[546] Striyo hi dâsa âyudhâni ćakre; Ṛigv. v. 30, 9.
[547] Sa vṛitrahendraḥ kṛishṇayonîḥ puraṃdaro dâsîr âirayad vi; ii. 20, 7.—Vṛitras the killer of Piprus, Indras puraṁ-daras, properly, who wounds the full one, who cleaves the full or the swollen one, and hence who wounds, the city, and Indras the lacerator of the witches with the black wombs are equivalent; cfr. what was said concerning the thunderbolt as a phallos, in the first chapter of the first book, where the cuckoo is spoken of, and in the chapter on the Cuckoo in the second book.—In the hymn, i. 32, 9, Indras also wounds underneath the mother of the monster: Indro asyâ ava vadhar ǵabhâra.
[548] Uto nu ćid ya oǵasâ çushṇasyâṇḍâni bhedati ǵeshat svarvatîr apaḥ; Ṛigv. viii. 40, 10.—In the hymn i. 54, 10, it is said that the cloud-mountain is found amongst the intestines of the coverer; one might say that the serpent binds the cloud in the form of bowels. The reader will recollect what we observed concerning the intestines, the heart, and the liver, of the sacrificed victim in the first chapter of the first book.
[549] In the twentieth story of the fifth book of Afanassieff we find a singular variety, which is of some importance in the history of mythology and language. A princess asks the serpent, her husband, by what his death can be caused. The serpent answers that his death can be brought about by the hero Nikita Kaszemiaka, who, in fact, comes up and kills the serpent by submerging him in the sea. Nikita is called, it is said, Kaszemiaka, because his occupation was that of tearing skins. The torn skins (cfr. here also the Jupiter Aegiocus) take here the place of the duck's egg broken upon the serpent, and of the eggs of the monster broken by Indras. In Italian, coccio, means a piece of a broken vase, and also, in botany, the skin of a seed; incocciarsi signifies to be angry. In Piedmont, it is said of one who annoys people, that he breaks the boxes, and, more vulgarly, that he breaks the testicles.
[550] Hiraṇyakeço 'hiḥ; Ṛigv. i. 79, 1.
[551] Vi çṛiñgiṇam abhinać ćhushṇam indraḥ; i. 33, 12.
[552] Ahiçushmasattvâ; v. 33, 5.
[553] Ahimanyavaḥ; i. 64, 9.
[554] Ćakrâṇâsaḥ parîṇaham pṛithivyâ hiraṇyena maṇinâ çumbhamânâḥ; i. 33, 8.
[555] vi. 1, 1.