation of the ancient patriarchal Vedic religion of nature into the priest-ridden Hinduism of our own day. In India there may yet be found the so-called Fire-priests (Agnihotri) who perform according to Vedic rite the sacrifices entitling the worshippers to heavenly life. The sacred fire-drill for churning the new fire by friction of wood (arani) is used so that Agni still is new-born of the twirling fire-sticks, and receives the melted butter of the sacrifice.[2] Among the records of fire-worship in Asia, is the account of Jonas Hanways's 'Travels,' dating from about 1740, of the everlasting fire at the burning wells near Baku, on the Caspian. At the sacred spot stood several ancient stone temples, mostly arched vaults 10 to 15 feet high. One little temple was
- ↑ See 'Records of the Past,' vol. iii. p. 137, vol. ix. p. 143; Sayce, 'Lectures on Rel. of Ancient Babylonians,' p. 170. For accounts of Semitic fire-worship, see Movers, 'Phönizier,' vol. i. p. 327, &c., 337, &c., 401.
- ↑ 'Rig- Veda,' i. 1. 1, 19. 2, iii. 1. 18, &c.; Max Müller, vol. i. p. 39; Ward, 'Hindoos,' vol. ii. p. 53. Haug, 'Essays on Parsis,' iv.; 'Early Hist. of Mankind,' p. 255.
