full in the epic, as in the Brahmanic period; but the story always
ends with the horror of the gods at the act.[39]

Old legends are varied. The victory over Vritra is now expounded thus:
Indra, who slays Vritra, is the sun. Vritra is the moon, who swims
into the sun's mouth on the night of the new moon. The sun rises after
swallowing him, and the moon is invisible because he is swallowed ("he
who knows this swallows his foes"). The sun vomits out the moon, and
the latter is then seen in the west, and increases again, to serve the
sun as food. In another passage it is said that when the moon is
invisible he is hiding in plants and waters (_Çat. Br._ i. 6. 3. 17;
4. 18-20).


BRAHMANIC RELIGION.

When the sacrifice is completed the priest returns, as it were, to
earth, and becomes human. He formally puts off his sacrificial vow,
and rehabilitates himself with humanity, saying, "I am even he that I
am."[40] As such a man, through service to the gods become a divine
offering, and no longer human, was doubtless considered the creature
that first served as the sacrificial animal. Despite protestant
legends such as that just recorded, despite formal disclaimers, human
sacrifice existed long after the period of the Rig Veda, where it is
alluded to; a period when even old men are exposed to die.[41] The
_anaddh[=a]purusha_ is not a fiction; for that, on certain occasions,
instead of this 'man of straw' a real victim was offered, is shown by
the ritual manuals and by Brahmanic texts.[42] Thus, in _Çat. Br_. vi.
2. 1. 18: "He kills a man first.... The cord that holds the man is the
longest." It is noteworthy that also among the American Indians the