most beloved of Indra. We were so formerly, may we truly be so day by
day, and may the lord of the Maruts be with us. May this praise, O
Maruts, this song of Mândârya, the son of Mâna, the poet, ask you with
food for offspring for ourselves! May we have an invigorating autumn,
with quickening rain!

XIX

Who knows their birth? or who was of yore in the favor of the Maruts,
when they harnessed the spotted deer? Who has heard them when they had
mounted their chariots, how they went forth? For the sake of what
liberal giver did they run, and their comrades followed, as streams of
rain filled with food? They themselves said to me when day by day they
came to the feast with their birds: they are manly youths and blameless;
seeing them, praise them thus; they who shine by themselves in their
ornaments, their daggers, their garlands, their golden chains, their
rings, going on their chariots and on dry land. O Maruts, givers of
quickening rain, I am made to rejoice, following after your chariots, as
after days going with rain. The bucket which the bounteous heroes shook
down from heaven for their worshipper, that cloud they send along heaven
and earth, and showers follow on the dry land. The rivers having pierced
the air with a rush of water, went forth like milk-cows; when your
spotted deer roll about like horses that have hasted to the
resting-place on their road. Come hither, O Maruts, from heaven, from
the sky, even from near; do not go far away! Let not the Rasâ, the
Anitabhâ, the Kubhâ, the Krumu, let not the Sindhu delay you! Let not
the marshy Sarayu prevent you! May your favor be with us alone! The
showers come forth after the host of your chariots, after the terrible
Marut-host of the ever-youthful heroes. Let us then follow with our
praises and our prayers each host of yours, each troop, each company. To