The rain, to the poet, descends from the sky, and is liable to be caught by the demon, Vritra, whose rain-swollen belly Indra opens with a stroke, and lets fall the rain; or, in the older view just presented, Parjanya makes the cloud that gives the rain--a view united with the descent of rain from the sky (Dyaus). With Parjanya as an Aryan rain-god may be mentioned Trita, who, apparently, was a water-god, [=A]ptya, in general; and some of whose functions Indra has taken. He appears to be the same with the Persian Thraetaona [=A]thwya; but in the Rig Veda he is interesting mainly as a dim survival of the past.[32] The washing out of sins, which appears to be the original conception of Varuna's sin-forgiving,[33] finds an analogue in the fact that sins are cast off upon the innocent waters and upon Trita--also a water-god, and once identified with Varuna (viii. 41. 6). But this notion is so unique and late (only in viii. 47) that Bloomfield is perhaps right in imputing it to the [later] moralizing age of the Br[=a]hmanas, with which the third period of the Rig Veda is quite in touch. * * * * * FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: Compare I. 134. 3.] [Footnote 2: For the different views, see Perry, JAOS. xi. p. 119; Muir, OST. v. p. 77.] [Footnote 3: _La Religion Védique_, ii. pp. 159, 161, 166, 187.] [Footnote 4: The chief texts are ii. 30. 1; iv. 26. 1; vii. 98. 6; viii. 93. 1, 4; x. 89. 2; x. 112. 3.] [Footnote 5: Other citations given by Bergaigne in connection with this point are all of the simile class. Only as All-god is Indra the sun.] [Footnote 6: i. 51. 4: "After slaying Vritra, thou did'st make the sun climb in the sky."] [Footnote 7: [=A]dityá, only vii. 85. 4; V[=a]l. 4. 7. For other references, see Perry (loc. cit.).] [Footnote 8: Bergaigne, ii. 160. 187.] [Footnote 9: Indra finds and begets Agni, iii. 31. 25.] [Footnote 10: Unless the Python be, rather, the Demon of Putrefaction, as in Iranian belief.] [Footnote 11: Demons of every sort oppose Indra; Vala, Vritra, the 'holding' snake (_áhi_=[Greek: echis]), Çushna ('drought'), etc.] [Footnote 12: So he finds and directs the sun and causes it to shine, as explained above (viii. 3. 6; iii. 44. 4; i. 56. 4; iii. 30. 12). He is praised with Vishnu (vi.69) in one hymn, as distinct from him.] [Footnote 13: Bollensen would see an allusion to idols in i. 145. 4-5 (to Agni), but this is very doubtful (ZDMG. xlvii. p. 586). Agni, however, is on a par with Indra, so that the exception would have no significance. See Kaegi, Rig Veda, note 79a.] [Footnote 14: Or 'pluck with beaks,' as Müller translates, SBE. xxxii. p. 373.]