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SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
is introduced into men (from the front) towards the back, for by their down-breathing men eat food.
13. Here, now, they say, 'He who has built an altar must not eat of any bird, for he who builds a fire-altar becomes of a bird's form ; he would be apt to incar sickness: the Agnikit therefore must not eat of any bird.' Nevertheless, one who knows this may safely eat thereof; for he who builds an altar becomes of Agni's form, and, indeed, all food here belongs to Agni: whosoever knows this will know that all food belongs to him.
14. Here, now, they say, 'What is done here in (the building of) the altar, whereby the Sacrificer conquers recurring death ?' Well, he who builds an altar becomes the deity Agni; and Agni (the fire), indeed, is the immortal (element);—the gods are splendour: he enters splendour; the gods are glory: he becomes glorious whosoever knows this.
FIFTH BRAHMANA. 1. This built fire-altar, in truth, (includes all these sacrifices :—when he slaughters an animal victim, that is the Agnyâdheya (establishment of the sacred fires)?; when he collects the materials for the fire-pan, that constitutes the oblations of the Agnyâdheya ; when he performs the initiation,
· Though no animal sacrifice takes place at the Agnyâdhâna, the latter, as the fundamental ceremony pre-supposed by all subsequent sacrificial performances, is here compared with the immolation of five victims (VI, 2, 1, 15 seg.) which, taking place as it does on the Upasavatha, or day of preparation, i.e. the day before the Soma-sacrifice on the newly built fire-altar, is, as it were, a preliminary ceremony.
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