The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c32.s6.3

v2.c32.s6.3

The use of means is very varied: the fire of the sacrifice and the victim at the sacrifice are specially suited to give knowledge by their magic connexion with the gods as well as religious conceptions: more clearly connected with the activity of divine powers in Vedic belief is the drawing of omens from the flight and the movements of animals, which are specially clearly connected with birds or beasts, with gods or spirits of the dead or demons. When a ceremony is performed to win for a maiden a husband, the side from which crows first appear is that from which her wooer will come.¹ The movement of the cow at a particular moment in the Soma sacrifice shows the fortune of the sacrificer.² The clear flaming of the fire at a sacrifice brings with it the prospect of twelve villages for the sacrificer; if it smokes, of at least three.³ More interesting is the rule that, when the body of the dead is being burned, the soul will go to the heaven, atmosphere, or the earth according as the eastern, western, or southern fire first reaches it.⁴ The owl is invoked to fly round the village and give signs for the future: it is a bird which flies to the dwellings of the gods, and the Rigveda already knows birds of omen.⁵ The hyena's howl is uttered either of its own will, or on the prompting of other powers.⁶ The battle's result can be judged by the lighting of a special fire on a suitable place and observing the movements of the fire, or it can be forecasted by taking three bowstrings, and placing them on a fire: the movements of the three, of which the middle one is treated as death, will show the event: that which keeps clear from it will represent the victorious army, that which comes into contact with it the army which is to be ruined.⁷ The character of the bride can be judged by the choice by her of balls of earth chosen from very various places:⁸ the sex of the future child by the fact whether the member of the body of the prospective mother which a Brahman boy touches has a masculine or feminine name.⁹