They are the destructive tempests which, on a fine day, sudden darkness cause;
With storms and meteors they rush,
Their rage ignites the thunderbolts of Im,
From the right hand of the thunder they dart forth.
They are seven, these evil spirits, and death they fear not;
They are seven, these evil spirits, who rush like a hurricane,
And fall like fire-brands on the earth.”[[71]]
Here we have more than a suggestion of the origin of some of the early songs of the Vedas, for these seven storm-spirits are represented by the Marūts of the Hindūs—“the shakers of the earth”—who dash through the heavens in chariots drawn by dappled deer. In this primitive mythology we find also
ASSUR.
The “god of judges” was the especial patron of Assyria, and afterward made to express the power of the later Assyrian empire by becoming “father of the gods” and the head of the pantheon.