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). As in Teutonic mythology, the Hindu giants desired greatly to possess the “mead” to which the gods owed their power and supremacy. The association of Soma with the moon recalls the Germanic belief that the magic mead was kept for Odin, “the champion drinker”, by Mani, the moon god, who snatched it from the mythical children who are the prototypes of “Jack and Jill” of the nursery rhyme.[92] Indra was the discoverer of the Soma plant and brought it from the mountains. The Persian mead (mada) was called Haoma. [92] See _Teutonic Myth and Legend_. The priests drank Soma when they made offerings and lauded the gods. A semi-humorous Rigvedic hymn compares them to the frogs which croak together when the rain comes after long drought. Each (frog) with merry croak and loudly calling Salutes the other, as a son his father; What one calls out, another quickly answers, Like boys at school their teacher's words repeating.... They shout aloud like Brahmans drunk with Soma, When they perform their annual devotions. _Rigveda_, vii, 103.[93] [93] Kaegi's _Rigveda_, Arrowsmith's translation. This was apparently a rain charm; its humour was of the unconscious order, of course. There are references in the _Rigveda_ to the marriage of Soma, the moon, and Suryá, the maiden of the sun.