Of the divine legends some are old, some new. One speaks of the sacrifice as having been at first human, subsequently changing to beast sacrifice, eventually to a rice offering, which last now represents the original sacrificial animal, man.[34] Famous, too, is the legend of the flood and Father Manu's escape from it (_Çat. Br_. i. 8. 1. 1 ff.). Again, the Vedic myth is retold, recounting the rape of _soma_ by the metrical equivalent of fire (_T[=a]itt. Br_. i. 1. 3. 10; _Çat. Br_. i. 8. 2. 10). Another tale takes up anew the old story of Cupid and Psyche (Pur[=u]ravas and Urvaç[=i]); and another that of the Hindu Prometheus story, wherein M[=a]tariçvan fetches fire from heaven, and gives it to mortals (_T[=a]itt. Br_. iii. 2. 3. 2; _Çat. Br_. xi. 5. 1. 1; i. 7. 1. 11).[35] Interesting, also, is the tale of Vishnu having been a dwarf, and the tortoise _avatar_, not of Vishnu, but of Praj[=a]pati; also the attempt of the evil spirits to climb to heaven, and the trick with which Indra outwitted them.[36] For it is noticeable that the evil spirits are as strong by nature as are the gods, and it is only by craft that the latter prevail.[37] Seldom are the tales of the gods indecent. The story of Praj[=a]pati's incest with his daughter is a remnant of nature worship which survives, in more or less anthropomorphic form, from the time of the Rig Veda (x. 61.) to that of mediaeval literature,[38] and is found in full in the epic, as in the Brahmanic period; but the story always ends with the horror of the gods at the act.[39] Old legends are varied. The victory over Vritra is now expounded thus: Indra, who slays Vritra, is the sun. Vritra is the moon, who swims into the sun's mouth on the night of the new moon. The sun rises after swallowing him, and the moon is invisible because he is swallowed ("he who knows this swallows his foes"). The sun vomits out the moon, and the latter is then seen in the west, and increases again, to serve the sun as food. In another passage it is said that when the moon is invisible he is hiding in plants and waters (_Çat. Br._ i. 6. 3. 17; 4. 18-20). BRAHMANIC RELIGION.