________________
332
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
(parvâhuti) without putting down the spoon) beside (the fire, on the grass-bunch). For, were he to put it down beside the fire), it would be as if, in taking food to somebody, one were to put it down on one's way thither. But when (he makes the libation) without previously putting it down, it is as if, in taking food to somebody, one puts it down only after taking it to him. The second (libation he then makes) after putting it down : he thereby makes these two (libations) of various vigour. Now these two libations are mind and speech : hence he thereby separates mind and speech from each other ; and thus mind and speech, even while one and the same (sa mâna), are still distinct (nânâ).
18. Twice he offers in the fire, twice he wipes (the spout of the spoon), twice he eats (of the milk), and four times he ladles 1;—these are ten (acts), for
it on a level with his mouth, except in the middle between the two fires, where he lowers it for a moment to the level of his navel. He then crouches down [bending his right knee, and looking eastwards, by the north-west corner of the Ahavaniya), puts the billet on [the centre of the fire, and makes the first libation (půrvahuti) on the burning stick (see the formula, par. 30. The sacrificer, as usual, pronounces the dedicatory formula, viz. 'This to Agnil' and, 'This to Sarya l' respectively). Thereupon he lays down the ladle on the kûrka [a grass-bunch, placed behind the Ahavaniya fire-place, to serve as a seat, and to wipe the hands on; according to others, a flat piece of Varana wood), then takes it up again and silently makes the second libation (uttarâhuti) on the north part of the fire. Kâty. IV, 14, 12-17 with Schol.
i He ladles four sruva-fuls of milk into the Agnihotra ladle, and makes in the Ahavaniya fire two libations from this milk (so as to leave the larger quantity in the ladle to be eaten). He then wipes twice the spout of the ladle. [In each of the two other fires he thereupon makes likewise two libations with the sruva, of one spoonful each.] The milk left in the ladle he eats, on the completion of the six libations, by twice taking it out with his ring-finger.
Digitized by Google
