And these events, as I have shown, are perpetuated in the sun-worship which still exists in the world in many {p. 237} forms. Even the Christian peasant of Europe still lifts his hat to the rising sun. The religion of the Hindoos was also based on the same great cosmical event. Indra was the great god, the sun. He has a long and dreadful contest with Vritra, "the throttling snake." Indra is "the cloud-compeller"; he "shatters the cloud with his bolt and releases the imprisoned waters";[1] that is to say, he slays the snake Vritra, the comet, and thereafter the rain pours down and extinguishes the flames which consume the world. "He goes in search of the cattle, the clouds, which the evil powers have driven away."[2] That is to say, as the great heat disappears, the moisture condenses and the clouds form. Doubtless mankind remembered vividly that awful period when no cloud appeared in the blazing heavens to intercept the terrible heat. "He who fixed firm the _moving earth_; who tranquillized _the incensed mountains_; who spread the spacious firmament; who consolidated the heavens--he, men, is Indra. "He who having destroyed Ahi (Vritra, Typhon,) set free the seven rivers, who, _recovered the cows_, (the clouds,) _detained by Bal_; who generated fire in the clouds; who is invincible in battle--he, men, is Indra." In the first part of the "Vendidad," first chapter, the author gives an account of the beautiful land, the Aryana Vaejo, which was a land of delights, created by Ahura Mazda (Ormaz). Then "an evil being, Angra-Manyus, (Ahriman,) pill of death, created _a mighty serpent_, and _winter_, the work of the Devas." "_Ten months of winter are there_, and two months of summer." [1. Murray's "Mythology," p. 330. 2. Ibid.] {p. 238} Then follows this statement: "Seven months of summer are there; five months of winter were there. The latter are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold as to trees. There is the heart of winter; then all around _falls deep snow_. There is the worst of evils." This signifies that once the people dwelled in a fair and pleasant land. The evil-one sent a mighty serpent; the serpent brought a great winter; there were but two months of summer; gradually this ameliorated, until the winter was five months long and the summer seven months long. The climate is still severe, cold and wet; deep snows fell everywhere. It is an evil time. The demonology of the Hindoos turns on the battles between the Asuras, the irrational demons of the air, the comets, and the gods: "They dwell beneath the three-pronged root of the world-mountain, occupying the nadir, while their great enemy Indra," (the sun;) "the highest Buddhist god, sits upon the pinnacle of the mountain, in the zenith. The Meru, which stands between the earth and the heavens, around which the heavenly bodies revolve, is the battlefield of the Asuras and the Devas."[1]