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366
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA. 17. Now those (stalks of sacrificial grass) are severed with one stroke, and cut off near the root;
-the top belongs to the gods, the middle part to men, and the root-part to the fathers : therefore they are cut off near the root. And with one stroke they are severed, because the fathers have passed away once for all.
18. He spreads them (along the line) with their tops towards the south. Thereon he presents (to the fathers the three (round) cakes of rice] He presents them thus 2;—for to the gods they offer thus; for men they ladle out (the food in any way they please) 3; and in the case of the fathers they do in this very way: therefore he presents the cakes to them) thus.
19. With, ‘N. N., this for thee!' he presents (one cake) to the sacrificer's father. Some add, and for those who come after thee!' but let him not say this, since he himself is one of those to whom it would be offered) in common 4: let him
1 According to the Paddhati on Kâty, the first ball is to be of the size of a fresh â malaka, or fruit of the Emblic Myrobalan, and each of the two others is to be larger than the preceding one.
. Here the teacher indicated by gesture the part of the hand sacred to the fathers (see p. 365, note 4); and then in the same way that dedicated to the gods, viz. the tip of the fingers.
8 The Kânva recension reads here also 'thus they take out (the food) for men;' the part of the hand dedicated to man being, according to the commentary on Kâty. IV, 1, 10, the part about the little finger (kanishthikâpradesa).
* Svayam vai tesham saha yesham saha. According to the commentary, the author apparently means to say, that if he were to add, "and those who come after thee (i.e. after his father),' he would include the sacrificer himself, and the latter would consequently offer the pinda to himself. The form of the presentation-formula rejected by our author is the one adopted in Asval. Sr. II, 6, 15, except that 'atra' is added there who here come after thee').
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