Let them be bound together for me, let them be measured out; let your black hairs grow all around your head like reeds. Thus was the wish uttered, as if invoking the power of the herbs, asking that the dark locks might encircle the head with abundant growth, standing tall and firm as reeds by the water. The plea continued: let the root be made firm, let the tip be held, let the middle be extended, O herb—so that your black hairs may flourish all around, as reeds in a marsh. The power of the plant was invoked, the desire for strength and fullness echoing in the ritual. Among all plants, O herb, you are the most excellent and renowned. Today, let your might be turned to a different purpose—make this man impotent, lacking virility for me. Let his vigor wane, let his manhood falter, by the force of the herb’s excellence. Make him impotent, make him lacking virility, make him a eunuch—so the prayer demanded. And let Indra, with his two thunderstones, split both his testicles, severing his strength at its root. Impotent, I make you impotent; eunuch, I make you a eunuch; sapless, I make you sapless. Upon his head I place the sign of impotence, and the pot, the symbol of what has been taken away. Those two tubes of yours, made by the gods, by which manhood stands—I break them with a club, upon his testicles, so that his strength may be undone. Just as women break the reed with a stone for the weaver, so too is your virility broken, with force and finality. Then, the attention turned to another herb, Nyastikā: O Nyastikā, grow forth and bring good fortune to me. You have a hundred shoots and thirty-three roots. With you, O thousand-leaved one, I dry up your heart. May your heart wither within me, may your mouth also dry up; let your desire for me dry up, and with a parched mouth, depart. O uniter, well-shaped, tawny, auspicious one, bring together, drive together, unite her and me, let our hearts be made one. Yet, just as when one drinks water the mouth does not dry up, so let your desire for me dry up, and with a parched mouth, depart. As the mongoose, having torn apart the snake, joins it together again, so, O vigorous one, join together what has been separated by desire. Elsewhere, a prayer was raised for the well-being of the family: As two tigers, crouching, hunger for their father and mother, O Brahmanaspati, O Jātavedas, make their teeth auspicious. Rice, barley, beans, and sesame—this is your portion set aside for your treasure; let your teeth not harm father or mother. Summoned, yoked together, gentle, may your teeth be most auspicious; let any fierceness of your bodies go elsewhere; let your teeth not harm father or mother. The gathering of life’s powers was described: The wind has gathered them, Tvaṣṭṛ holds them for nourishment; Indra speaks over them, Rudra heals for strength. With the red hatchet, a pair is made at the ears; O Aśvins, we have marked this sign—may it be abundant with offspring. As the gods and asuras made, as men also did, so, O Aśvins, make this mark for a thousandfold increase. To barley, the prayer went forth: Rise up, be abundant by your own greatness, O barley; overcome all obstacles, let no heavenly bolt strike you. Where we bring you, barley, as a god to be heard, there rise up, like the sky, like the sea, unshaken. May the threshing floors be unbroken, may the heaps be unbroken; may the granaries be full, may the carriers be unbroken. The story of speech and creation was recalled: Those who led forth the first speech with thought, who spoke truths with mind, growing with the third utterance, followed the name of the cow with the fourth. He knows the father, the mother, the son who exists, who becomes again the generous one; he covered the sky, the atmosphere, the sun; he became this whole world, he brought it forth. Atharvan, the father, kin of the gods, the mother’s womb, the father’s breath, the youthful one—he who perceives this sacrifice with mind, to him we speak forth, to him we declare. With this dung he produces cakes; for he, the shining one, has a wide path for the offering. He approached the reddish honey’s front, by his own form he created form. With one, with ten, well-offered; with two for the desired, with twenty; with three you carry, with thirty; O Wind, release them here in groups. By sacrifice, the gods sacrificed the sacrifice; those were the first laws. They attained the heights of heaven, where the earlier Sādhyas, the gods, are. The sacrifice came into being; it grew, it was born, it increased again. It became the lord of the gods; may it place wealth among us. When the gods offered oblations to the gods, mortals with their minds, with mortal intent, may we rejoice there in the highest heaven, may we see that at the rising of the sun. With the person and the oblation, the gods extended the sacrifice. Is there anything stronger than that, which they worshipped with the oblation? The gods, unskilled, also sacrificed with dog’s flesh, and with cow’s limbs, in many ways they sacrificed. Whoever understands this sacrifice with the mind, let him speak to us here, let him declare it. Aditi is the sky, Aditi is the atmosphere, Aditi is mother, father, and son. All the gods are Aditi, the five peoples are Aditi, Aditi is birth, Aditi is creation. We call upon the great mother of the virtuous, the wife of immortality, for help. Mighty in power, unfading, broad, Aditi, giver of good shelter and excellent guidance. May we reach the earth, the sky, free from harm, Aditi, giver of good shelter and excellent guidance, the divine ship, well-constructed, sinless, flowing, for our well-being. At the birth of strength, we make the name of great Aditi, mother, with words. In whose lap lies the wide atmosphere, may she grant us triple-shielded protection. I have acted for the sons of Diti and Aditi, for the gods, for their vast powers. Their abode is deep, oceanic; none is superior to them in reverence. Go forth from good fortune to greater prosperity; may Brihaspati be your leader. Now, from this best region of earth, remove the hostile, make all men your own. On the broad path, Pūṣan was born; on the path of heaven, on the path of earth. In both beloved abodes, he moves forward and backward, knowing. May Pūṣan know all these directions; may he lead us with the greatest fearlessness. Giver of well-being, radiant, all-powerful, unwearied, let him go ahead, knowing. Pūṣan, under your command, may we never suffer harm at any time. We are your singers here. Thus, through prayers and invocations, through the power of herbs, the wisdom of sacrifice, and the guidance of the deities, the world is shaped, protected, and made abundant, as the ancient seers spoke and sang in reverence and hope.