Page:Atharva-Veda samhita volume 2.djvu/236

xii. 3- 51. This one of skins (tvác) hath come into being on man; not naked are all the animals (paçú) that are other; ye (du.) cause to wrap (paridhā) yourselves (ātmán) with authority (kṣatrá), a home-woven garment, the mouth of the rice-dish.

52. What [untruth] thou shalt speak at the dice, what at the meeting, or what untruth thou shalt speak from desire of gain—clothing yourselves (du.) in the same web (tántu), ye shall settle in it all pollution.

53. Win thou rain; go unto the gods; thou shalt make smoke fly up out of the skin; about to become all-expanded, ghee-backed, go thou, of like origin, unto that world.

54. The heaven-goer hath variously changed his body, as he finds (? vidé) in himself one of another color; he hath conquered off the black one, purifying a shining one (rúçat); the one that is red, that I offer (hu) to thee in the fire.

55. To the eastern quarter, to Agni as overlord, to the black [serpent] as defender, to Āditya having arrows, we commit thee here; guard ye him for us until our coming; may he lead on our appointed [life-time] here unto old age; let old age commit us unto death; then may we be united with the cooked [offering].

⌊Vss. 55-60 are partly unmetrical.⌋ We are surprised to find the pause before instead of after the phrase etám pári dadmaḥ. With the items in the first division of these verses are to be compared the corresponding ones in iii. 27. 1-6. The concluding pāda of the metrical refrain is identical with vi. 119. 2 d. The pada-reading at the end