To a
chicken a solar eclipse is the same thing as nightfall, and he
goes to roost accordingly. Why, then, should the primitive
thinker have made a distinction between the darkening of the
sky caused by black clouds and that caused by the rotation of
the earth? He had no more conception of the scientific
explanation of these phenomena than the chicken has of the
scientific explanation of an eclipse. For him it was enough to
know that the solar radiance was stolen, in the one case as in
the other, and to suspect that the same demon was to blame for
both robberies.
The Veda itself sustains this view. It is certain that the
victory of Indra over Vritra is essentially the same as his
victory over the Panis. Vritra, the storm-fiend, is himself
called one of the Panis; yet the latter are uniformly
represented as night-demons. They steal Indra's golden cattle
and drive them by circuitous paths to a dark hiding-place near
the eastern horizon. Indra sends the dawn-nymph, Sarama, to
search for them, but as she comes within sight of the dark
stable, the Panis try to coax her to stay with them: "Let us
make thee our sister, do not go away again; we will give thee
part of the cows, O darling."[113] According to the text of
this hymn, she scorns their solicitations, but elsewhere the
fickle dawn-nymph is said to coquet with the powers of
darkness.
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