but this came easily to them, partly out of a desire to account
for all they saw in Nature, and which their fancy clothed in
divine forms, and partly out of reverence for the great All
Father, by filling up the space between Him and themselves with
inferior Gods, all helping to make His greatness the greater and
His power the mightier.

We cannot look into this old religion of the Aryans any further,
because our business is to see how their legends are connected
with the myths and stories which are spread by their descendants
over a great part of East and West. Now this came about in the
way we are going to describe.

The mind of the Aryan peoples in their ancient home was full of
imagination. They never ceased to wonder at what they heard and
saw in the sky and upon the earth. Their language was highly
figurative, and so the things which struck them with wonder, and
which they could not explain, were described under forms and
names which were familiar to them. Thus the thunder was to them
the bellowing of a mighty beast or the rolling of a great
chariot. In the lightning they saw a brilliant serpent, or a
spear shot across the sky, or a great fish darting swiftly
through the sea of cloud. The clouds were heavenly cows, who
shed milk upon the earth and refreshed it; or they were webs
woven by heavenly women, who drew water from the fountains on
high and poured it down as rain. The sun was a radiant wheel, or
a golden bird, or an eye, or a shining egg, or a horse of
matchless speed, or a slayer of the cloud-dragons. Sometimes it
was a frog, when it seemed to be sinking into or squatting upon
the water; and out of this fancy, when the meaning of it was