Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/420

v. 17- 15. A white, black-eared [horse] does not make a show (mahīy), harnessed to his [chariot-] pole, in whose etc. etc.

16. Not in his field [is] a lotus-pond, the bulb (? bísa) of the bulb-bearing lotus is not produced (jan), in whose etc. etc.

17. Not for him do they who attend to (upa-ās) her milking milk out the spotted [cow], in whose etc. etc.

18. Not his [is] a beautiful milch-cow, [his] draft-ox endures not the pole, where a Brahman stays a night miserably (pāpáyā) without a wife (-jāni).

1. Her the gods did not give thee for thee to eat, O lord of men (nṛpáti); do not thou, O noble, desire to devour (ghas) the cow of the Brahman, that is not to be eaten.

2. A noble hated of the dice, evil, self-ruined (-párājita)—he may eat the cow of the Brahman: "let me live today, not tomorrow."

3. Like an ill-poisonous adder enveloped with [cow-] hide, this cow of the Brahman, O noble, is harsh, not to be eaten.

4. Verily it conducts away his authority, smites his splendor; like fire taken hold of it burns up all; he who thinks the Brahman to be food, he drinks of Timātan poison.

Or 'she' (the cow), or 'he' (the Brahman), instead of 'it,' in a, b. Ppp. reads in b ālabdhaḥ pṛtannota rāṣṭaṁ, and has a wholly different second half-verse, nearly agreeing with our 13 c, d: yo brāhmaṇaṁ devabandhuṁ hinasti tasya pitṝṇām apy etu