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II KÂNDA, I ADHYÂYA, 4 BRÂHMANA, 9.
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take it eastwards (from the Gârhapatya to the Åhavaniya) after sunrise, arguing that thereby they secure both the day and the night for the obtainment of out-breathing and in-breathing, of mind and speech. But let him not do so; for when they thus churn (the fire) before sunrise, and take it eastwards after sunrise, both his (fires) are in reality set up before sunrise. By churning the Åhavaniya after sunrise he will obtain that combination of blessings).
9. The gods, assuredly, are the day. The fathers have not the evil dispelled from them (by the sun); (and accordingly) he (the sacrificer) does not dispel the evil (if he churns the fire before sunrise). The fathers are mortal; and verily he who churns the fire before the rising of the sun, dies before (he has attained his full measure of) life. The gods have the evil dispelled from them (by the sun): hence he (the sacrificer) dispels the evil (from himself, if he churn after sunrise). The gods are immortal; andthough there is for him no prospect of immortality -he attains (the full measure of) life. The gods are bliss, and bliss he obtains; the gods are glorious, and glorious he will be, whosoever, knowing this, churns (the fire) after the rising of the sun.
that by which butter in India is separated from milk. The NewHollanders obtain fire from a similar process. It consists in drilling one piece of arani wood into another by pulling a string tied to it with a jerk with the one hand, while the other is slackened, and so alternately till the wood takes fire. The fire is received on cotton or flax held in the hand of an assistant Brahman. On the mythological associations of the agni-manthana, especially with the Teutonic need-fire and the myth of Prometheus; and those of the asvattha tree, grown out of a sami, with the mountain-ash (roun-tree, rowan-tree, witch-elm, witchen, witch-hazel, witch-wood; eber-esche), see A. Kuhn's epoch-making essay, 'Ueber die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertranks.
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