Note [1:140:5:1]1. Comp. bhu'ri varpah karikrat, III, 58, 9.

Verse 6.

Note [1:140:6:1]1. The brown ones, according to Sayana, are the plants. They are called brown (babhru) also in X, 97, 1. 'Are they the dry leaves in which the spark is caught?' M. M.

Verse 7.

Note [1:140:7:1]1. Prof. Max Muller translates samstirah vishtirah, '(the flames) that are together and apart.'

Note [1:140:7:2]2. The parents seem to be Heaven and Earth, as Sayana explains.--Possibly pitroh depends on saka (comp.

pitroh saka, II, 17, 7; IV, 5, 10), being with their parents they produce a new shape.' Prof. Max Muller translates: 'They produce together a different shape of their parents.'

Verse 8.

Note [1:140:8:1]1. Should not the plants again be referred to? 'I think it refers to the gvalas, the flames that are hidden under the ashes and are lighted again.' M. M.

Verse 9.

Note [1:140:9:1]1. The mother is the Earth whose surface Agni licks.

Note [1:140:9:2]2. I believe the Dawn is alluded to whom the Vedic poets represent now as preceding Agni, now as following him. See Bergaigne, II, pp. 14, 15.

Note [1:140:9:3]3. For vartani'r aha of the Samhitapatha the Padapatha has vartanih aha; comp. Rig-veda Pratisakhya, Sutra 259. Vartani'h of course is correct. Comp. X, 172, I. ga'vah sakanta vartanim.

Verse 10.

Note [1:140:10:1]1. The mothers of the young child are very probably the mothers of Agni represented as a young child. They may be the Waters which Agni leaves resting on the surface of the earth while he himself rises to heaven. Or the mothers may be the woods or plants which he burns and thus throws them down as it were.

Verse 12.

Note [1:140:12:1]1. 'Which has feet in its own rudders,' M. M. That the ship has feet seems to mean only that it has the faculty of moving forward freely and quickly, and not that any real beings having feet are designated by this comparison. The ship that carries the worshippers across all dangers, is the protection and help which Agni grants, or the sacrifice which he helps to perform.

Verse 13.

Note [1:140:13:1]1. Comp. Geldner, Vedische Studien, I, 275.

Note [1:140:13:2]2. Yantah seems to be corrupt; one or two syllables are wanting. Something like yatayantah (IX, 39, 2) or vardhayantah, or, as Prof. Max Muller proposes, vyantah would do. He translates: 'May Heaven and Earth and the Rivers ... accepting (vyantah) sacrifices of milk and corn choose for us, and may the Dawns choose for us food as a boon for many days.'--Cf. Lanman, pp. 510, 539.