________________
II, 14.
at 44, 11 ff. it forms part of an elaborate practice to obviate sterility in cattle. The first of these practices is as follows: 34, 3. 'While reciting II, 14 (the practitioner) pours dregs of ghee into water (in tubs standing) in three huts which have doors to the east and doors to the west (cf. Kaus. 24, 3), in behalf of the woman afflicted with miscarriage, she being dressed in a black garment. 4. Additional (dregs of ghee he pours) upon lead1 placed into (the leaf of) a palâsatree (butea frondosa). 5. Placing (the woman) over the lead he washes her (with the above-mentioned water). 6. Having deposited the black garment (where she has been washed) she goes. 7. The Brahman kindles the hut. 8. The same performances take place in the two easterly (huts) in connection with materials brought on separately (for each hut). 9. He performs the practices with the branches, mentioned (above, Sû. 1: he pours consecrated water over her head as she is seated upon branches of simsapa [dalbergia sisu; cf. Kaus. 8, 16] by the side of a body of water). 10. Having put down to the west of the fire two reeds upon a stalk (? kânde ishîke), over the two doors (of the huts), he causes firewood derived from an udumbara-tree (ficus glomerata) to be put on the fire. II. To the woman as she comes home last (of those returning?), cakes of rice, and ornaments of pramanda (cf. Kausika, Introduction, p. lii), anointed with the dregs of ghee, are given (cf. Kaus. 32, 29; 34, 1).'
At Kaus. 44, I ff. there is an elaborate practice of the expiatory kind (prâyaskitta), in which a sterile cow is sacrificed to remove the blemish of sterility from the house. After the cow has been slain, '(the priest) while reciting II, 14 carries a firebrand (around her) thrice from right to left without moving (the firebrand) around himself' (Sû. 44, 21). Later on 'he stops her breath' while reciting II,
COMMENTARY.
299
1 Cf. AV. I, 16, and the practices connected with it.
The practices up to this point therefore have taken place in that one of the three huts furthest to the west.
' Extremely problematic; cf. dhâyine, Kausika, Introduction, p. li, and the scholiasts.
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