Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/421

251 lokam. The Anukr. reckons the verse unnecessarily as bhurij, since iva in b is to be shortened to ’va.

5. Whatever insulter of the gods, desirous of riches, not from knowledge, slays him, thinking him gentle, in his heart Indra kindles a fire; both the firmaments (nábhas) hate him as he goes about.

6. The Brahman is not to be injured, like fire, by one who holds himself dear; for Soma is his heir, Indra his protector against imprecation.

7. He swallows down what (f.) has a hundred barbs; he is not able to tear it out—the fool who thinks of the food of Brahmans "I am eating what is sweet."

8. His tongue becomes a bow-string, his voice an [arrow-] neck, his teeth [become] shafts (nāḍīkā́) smeared with penance; with these the Brahman (brahmán) pierces the insulters of the gods, with bows having force from the heart [and] speeded by the gods.

9. The Brahmans have sharp arrows, have missiles; what volley (çaravyā̀) they hurl, it is not in vain; pursuing (anu-hā) with fervor and with fury, they split him down even from afar.

10. They that ruled, a thousand, and were ten hundreds, those Vāitahavyas, having devoured the cow of the Brahman, perished (parā-bhū).

11. The cow herself, being slain, pulled down those Vāitahavyas, who cooked the last she-goat of Kesaraprābandhā (?).

The second half-verse is totally defaced in Ppp. The pada-text reads in d carama॰ájām; the accent is anomalous, and the sense unacceptable; Ludwig's translation,