Page:A history of Sanskrit literature (1900), Macdonell, Arthur Anthony.djvu/210

 various potent herbs. Some of them are of a hostile character, being meant to injure rivals. The following two stanzas belong to the former class:—


 * As round this heaven and earth the sun
 * Goes day by day, encircling them,
 * So do I go around thy mind,
 * That, woman, thou shalt love me well,
 * And shalt not turn away from me (vi. 8, 3).


 * 'Tis winged with longing, barbed with love,
 * Its shaft is formed of fixed desire:
 * With this his arrow levelled well
 * Shall Kāma pierce thee to the heart (iii. 25, 2).

Among the auspicious charms of the Atharva there are many prayers for long life and health, for exemption from disease and death:—


 * If life in him declines or has departed,
 * If on the very brink of death he totters,
 * I snatch him from the lap of Dissolution,
 * I free him now to live a hundred autumns (iii. 11, 2).


 * Rise upfront hence, O man, and straightway casting
 * Death's fetters from thy feet, depart not downward;
 * From life upon this earth be not yet sundered,
 * Nor from the sight of Agni and the sunlight (viii. 1, 4).

Another class of hymns includes prayers for protection from dangers and calamities, or for prosperity in the house or field, in cattle, trade, and even gambling. Here are two spells meant to secure luck at play:—


 * As at all times the lightning stroke
 * Smites irresistibly the tree:
 * So gamesters with the dice would I
 * Beat irresistibly to-day (vii. 5, 1).