here omitted. Grassman and Ludwig give the epithet
"fearless" to the gods and to Vala, respectively. But
compare I.6.7, where the same word is used of Indra. For the
oft-mentioned act of cleaving the cave, where the dragon Val
or Vritra (the restrainer or envelopper) had coralled the
kine(i.e. without metaphor, for the act of freeing the
clouds and letting loose the rain), compare I.32.2, where of
Indra it is said: "He slew the snake that lay upon the
mountains ... like bellowing kine the waters, swiftly
flowing, descended to the sea"; and verse 11: "Watched by
the snake the waters stood ... the waters' covered cave he
opened wide, what time he Vritra slew."]

[Footnote 28: Aryan, Sanskrit _aryà, árya_, Avestan _airya_,
appears to mean the loyal or the good, and may be the
original national designation, just as the Medes were long
called [Greek: _Arioi_]. In late Sanskrit _[=a]rya_ is
simply 'noble.' The word survives, perhaps, in [Greek:
_aristos_], and is found in proper names, Persian
Ariobarzanes, Teutonic Ariovistus; as well as in the names
of people and countries, Vedic [=A]ryas, [=I]ran, Iranian;
(doubtful) Airem, Erin, Ireland. Compare Zimmer, BB. iii. p.
137; Kaegi, _Der Rig Veda_, p. 144 (Arrowsmith's
translation, p. 109). In the Rig Veda there is a god
Aryaman, 'the true,' who forms with Mitra and Varuna a triad
(see below). Windisch questions the propriety of identifying
[=I]ran with Erin, and Schrader (p. 584^2) doubts whether
the Indo-Europeans as a body ever called themselves Aryans.
We employ the latter name because it is short.]