Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/330

iv. 9- man," like madhyameṣṭhā́ or chief (see under iii. 8. 2), and madhyamaçī used especially of the leader about whom his men encamp, for his greater safety, in the night. JB. has madhyamaçīvan at ii. 408, but the passage is too corrupt to cast valuable light upon the word. To the comm., it is either Vāyu, the wind in mid-air, or else the king, viewed as surrounded first by foes, and further by their foes, his friends (on the principle of arir mitram arer; mitram) ⌊mitra-mitram ataḥ param etc. I find the verse at Kāmandakīya Nītisāra, viii. 16. To judge from the Later Syriac Version (Kalīlah and Dimnah, Keith-Falconer, p. 114), one would expect to find it in Pañcatantra ii., colloquy of mouse and crow, in Kosegarten's ed., p. 110 or thereabouts. Cf. Manu vii. 158 and the comm.⌋

5. Curse attains him not, nor witchcraft, nor scorching; víṣkandha reaches him not who beareth thee, O ointment.

6. From wrong spell, from evil dreaming, from evil deed, from pollution also, from the terrible eye of an enemy—therefrom protect us, ointment.

7. Knowing this, O ointment, I shall speak truth, not falsehood; may I win (san) a horse, a cow, thy soul, O man (púruṣa).

8. Three are the slaves (dāsá) of the ointment—fever (takmán), balā́sa, then snake: the highest of mountains, three-peaked (trikakúd) by name, [is] thy father.

9. The ointment that is of the three-peaked [mountain], born from the snowy one (himávant)—may it grind up all the familiar demons and all the sorceresses.