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XII KÂNDA, 2 ADHYAYA, 4 BRAHMANA, II.
163
this (man) leaps about, as it were, with his limbs, and he stands, as it were, with his body.'.
9. The Trivrit (stoma) is its head, whence that (head) is threefold (trivrit)-skin, bone, and brain.
10. The Pankadasa (fifteen-versed hymn-form) is the neck-joints,- for there are fourteen of these (joints), and the vital force is the fifteenth ; hence by means of that (neck), though being small, man bears a heavy burden: therefore the Pañkadasa is the neck
11. The Saptadasa (seventeen-versed hymn-form) is the chest; for there are eight gatru?' on the one
sequence of stomas' in the Abhiplava has already been referred to (p. 148, note I). Another source of change, in the Abhiplava, is the peculiar way in which the Brahmasaman (or Brâhmanâkhamsin's Prishthastotra) is varied from day to day. For, whilst during the months preceding the Vishuvat day, the Abhîvarta tune is used for this stotra on each day, but with different Pragatha verses chanted thereto from day to day; during the second half of the year, on the other hand, the same text (Sâma-veda II, 806) is used throughout, whilst its tune is varied from day to day. Since in the second half of the year the order of the days of the Prishthya-shadaha must be reversed, whilst this is optionally the case as regards the Abhiplava, this feature can hardly be referred to here.
1 The grîvân' thus, as far as man is concerned, include not only the seven cervical vertebrae, but also the upper seven dorsal vertebrae, being those to which the true ribs are attached. It is worth remarking, however, that in large birds such as the eagle, the neck itself consists of fourteen vertebrae.
The St. Petersb. Dict. takes 'gatru' in the sense of tuberculae costarum,' or tubercles of the ribs, the projections near the 'heads'. of the ribs where these join the spinal vertebrae; this conjectural meaning being based on VIII, 6, 2, 10, where the ribs are said to be fastened on both sides to the kîkasâh (? sternum) and the gatravah. Against this conjecture (as the Dict. remarks) is the circumstance that the gatravah are here said to form part of the chest; and, besides, the tubercle of the rib is not a separate bone, and would hardly be likely to be specially singled out in this
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