Not only is nature--mountains, rivers, trees, etc.--personified in the Vedas: the animals--as the cow, the horse, the dog, even the apparatus of worship, the war-chariot, the plow, and the furrow--are addressed in prayer. The sacrificial fire is deified in _Agni_, the sacrificial drink in _Soma_. Indra has for his body-guards the _Maruts_, gods of the storm and lightning. He is a warlike god, standing in his chariot, but also a beneficent giver of all good gifts. _Varuna_ is the god of the vast luminous heavens, in their serene majesty. _Indra_, on the other hand, represents the atmosphere in its active and militant energy. The number of the gods is variously given. In passages, they are said to be many thousands. RITES.--There is no hierarchy among the gods. But there is a tendency to confuse the attributes of the different divinities. Occasionally, for the time being, one eclipses all the rest, and is addressed as if all others were forgotten. There is sometimes a tendency to regard them as all one, under different names. But this tendency develops itself later. Offerings consisted of rice, cakes, soma, etc. Victims also were sacrificed, the horse especially; also the goat, the buffalo, and other animals. Sacrifice purchases the gifts and favor of the gods. It is an expression of gratitude and dependence. It has, moreover, a deep, mysterious energy of an almost magical character. THE ARYANS ON THE GANGES.--Later, but earlier than 1000 B.C., we find that the Aryan invaders have moved onward in their career of conquest, and have planted themselves on the plains of the Ganges. A marvelous transformation has taken place in their social constitution, their religion, and in their general spirit. The caste system has sprung up, of which there are few traces in the Rig-Veda. In the first or lowest of these distinct classes are the _Sudras_, or despised serfs, who are the subjugated aborigines; the second, or next higher, class is composed of the tillers of the soil, who are of a lower rank than the third, the warrior caste. These, in turn, fall below the _Brahmans_, or priests, who, as rites of worship grew more complicated, and superstition increased, gained, though not without a struggle, a complete ascendency. This marks the beginning of the sacerdotal era. The tendency of the farmer caste was to decrease, until, in modern times, in various provinces they are hardly found. The supremacy of the Brahmans was largely owing to their eminence as the great literary caste. They arose out of the families by whom the hymns had been composed, and who managed the tribal sacrifices. They alone understood the language of the hymns and the ritual. _Brahman_, in the earliest Veda, signifies a worshiper.