MANDALA III, HYMN 1.

ASHTAKA II, ADHYAYA 8, VARGA 13-16.

1. Thou wilt have me, O Agni, as a strong (master) of Soma : therefore thou hast made me the carrier (of the gods?) to perform worship at the sacrifice . Sending my thoughts to the gods I make the (press-) stone ready ; I toil, O Agni: find thou pleasure in thy own body .

2 . Eastward we have turned the sacrifice ; may the prayer increase. They honoured Agni with fuel and adoration. They have taught (him) the sacrificial ordinances of the sages of Heaven . Though he (Agni) is clever and strong, they have sought a way for him.

3. He has conceived freshness , the wise one of pure powers, he who is by his birth well allied with Heaven and Earth. The gods have found Agni the conspicuous one in the waters, in the work of the sisters.

4. The seven young (wives) made the blessed one grow who had been born white, ruddy in his growth. They ran up to him like mares to a newborn foal. The gods wondered at Agni at his birth.

5. Spreading with his bright limbs to the aerial space, purifying his power by wise purifications, clothing himself in light, the life of the waters , he creates mighty, perfect beauty.

6. He has gone to (the waters) who do not eat, the undeceived ones, the young (daughters) of Heaven who are not clothed and (yet) are not naked.

[paragraph continues] Here the former young (women) having the same origin, the seven sounds have conceived one germ.

7. His compact masses assuming every shape are spread in the womb of ghee, in the streaming of honey. There the swelling milch-cows have stationed themselves. Great are the parents of the wonderfully mighty (Agni) who are turned towards each other .

8. Having been carried (in the waters) thou hast shone forth, O son of strength, assuming wonderful shapes brilliant and fierce. The streams of honey and ghee drip, where the male has grown by wisdom.

9. By (his) nature he has found his father's udder ; he has sent forth his streams and his showers . Walking hidden to his dear friends he has not been hidden to the young (daughters) of Heaven .

10. He bore (in his womb) the germ of the sire, of the father who begat him . He, being one, sucked many (nurses) rich in milk . Observe for this manly, bright one the two wives bound in kinship, belonging to men .

11. The great one has grown up in the wide unbounded space . The Waters (have made) Agni (grow): for many glorious ones (have come) together . He lay in the womb of Rita, the domestic (god) Agni, in the work of the uterine sisters.

12. Like a horse that carries (the prize), in the assembly of the great (waters) , visible to his son , he whose ... is light : he who as father begat the ruddy cows , he the son of the waters is the most manly, restless Agni.