“You filled from the hoof of your vigorous steed, as if from a cask, a hundred jars of wine.” And again in the next hymn, cxvii. verse 6-- “You filled for the (expectant) man a hundred vases of sweet (liquors) from the hoof of your fleet horse.” [125] Wilson’s translation of the Rig Veda. As Pegasus is now represented his hoofs touch no well or fountain, cask or vase. But if we depict him as suggested above (see Plate XXIV.), his hoof would indeed appear as almost in the act of striking the vase in the constellation Aquarius, from which the abundant waters gush forth. I have already alluded to the Aswamedha hymns in the Rig Veda as probably referring not merely to the sacrifice of an actual horse, but rather to a symbolic sacrifice of the winged horse of the constellation Pegasus. In support of this opinion I will quote from the hymns in question:-- MAṆḌALA I.--Súkta clxii. “1. Let neither MITRA nor VARUN̂A, ARYAMAN, ÁYU, INDRA, RIBHUKSHIN, nor the _Maruts_ censure us: when we proclaim in the sacrifice the virtues of the swift horse sprung from the gods. “2. When they, (the priests), bring the prepared offering to the presence (of the horse), who has been bathed and decorated with rich (trappings), the various-coloured goat going before him, bleating, becomes an acceptable offering to INDRA and PÚSHAN. “3. This goat, the portion of PÚSHAN, fit for all the gods, is brought first with the fleet courser, so that TWASHT́ṚI may prepare him along with the horse, as an acceptable preliminary offering for the (sacrificial) food.” Looking at Plate XXIV., Figs. 1, 2, we may observe how the constellation Capricornus “goes before” that of Pegasus, and we may understand the aspiration that Twasht́ṛi may prepare him along with the horse as an acceptable preliminary offering. After many verses entering into minute and rather horrible details of the “immolation” and even of the cooking of the sacrificial horse the 19th verse adds-- “There is one immolator of the radiant horse, which is Time”; and these words seem to carry us back from thoughts of an actual to a, in some way, symbolical sacrifice, especially when at verse 21 we read: “Verily at this moment thou dost not die; nor art thou harmed; for thou goest by auspicious paths to the gods. The horses of INDRA, the steeds of the _Maruts_ shall be yoked (to their cars), and a courser shall be placed in the shaft of the ass of the AŚWINS (to bear thee to heaven).” The following hymn (lxiii.) I give _in extenso_:-- MAṆḌALA I.--Súkta clxiii. 1. Thy great birth, O Horse, is to be glorified; whether first springing from the firmament or from the water, inasmuch as thou hast neighed (auspiciously), for thou hast the wings of the falcon and the limbs of the deer. 2. TRITA harnessed the horse which was given by YAMA: INDRA first mounted him, and GANDHARBA seized his reins. _Vasus_, you fabricated the horse from the sun.