Without this it would have been impossible to trace the gradual growth in the higher metaphysical interpretation of nature which goes hand in hand with the deeper religious sense.

With this object we have proceeded from the simpler to the more complex divinities.

We have now to take up a side of religion which lies more apart from speculation, but it is concerned very closely with man's religious instincts--the worship of Bacchic character, the reverence for and fear of the death-god, and the eschatological fancies of the poets, together with those first attempts at creating a new theosophy which close the period of the Rig Veda.
SOMA.
Inseparably connected with the worship of Indra and Agni is that of the 'moon-plant,' _soma_, the intoxicating personified drink to whose deification must be assigned a date earlier than that of the Vedas themselves.

For the _soma_ of the Hindus is etymologically identified with the _haoma_ of the Persians (the [Greek: omomi] of Plutarch[12]), and the cultus at least was begun before the separation of the two nations, since in each the plant is regarded as a god.

The inspiring effect of intoxication seemed to be due to the inherent divinity of the plant that produced it; the plant was, therefore, regarded as divine, and the preparation of the draught was looked upon as a sacred ceremony[13].
This offering of the juice of the _soma_-plant in India was performed thrice daily.