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OF THE HINDUS.
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10. Go to the mother earth, this wide-spread blessed earth; to the liberal man she is a maiden soft às wool; may she protect thee from the proximity of the evil being
11. Lie up slightly) earth, oppress him not, be bounteous to him, treat him kindly, cover him, earth, as a mother covers an infant with the skirts of her garment.
12. May earth lying lightly up, stay well; may thousands of particles (of soil] rest upon it; may these abodes be ever sprinkled with clarified butter, and may they, day by day, be to him an asylum.
13. I heap up the earth above thee, and placing this clod of clay, may I not hurt thee; may the Manes protect this thy monument, and Yama ever grant thee here an abode.
14. New days sustain me, as the feather upholds the shaft, but I restrain my voice now grown old, as the reins hold in a horse*.
The language of this hymn is, as usual, sometimes obscure; and may admit, if not in essentials, at least in some of the details, of a different version from the above. I have had the advantage, however, of comparing my translation of verses 7 to 13 inclusive with a translation of the same, as I shall presently mention,
* [This hymn was translated into German by R. Roth in the “Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft" Vol.VIII (1854), 467 ff. and by M. Müller ib. Vol. IX (1855), p. vi ff., both translations being accompanied by the Sanskrit text.]
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