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X KÂNDA, 4 ADHYÂYA, 4 BRAHMANA, 3. 361
stone1, and that he takes into account: why, then, taking that into account, should he not take others into account? That (altar) by which they ward off Nirriti, evil, is the eleventh.
23. As to this they say, 'Why, then, do they not take into account here those (of Nirriti's altar)?' Because he makes no offering on them, for it is by offering that a brick becomes whole and complete.
24. As to this they say, 'How are these (bricks) of his laid down so as not to be excessive?' Well, these (bricks) are his (Agni's) vital power, and man's vital power is not excessive. Thus whosoever, knowing this, performs this holy work, or he who but knows this, makes up this Pragâpati whole and complete.
FOURTH BRAHMANA.
1. When Pragâpati was creating living beings, Death, that evil, overpowered him. He practised austerities for a thousand years, striving to leave evil behind him.
2. Whilst he was practising austerities, lights went upwards from those hair-pits of his; and those lights are those stars: as many stars as there are, so many hair-pits there are; and as many hair-pits as there are, so many muhûrtas there are in a (sacrificial performance) of a thousand years.
3. In the one-thousandth year, he cleansed himself all through; and he that cleansed all through is this wind which here cleanses by blowing; and that evil which he cleansed all through is this body.
1 See IX, 2, 3, 14-17; 4, 3, 6. 'That is, the pores from which the hairs spring.
See VII, 2, 1, I seq.
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