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248
ÂSVALAYANA-GRIHYA-SÚTRA.
6. Keeping that (fire) burning, they sit till the silence of the night, repeating the tales of the aged, and getting stories of auspicious contents, Itihasas and Purânas, told to them.
7. When all sounds have ceased, or when the others) have gone to the house or the resting-place, (the performer of the ceremony) should pour out an uninterrupted stream of water, beginning at the south side of the door, with (the verse), 'Spinning the thread follow the light of the aerial space' (Rig-veda X, 53, 6), (going round the house), ending at the north side of the door.
8. Having then given its place to the fire, and having spread to the west of it a bull's hide with the neck to the east, with the hair outside, he should cause the people belonging to the house to step on that (hide) with (the verse), 'Arise to long life, choosing old age' (Rig-veda X, 18, 6).
9. With (the verse), "This I lay round the living' (Rig-veda X, 18, 4), he should lay branches round (the fire).
10. After having with (the words), 'A mountain (i. e. a stone) they shall place between themselves and death,' placed a stone to the north of the fire, and having sacrificed with the four (verses), 'Go hence, O death, on another way' (Rig-veda X, 18,
7. The person who pours out the water is, as Nârâyana says, the kartri, i.e. the performer of the whole ceremony. The word cannot be translated, as Prof. Stenzler does, der Bestatter, no funeral ceremonies being here treated of.
8. See above, I, 8, 9. Here Nârâyana sees that the fire is the sacred one. He says, athasabdo »smin kâles gnyantaram aupasanam upasamâdadhyâd iti gñâpanârtham.
10. The words, 'A mountain,' &c., stand at the end of the verse quoted in Sätra 9.
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