The cloud-sea represents the “dewy treasures” of the Hindūs—the rains which are held in the reluctant cloud, and only drawn therefrom by the lightning bolts of Indra, who is assisted in the battle by the Maruts when they “harness their deer for victory.”[126] The Persian Vendīdad represents a continual interchange between the waters of the earth and sky. “As the Vourū-Kasha is the gathering place of the waters Rise up, go up the ærial way and go down upon the earth.... The large river that is known afar That is as large as all the waters of earth Runs from the height down to the sea, Vourū-Kasha.”[127] MYTHICAL BIRDS. Birds have always held a prominent place in the various mythologies. Among the Assyrians, the _zu_ or vulture was the symbol of the “god of the storm-cloud,” who was believed to have stolen the laws and attributes of Bel for the benefit of mankind, and to have been punished for the theft by transformation into a vulture.[128] In Egyptian mythology, the tablets represent Isis as a bird. “For she is Isis, the charmer, the avenger of her brother, who seeks him without failing, who traverses the earth with lamentations, without resting before she has found him—creating the light with her feathers, producing the wind with her wings, celebrating the sacred dances, and depositing her brother in the tomb ... raising the remains of the god, with immovable heart ... she makes him grow, his arm becomes strong in the great dwelling.”[129] In the Hindū poem of the Rāmāyaṇa, during the banishment of the innocent and beautiful Sīta, the pitying birds dipped their pinions in the sacred waters of the Ganges, and fanned her feverish face, that she might not faint with the heat.[130] In the same poem we have also descriptions of Garuḍa, the eagle-steed of Vishṇu, and Sampati, the sacred vulture, who gave information concerning the demon king that carried away the beautiful princess. Hindū mythology also contains “the celestial birds,” who were acquainted with right and wrong, and who, in one of the Purāṇas answered the questions of the sages, and also gave an account of the creation. In northern Europe we find a wondrous eagle, who sits amongst the branches of the Ygdrasil—that beautiful tree of Norse mythology, whose three great roots strike downward among the Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, and Germans. This great ash tree spreads its life-giving arms through the heavens, and on the topmost bough is the eagle “who knows many things,” and between his eyes sits the keen-eyed hawk, Vedfolner.[131]