Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/59

 The Veda 43 A Woman's Incantation against her Rival, 1. I have taken unto myself her fortune and her glory, as a wreath off a tree. As a broad-based mountain may she sit a long time with her parents! 2. This woman shall be subjected to thee as thy bride, O King Yama (Pluto): till then let her be fixed to the house of her mother, or her brother, or her father! 3. This woman shall be the keeper of thy house, O King Yama: her do we deliver over to thee! May she long sit with her parents, until her hair drops from her head! 4. With the incantation of Asita, of Kaçyapa, and of Gaya do I cover up thy fortune, as women cover things within a chest. (Atharva-Veda, i. 14.) ¹ "" The poetic stanzas of all sorts, and the ritualistic prose formulas of the Veda collectively go by the name of mantra, "pious utterance or "hymn." In the texts of one group of Yajur-Vedas, the so-called Black Yajur-Vedas,' these stanzas and prose formulas alternate with descriptive prose chapters which tell how these mantras are to be used at the sacrifice, and why they are to be used in a given way. The passages are designated as brahmana. In the case of the so-called White Yajur-Vedas and also all the other Vedas the Brahmanas are compiled into sep- 1 ¹ See the same work, pp. 107 and 252 .ff 2 For the distinction between Black and White Yajur-Veda see Mac, donell, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 177.