$8 Help every one the other, lend assistance each of you to each,

All of you be accordant, give furtherance to this speech of mine.

89 Let fruitful Plants, and fruitless, those that blossom, and the blossomless,

Urged onward by Bribaspati, release us from our pain and grief;

90 Realese me from the curse's plague and woe that comes from Varuna;

Free me from Yama's fetter, from sin and offence against the Gods.

91 What time, descending from the sky, the Plants flew earthward, thus they spake:

No evil shall befall the man whom while he liveth we pervade.

92 Of all the many Plants whose King is Soma, Plants of hundred forms,

Thou art the Plant most excellent, prompt to the wish, sweet to the heart.

93 O all ye various Herbs whose King is Soma, that o'erspread the earth,

Urged onward by Brihaspati, combine your virtue in this
Plant.

94 All Plants that hear this speech, and those that have departed far away,

Come all assembled and confer your healing power upon this Herb.

95 Unharmed be he who digs you up, unharmed the man for whom I dig:

And let no malady attack biped or quadruped of ours.

96 With Soma as their Sovran Lord the Plauts hold colloquy and say:

O King, we save from death the man whose cure a Brahman undertakes.

97 Most excellent of all art thou, O Plant: thy vassals are the trees.

Let him be subject to our power, the man who seeks to injure us.

98 Banisher of catarrh art thou, of tumours and of hemorr

hoids ;

Thou banishest Pâkâru and Consumption in a hundred forms.

99 Thee did Gandharvas dig from earth, thee Indra and Brihaspati.

King Soma, knowing thee, O Plant, from his Consumption was made free.

100 Conquer mine enemies, the men who challenge me do thou subdue,

Conquer thou all unhappiness: victorious art thou, O Plant. 101 Long-lived be he who digs thee, Plant, and he for whom I dig thee up.

So mayst thou also, grown long-lived, rise upward with a hundred shoots.

102 Most excellent of all art thou, O Plant; thy vassals are the

trees.

Let him be subject to our power, the man who seeks to injure us.

103 May he not harm me who is earth's begetter, nor he whose laws are faithful, sky's pervader;

Nor he who first begot the lucid waters. To Ka the God let us present oblation.

104 Turn thyself hitherward, O Earth, to us with sacrifice and milk.

Thy covering skin Agni, urged forth, hath mounted.

105 All, Agni, that in thee is bright, pure, cleansed, and meet for sacrifice,

That do we bring unto the Gods.

106 I from this place have fed on strength and vigour, the womb of holy Law, stream of the mighty.

In cows let it possess me and in bodies, I quit decline and lack of food, and sickness.

107 Agni, life-power and fame are thine: thy fires blaze mightily, thou rich in wealth of beams!

Sage, passing bright, thou givest to the worshipper, with strength, the food that merits laud.

108 With brilliant, purifying sheen, with perfect sheen thou liftest up thyself in light,

Thou, visiting both thy Mothers, aidest them as Son: thou joinest close the earth and heaven.

103 With the wooden sword he takes from outside the fire altar four bricks, each made of a lump of clay, and lays them on the body of the altar site, reciting a text as he deposits each. The first is from the front. Earth's begetter: Prajapati.

104 He lays down a brick from the south. Covering skin: the surface of the earth.

105 He lays down a clay brick from behind.

106 He lays down a clay brick from the north.

107 He throws sand on the High Altar with six verses from R. V. X. 140.

109 O Jâtavedas, Son of Strength, rejoice thyself, gracious, in our fair hymns and songs.

In thee are treasured various forms of strengthening food, born nobly and of wondrous help.

110 Agni, spread forth, as Ruler, over living things: give wealth to us, Immortal God.

Thou shinest out from beauty fair to look upon: thou leadest us to conquering power.

111 To him, the wise, who orders sacrifice, who hath great riches under his control,

Thou givest blest award of good, and plenteous food, givest him wealth that conquers all.

112 The men have set before them for their welfare Agni, strong, visible to all, the Holy.

Thee, Godlike One, with ears to hear, most famous, men's generations magnify with praise-songs.

113 Soma, wax great. From every side may vigorous powers

unite in thee.

Be in the gathering-place of strength.

114 In thee be juicy nutriments united, and power and mighty foe-subduing vigour.

Waxing to immortality, O Soma, win highest glory for thyself in heaven.

115 Wax, O most gladdening Soma, great through all thy filaments, and be

A friend of most illustrious fame to prosper us.

116 May Vatsa draw thy mind away, even from thy loftiest dwelling-place,

Agni, with song that yearns for thee.

117 Agni, best Angiras, to thee all people who have pleasant

homes

Apart have turned to gain their wish.

118 In dear homes, Agni, the desire of all that is and is to be, Shines forth the One Imperial Lord.

113 He touches the sand that has been spread on the body of the altar, reciting the texts taken from R. V. I. 91. 16, 18, 17.

116 The following verses are addressed to the Fires as they are led forward, preceded by a horse, a white one by preference, representing Agni as the Sun; or, if no horse is available, by a bullock (see Sacred Books of the East, XII. 297). The first verse is taken from R. V. VIII. 11. 7.

117 Taken from R. V. VIII. 43. 18.

I TAKE within me Agui first, for increase of my wealth, good offspring, manly strength:

So may the Deities wait on me.

2 Thou art the waters' back, the womb of Agni, around the ocean as it swells and surges.

Waxing to greatness, resting on the lotus, spread forth in amplitude with heaven's own measure.

3 Eastward at first was Brahma generated. Vena o'erspread the bright Ones from the summit,

Disclosed his deepest nearest revelations, womb of existent and of non-existent.

4 In the beginning rose Hiranyagarbha, born Only Lord of all created being.

He fixed and holdeth up this earth and heaven. Worship we Ka the God with our oblation.

5 The Drop leaped onward through the earth and heaven, along this place and that which was before it.

This Book contains formulas for the laying down of the Lotus-leaf, the solemn setting of various bricks, the burial of the Tortoise, the disposal of the Victims' Heads, and other ceremonies connected with the construction of the Âhavaniya Fire-altar.

1 The Sacrificer standing on the farther side of the High Altar offers an oblation and recites the test. I take Agni: in order that Agni, that is, the Fire-Altar, may be made out of Agni himself.

2 He lays down a lotus-leaf, representing the sky, on a tuft of Kusa grass, with the text which is repeated from XI. 29.

3 Upon the lotus-leaf he lays the piece of gold hung round his neck (see XII. 1), with the text from A. V. IV. 1. 1. Brahma: or the Prayer. Prayer originated in the eastern heaven: when Vena, the Loving One, the early Sun, first rose in his glory he poured forth the type of human prayer, his morning song of joy and praise. See. III. 8, note. According to Mahidhara, Brahma here is the Sun. O'erspread the Bright Ones: or, disclosed bright flashes. According to Mahidhara, the Bright Ones are the worlds. Nonexistent but possessing the potentiality of future existence.

4 Ou the piece of gold he lays a golden figure of a man, on his back, with his face eastward, a symbol of Prajapati, Agni, and the Sacrificer, and recites the two texts taken respectively from R. V. X. 121. 1, and, with variations, from R. V. X. 17. 11. Hiranyagarbha: 'the Gold Germ,' 'Source of Golden Light,' the Sun-God identified with Prajapati. Ka: Prajapati. Or, What God (other than Prajapati) shall we adore with our oblation? See I. 6, note.

5, 6, 7 The Drop: meaning, say the Commentators, Aditya, the Sun. Oblutions: hotras, meaning, it is said, the regions of the sky. The Sacrificer thus establishes the Sun in heaven. See Sacred Books of the East, XLI. p. 368. The Sacrificer stands by the golden figure worshipping with the three following formulas. Serpents: see two hymns addressed to Serpents as powerful superhuman beings, A. V. III. 26. 27. Demons' darts: sent by Rakshasas and other evil beings to bite and kill men.

I offer up, throughout the seven oblations, the Drop still moving to the common dwelling.

6 Homage be paid to Serpents unto all of them that are on earth,

To those that dwell in air, to those that dwell in sky be homage paid.

7 To those that are the demons' darts, to those that live upon the trees,

To all the Serpents that lie low in holes be adoration paid. 8 Or those that are in heaven's bright sphere, or those that dwell in the Sun's beams:

Serpents, whose home has been prepared in waters, homage unto them!

9 Put forth like a wide spreading net thy vigour go like a mighty King with his attendants.

Thou, following thy swift net, shootest arrows: transfix the fiends with darts that burn most fiercely.

10 Forth go in rapid flight thy whirling weapons: follow them closely glowing in thy fury.

Spread with thy tongue the winged flames, O Agni: unfet. tered cast thy firebrands all around thee.

11 Send thy spies forward, fleetest in thy motion: be, ne'er deceived, the guardian of this people

From him who, near or far, is bent on evil, and let no trouble sent from thee o'ercome us.

12 Rise up, O Agni, spread thee out before us, burn down our foes, thou who hast sharpened arrows.

Him, blazing Agni! who hath worked us mischief, consume thou utterly like dried-up stubble.

13 Rise, Agni, drive off those who fight against us: make manifest thine own celestial vigour.

Slacken the strong bows of the demou-driven: destroy our foemen whether kin or stranger.

I settle thee with Agni's fiery ardour,

9 He sits down and offers an oblation on the gold figure with butter taken in five ladlefuls, reciting five texts, demon-slaying charms, taken from R. V. IV. 4. 1-5.

11 Spies: the first flames, sent forward as if to reconnoitre.

13 Demon-driven: those whom evil spirits incite to attack us. I settle thee with this formula he lays down on the south side a ladle made of the wood of the Karshmarya tree (Gmelina Arborea filled with clarified butter.