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248
HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
'a group of hymns designed to cure takman, fever' (cf. Kaus. 26, 1, note). Kausika employs it twice, presenting its two main characteristics. In 38, 1-7 it is used in a charm against thunderstorms, preceding the employment in a similar charm of AV. I, 13 and VII, 11, both of which are palpably hymns addressed to lightning. But in 26, 1-9 it is employed further in a performance which is distinctly described by Darila as a sirorogabhaishagyam, 'cure for headache' (cf. muñká sîrshaktyá in st. 3 a), and by Kesava as, atikâse sîrshaktisirovedanayam ka karmâni, rites against excessive cough and pains in the head.'
The latter practice is as follows: 1. While reciting AV. I, 12 (the priest) lets (the patient) drink of fat", honey, ghee, and sesame-oil. 2. (The patient), his head covered with a turban made of muñga-grass ? (saccharum munja roxburgiense), goes along carrying in his left hand parched grains in a sieve, from which he scatters it with his left hand. 3. (The patient then goes on, carrying) in his left hand the sieve and the turban, in his right hand a bowstring and an axe. 4. The (patient goes) in front of the priest who gives the orders. 5. On the spot where the disease seizes upon him he puts down the sieve and the turban. 6. And (also) the bowstring. 7. He returns home'. 8. (The patient) puts ghee up his nose. 9. (The priest) while supporting the patient's head with a staff (of bamboo) having five knots mutters (the hymn). The sense of these practices, obscure though they are in many
· Kesava, mâmsamedah.
* Kaus. maunga-prasna; Dârila, prasna ushnisham; Kesava, mauñga-induka (cf. indva in the Pet. Lex., and especially in Kaus. 26, 30).
Kaus. pūlyâni; Kes. lâgân. Symbolic scattering of the fever. • Kesava here is the least obscure of the commentators, vyâdhitam agre kritvå.
The text of the Satra is very obscure. One MS. of the text reads ávraganam; the rest, avragatam. Dârila has âvragam twice (see notes 7 and 10 on p. 71 of the edition); this may be for the participle âvragan, and has served as the basis of the translation.
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