3. Then knowing well the highest place in heaven, As Vish_n_u, he, when born, protects the third place[48]. And when their milk[49] has in his mouth been offered, They sing to him with one accord their praises. 4. And then the mothers, bringing food, approach him, They bring him viands and they watch his increase; Though they have changed, thou goest again to see them And art a priest[50] among the tribes of mortals. 5. Then hail to Agni, as the guest of mortals[50], The priest of holy rites on glittering chariot, The brilliant signal[50] of all sacrifices, Of any god, by might divine, the equal. 6. Then, dressed in raiment beautiful, and standing In morning light, a priest on earth’s old centre, Thou, born in I_l_â’s place[51], a king and high priest, Shalt hither bring the gods to our oblation. 7. For thou hast ever spread both earth and heaven[52], Again our friend, a true son to thy parents Come hither, youthful god, to us who call thee, And bring the gods, O son of strength[53], to usward! Now, I ask once more, can anything be more simple and natural? And can we not, without any great effort on our part, transport ourselves into the position of the Vedic poet who uttered these words, and follow his thoughts, as he gazed on the rising sun? No one would suppose that this poet was the first on earth who ever addressed the rising sun, and that it was he who coined all the names by which the sun is addressed in these short songs. We can easily see what a long distance lies behind him, behind his words and behind his ideas. He was certainly not the first who invented priests and their sacrificial work. Only let us remember that, if we use such terms as priest or high priest, or king, we must not allow ourselves to assign to these terms, however unconsciously, all the meanings these words have with us. These are very important cautions for people ignorant of Sanskrit, who have been led to imagine that the Vedic Âryas had kings like Solomon or Louis Quatorze, or High Priests like Samuel or Bossuet. The word which I translate by priest, is hot_ri_, which meant originally no more than shouter or invoker, and which in due time became the technical name of one of the sixteen _Ri_tvi_g_as or Season-priests. The other word Purohita means _praepositus_, or provost, and was at first no more than the priest who had to assist or to replace the father of a family, and had to see that all the offerings to the gods were made at the proper times and seasons, which probably was in the beginning no more than a contrivance for marking the essential divisions of the year.