The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c10.23

c10.23

Here is an equally striking coincidence between the German and the Vedic traditions. The mummeries were performed "at the close of the old year and at the beginning of the new one," and the stag and the hunter had therefore something to do with it. Prof. Kuhn's explanation does not clear up this point satisfactorily, nor does it give any reason why the festivals were celebrated only during the *twelve days* preceding the new year. As regards the decay of the sun's power it must have been observable during the whole season and does not therefore in any way account for the selection of 12 particular days. As for the *dvādaśāha* of the Indians, it is the period during which a person consecrates himself for a yearly sacrifice and so must naturally precede the commencement of the new year when the annual sacrifice commences, and I have previously shewn that it represents the difference between the lunar and the solar years; in other words, they were what we may now call the intercalary days added at the end of each year to keep the concurrence of the lunar and the solar measures of time. The German traditions therefore can be better accounted for, if we suppose that they are the reminiscences of a time when the stag and the hunter actually commenced the year. This also explains why the dog-days were considered so important. When Sirius or the dog-star rose with the sun at the beginning of the year, the dog-days, or rather the days when the dog was not visible, were the new-year's days, and as such they were naturally invested with an importance which they never lost. I have already alluded to the passage in the Rigveda which states that the dog awakened the Ribhus, or the gods of the seasons, at the end of the year, and this appears to me to be the origin of what are still known as dog-days in the western countries. Owing to the precession of the equinoxes and by neglecting to maintain the correspondence of the seasons the days now fall during a period different from the one they did of old, but such differences we find in all cases where ancient rites or festivals are preserved. The feast of the manes, which the Parsis and the Hindus seem to have commenced together when the summer solstice occurred in the month of Bhadrapada, now no longer coincides with the summer solstice; but for that reason we cannot say that it might not have occured originally at the summer solstice, especially when the later supposition is supported by other reliable evidence, and gives a better origin of the festival. I am not therefore disposed to accept Prof. Kuhn's explanation as satisfactory, and am of opinion that the German traditions are the reminiscences of a time when the vernal equinox was in Orion, the hunter. We cannot otherwise account why the mummeries and festivals should have been celebrated during the twelve days at the end of the old and the beginning of the new year.