________________
I 2
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
4. I release thee from Vaisvânara (Agni), from the great flood. Our rivals, O mighty one, do thou censure here, and give heed to our prayer!
VII, 83. Charm against dropsy: 1. Thy golden chamber, king Varuna, is built in the waters! Thence the king that maintains the laws shall loosen all shackles !
2. From every habitation (of thine), o king Varuna, from here do thou free us ! In that we have said, ye waters, ye cows ;' in that we have said, O Varuna,' from this (sin), O Varuna, free us!
3. Lift from us, O Varuna, the uppermost fetter, take down the nethermost, loosen the middlemost! Then shall we, O Aditya, in thy law, exempt from guilt, live in freedom !
4. Loosen from us, O Varuna, all fetters, the uppermost, the nethermost, and those imposed by Varuna! Evil dreams, and misfortune drive away from us: then may we go to the world of the pious !
VI, 24. Dropsy, heart-disease, and kindred
maladies cured by flowing water, 1. From the Himavant (mountains) they flow forth, in the Sindhu (Indus), forsooth, is their assembling-place: may the waters, indeed, grant me that cure for heart-ache!
2. The pain that hurts me in the eyes, and that which hurts in the heels and the fore-feet, the waters, the most skilled of physicians, shall put all that to rights!
3. Ye rivers all, whose mistress is Sindhu, whose
Digitized by Google
