Night, Ratri, is the sister of Dawn. The one robes herself in crimson and gold; the other adorns her dark raiment with gleaming stars. When benevolent Ratri draws nigh, men turn towards their homes to rest, birds seek their nests, cattle lie down; even the hawk reposes. The people pray to the goddess to be protected against robbers and fierce wolves, and to be taken safely across her shadow:
She, the immortal goddess, throws her veil Over low valley, rising ground, and hill. But soon with bright effulgence dissipates The darkness she produces; soon advancing She calls her sister Morning to return, And then each darksome shadow melts away.
[90] _Indian Wisdom_, Sir Monier Williams.
The moon is the god Chandra, who became identified with Soma. Among ancient peoples the moon was regarded as the source of fertility and growth; it brought dew to nourish crops which ripened under the “harvest moon”; it filled all vegetation with sap; it swayed human life from birth till death; it influenced animate and inanimate Nature in its periods of increase and decline; ceremonies to secure offspring were performed during certain phases of the moon.
Soma was the intoxicating juice of the now unknown Soma plant, which inspired mortals and was the nectar of the gods. The whole ninth book of the _Rigveda_ is devoted to the praises of Soma, who is exalted even as the chief god, the Father of all.
This Soma is a god; he cures The sharpest ills that man endures. He heals the sick, the sad he cheers, He nerves the weak, dispels their fears; The faint with martial ardour fires, With lofty thought the bard inspires, The soul from earth to heaven he lifts, So great and wondrous are his gifts; Men feel the god within their veins, And cry in loud exulting strains: We've quaffed the Soma bright And are immortal grown: We've entered into light And all the gods have known. What mortal now can harm, Or foeman vex us more? Through thee beyond alarm, Immortal god, we soar.[91]
[91] Muir's _Original Sanskrit Texts_, v, 130.
“The sun”, declared one of the poets, “has the nature of Agni, the moon of Soma.” At the same time Agni was a great consumer of Soma; when it was poured on the altar, the fire god leapt up joyfully. The beverage was the “water of life” which was believed to sustain the Adityas and the earth, and to give immortality to all the gods; it was therefore called Amrita (ambrosia).