is kind and considerate, but authoritative rather than supplicatory, and unlike the formula which the same Indians are reported to use when praying to their ancestors for good weather or good hunting, “Spirits of the dead, have mercy on us.”[178.3] Certain prayers used habitually by the Todas of the Nalgiri hills for the thriving of the dairy and the buffalo herd have recently been published,[178.4] and as the formulæ are all {179} in the optative mood--“May it be well for the buffaloes, may there be no destroyer, etc.,” and there is an appeal to divine personages or powers--“for the sake of such or such a god may this happen”--we may class them as prayers; but the appeal is very faint and the formulæ seem to be used as if they possessed a self-dependent efficacy. More interesting and fervent is the address to the sun, proffered by a solitary hunter of the half-christianised Kekchi tribe of Indians:[179.1] his object is to secure game and food in the wilderness both for himself and as an oblation to the god; but in the very long and impassioned utterance, with its many repetitions, there is very little direct entreaty: the Indian contents himself with definite and reassuring statements concerning the omnipresence of the deity and the ease with which the latter can execute his will: “It will give you no trouble to give me all kind of game”; and a moving {180} appeal is made on the ground of kinship: “Thou art my father: who is my mother, who is my father? Only thou, O God.” We may regard these utterances of the hunter not indeed as spells, for his attitude is most reverent and loving, but as potent statement effecting the purpose of prayer. Nor need we see Christian influence in the striking phrase last quoted, though of course this is possible; such endearing address is common both in the lower and higher liturgies: the Egyptian appealed to Isis in similar terms[180.1]--“Oh my father, my brother, my mother Isis,” the Babylonian addressed Bel as father and mother,[180.2] and a Vedic hymn contains the phrase, “Thou, oh Agni, art our father, we are thy kinsmen.”[180.3] Such appeals, suggested by the affection between kinsmen {181} and the idea of the kinship of man with God, belong to the alphabet of pure prayer.