Night coming on, the goddess shines In many places with her eyes: All-glorious she has decked herself. Immortal goddess, far and wide She fills the valleys and the heights: Darkness with light she overcomes. And now the goddess coming on Has driven away her sister Dawn: Far off the darkness hastes away. Thus, goddess, come to us to-day, At whose approach we seek our homes, As birds upon the tree their nest. The villagers have gone to rest, Beasts, too, with feet and birds with wings: The hungry hawk himself is still. Ward off the she-wolf and the wolf, Ward off the robber, goddess Night: And take us safe across the gloom. Goddesses, as wives of the great gods, play a still more insignificant part, being entirely devoid of independent character. Indeed, hardly anything about them is mentioned but their names, which are simply formed from those of their male consorts by means of feminine suffixes. A peculiar feature of Vedic mythology is the invocation in couples of a number of deities whose names are combined in the form of dual compounds. About a dozen such pairs are celebrated in entire hymns, and some half-dozen others in detached stanzas. By far the greatest number of such hymns is addressed to Mitra-Varuna, but the names most often found combined in this way are those of Heaven and Earth (Dyavaprithivi). There can be little doubt that the latter couple furnished the analogy for this favourite formation. For the association of this pair, traceable as far back as the Indo-European period, appeared to early thought so intimate in nature, that the myth of their conjugal union is found widely diffused among primitive peoples. Besides these pairs of deities there is a certain number of more or less definite groups of divine beings generally associated with some particular god. The largest and most important of these are the Maruts or Storm-gods, who, as we have seen, constantly attend Indra on his warlike exploits. The same group, under the name of Rudras, is occasionally associated with their father Rudra. The smaller group of the Adityas is constantly mentioned in company with their mother Aditi, or their chief Varuna. Their number in two passages of the Rigveda is stated as seven or eight, while in the Brahmanas and later it is regularly twelve. Some eight or ten hymns of the Rigveda are addressed to them collectively. The following lines are taken from one (viii. 47) in which their aid and protection is specially invoked:-- As birds extend their sheltering wings, Spread your protection over us. As charioteers avoid ill roads, May dangers always pass us by. Resting in you, O gods, we are Like men that fight in coats of mail. Look down on us, O Adityas, Like spies observing from the bank: Lead us to paths of pleasantness, Like horses to an easy ford.