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HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
it go, all these have been rendered impotent. The mountain that grows poisonous plants has been rendered impotent.
8. Impotent are they that dig thee, impotent art thou, O plant! Impotent is that mountain height whence this poison has sprung.
IV, 7. Charm against poison.
1. This water (vâr) in the (river) Varanâvati shall ward off (vârayâtai)! Amrita (ambrosia) has been poured into it: with that do I ward off (vâraye) poison from thee.
2. Powerless is the poison from the east, powerless that from the north. Moreover the poison from the south transforms itself into a porridge.
3. Having made thee (the poison) that comes from a horizontal direction into a porridge, rich in fat, and cheering, from sheer hunger he has eaten thee, that hast an evil body: do thou not cause injury!
4. Thy bewildering quality (madam), O (plant?) that art bewildering (madâvati), we cause to fall like a reed. As a boiling pot of porridge do we remove thee by (our) charm.
5. (Thee, O poison) that art, as it were, heaped about the village, do we cause to stand still by (our) charm. Stand still as a tree upon its place; do not, thou that hast been dug with the spade, cause injury!
6. With broom-straw (?), garments, and also with skins they purchased thee: a thing for barter art thou, O plant! Do not, thou that hast been dug with the spade, cause injury!
7. Those of you who were of yore unequalled in
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