IX

Endowed with exceeding vigor and power, the singers, the never flinching, the immovable, the impetuous, the most beloved and most manly, have decked themselves with their glittering ornaments, a few only, like the heavens with the stars.  When you have seen your way through the clefts, like birds, O Maruts, on whatever road it be, then the clouds on your chariots trickle everywhere, and you pour out the honey-like fatness for him who praises you.  At their racings the earth shakes, as if broken, when on the heavenly paths they harness their deer for victory.  They the sportive, the roaring, with bright spears, the shakers of the clouds have themselves glorified their greatness.  That youthful company, with their spotted horses, moves by itself; hence it exercises lordship, invested with powers.  Thou indeed art true, thou searchest out sin, thou art without blemish.  Therefore the manly host will help this prayer.  We speak after the kind of our old father, our tongue goes forth at the sight of the Soma:  when the singers had joined Indra in deed, then only they took their holy names;—­these Maruts, armed with beautiful rings, obtained splendors for their glory, they obtained rays, and men to celebrate them; nay, armed with daggers, speeding along, and fearless, they found the beloved domain of the Maruts.

X

What then now?  When will you take us as a dear father takes his son by both hands, O ye gods, for whom the sacred grass has been trimmed?  Where now?  On what errand of yours are you going, in heaven, not on earth?  Where are your cows sporting?  Where are your newest favors, O Maruts?  Where the blessings?  Where all delights?  If you, sons of Prisni, were mortals, and your praiser an immortal, then never should your praiser be unwelcome, like a deer in pasture grass, nor should he go on the path of Yama.  Let not one sin after another, difficult to be conquered, overcome us; may it depart together with greed.  Truly they are terrible and powerful; even to the desert the Rudriyas bring rain that is never dried up.  The lightning lows like a cow, it follows as a mother follows after her young, when the shower of the Maruts has been let loose.  Even by day the Maruts create darkness with the water-bearing cloud, when they drench the earth.  Then from the shouting of the Maruts over the whole space of the earth, men reeled forward.  Maruts on your strong-hoofed, never-wearying steeds go after those bright ones, which are still locked up.  May your fellies be strong, the chariots, and their horses, may your reins be well-fashioned.  Speak forth forever with thy voice to praise the Lord of prayer, Agni, who is like a friend, the bright one.  Fashion a hymn in thy mouth!  Expand like the cloud!  Sing a song of praise.  Worship the host of the Maruts, the terrible, the glorious, the musical.  May they be magnified here among us.