Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/120

x. 4- ii. 75.⌋ The first half-verse is read in several gṛhya-sūtras (AGS. ii. 3. 3; PGS. ii. 14. 4; ÇGS. iv. 18; HGS. ii. 16. 8), as part of a verse in a charm against serpents; they all begin with apa instead of ava. ⌊Cf. also MGS. ii. 7. i a.⌋ The verse (8 + 8: 8 + 8 + 3) would be more properly called upariṣṭād bṛhatī.

4. The araṁghuṣá, having immerged, having emerged, said again: like water-floated wood, sapless is the snake's poison, fierce water.

5. Pāidva slays the kasarṇī́la (snake), Pāidva the whitish and the black; Pāidva hath split altogether the head of the ratharvī́, of the pṛdākū́.

6. Go forth first, O Pāidva; we come after thee; cast thou out the snakes from the road by which we come.

7. Here was Pāidva born; this [is] his going-away; these [are] the tracks of the snake-slaying vigorous steed.

8. What is shut together may it not open; what is opened may it not shut together; in this field [are] two snakes, both a female and a male; those [are] both sapless.

9. Sapless here [are] the snakes, they that are near and they that are far; with a club (ghaná) I slay the stinger (vṛ́çcika), with a staff the snake that has come.