If a wife gives herself to her husband and he receives her with the words, “With your strength and fame I take your fame,” then both husband and wife become radiant and illustrious, their virtues joined and increased. Should a man wish to restrain his passion, he expresses his desire to his wife, setting his intention within her. He joins her mouth to mouth, touches her intimately, and recites, “From limb to limb you are born, from the heart you arise; you are the essence of the limbs, delight me as one pierced and anointed.” In this way, he honors her presence and their union. If he wishes that she not conceive, he fixes his intention in her, places mouth to mouth, inhales and exhales, and with his organ he draws back the seed, uttering, “With your seed I take back the seed.” Thus, conception does not occur. If, instead, he wishes for conception, he again establishes his intent, places mouth to mouth, exhaling and inhaling, and with his organ deposits the seed, saying, “With your seed I deposit the seed.” In this way, she becomes pregnant. Now, if a wife has been unfaithful and her husband resents it, he performs a ritual: he sets up a fire in an unbaked vessel, lays sacrificial grass against the grain, and offers three sticks of śara grass, anointed with ghee, each time against the grain, saying, “May I take away her ill fortune in the kindled fire, may I take away her barrenness, may I take away her lack of offspring, may I take away her lack of vitality.” With each offering, he utters “May I take away,” and thus removes her misfortune, barrenness, lack of offspring, and vitality. One who is deprived of power and merit by such a curse departs from this world. Therefore, none should ridicule the wife of a learned Brahmin, for such a knower possesses great power. The ritual may be repeated, offering sticks of śara grass with ghee, saying, “May I take away her ill fortune in the kindled fire, may I take away her lack of vitality, may I take away her lack of offspring, may I take away her barrenness, may I take away her lack of merit.” Again, the curse removes power and merit, and the warning is repeated: do not ridicule the wife of a learned Brahmin. If a man finds his wife during her menstrual period, for three days he should drink clarified butter with kusa grass, wearing soiled garments, and neither a Śūdra nor a Śūdra woman should touch her. After three nights, having bathed, he may then pound rice. If he wishes for a fair-skinned son, he recites the Veda with the prayer, “May he live his full lifespan,” and, having cooked rice with milk and ghee, both husband and wife eat it together. Thus, they may produce a child as they desire. If he wishes for a tawny or reddish son, he recites two Vedas, prays for a full lifespan, and they eat rice cooked with curds and ghee. If he wishes for a son with dark or red eyes, he recites three Vedas, prays, and they eat rice cooked with water and ghee. If he wishes for a learned daughter, he prays for her full lifespan and, together, they eat rice cooked with sesame seeds and ghee. If he wishes for a learned son, victorious in assemblies and eloquent, he recites all the Vedas, prays for a full lifespan, and they eat rice with meat and ghee, using the flesh of an ox or bull. At dawn, after performing the ritual offering with clarified butter, he offers a portion of the cooked food to Agni, Anumati, and Savitṛ, invoking their blessings for true begetting. He then eats, gives the remainder to his wife, washes his hands, fills a water vessel, and sprinkles her three times, saying, “Arise, O prosperous one, seek another field; may you and your husband together produce offspring.” He then approaches her, declaring, “I am the vital force, you are the body; you are the vital force, I am the body; I am Sāman, you are Ṛc; I am heaven, you are earth. Come, let us unite, let us deposit seed together for the birth of a son.” He places her thighs apart, saying, “May I open the heavens and the earth.” He sets his intention in her, joins mouth to mouth, and strokes her three times along the grain, invoking, “May Viṣṇu prepare the womb, may Tvaṣṭṛ shape the forms, may Prajāpati pour forth, may Dhātṛ place the embryo for you. Place the embryo, O Śinīvālī; place the embryo, O Pṛthuṣṭukā; may the two Aśvins, the gods with lotus garlands, place the embryo for you.” He continues, “The two golden fire-sticks with which the two Aśvin gods churn, with them we invoke the embryo for you, for the tenth month of gestation. As the earth is pregnant with fire, as the sky is pregnant with Indra, as the wind is pregnant with the directions, so I place the embryo in you.” Thus, he utters her name. He sprinkles her with water, praying, “As the wind stirs the lotus pond all around, so may the embryo move within you on every side; may it be secure in the womb. For Indra, this enclosure is made, with a bar and shelter; O Indra, protect it, let it be strong with the embryo.” When the child is born, the father sets up a fire, places the child on his lap, and, having prepared clarified butter mixed with curds, offers a portion with the prayer, “May I prosper with a thousand, increasing in my own house; may I not be separated from offspring and cattle, svāhā. I offer the vital breaths in myself, the mind in you, svāhā.” He then prays, “Whatever act I have done excessively, or whatever I have left undone here, may Agni, the knower of the proper offering, make our offering well offered, svāhā.” Placing his right ear to the child’s right ear, he says, “Speech, speech, speech,” three times. He gives the child a name, saying, “You are Veda.” This is the child’s secret name. He mixes curds, honey, and ghee with hidden gold and gives it to the child to eat, saying, “On you I place the earth, on you I place the atmosphere, on you I place the sky; on you I place all the worlds.” Again, placing his right ear to the child’s right ear, he repeats, “Speech, speech, speech,” three times, and gives the child the mixture to eat with the same invocation. He gives the child a name: “You are Veda.” This is the secret name. He touches the child, blessing, “Be a stone, be an axe, be gold that is not melted; you are indeed the self, bearing the name of your son. May you live a hundred autumns.” He addresses the mother, saying, “O Maitrāvaruṇī, you have given birth to a hero from a hero. So, become one who possesses heroes, since you have made us possess a hero.” He gives the child to the mother and offers her the breast, saying, “May this breast of yours, full of milk, rich in ghee, abundant, well-offered, by which you nourish all treasures, O Sarasvatī, be given here for nourishment.” Of such a father it is said: “Indeed, he has become a great father, indeed, a great grandfather. He has truly reached the highest state of prosperity, fame, and spiritual brilliance, when such a son is born to a Brāhmaṇa who knows thus.” And so, the lineage is recited: we are descended from Bhāradvāja’s son, who came from Vātsī Māṇḍavī’s son, and so on—tracing through Pārāśarī’s son, Gārgī’s son, Pārāśarī Kauṇḍinī’s son, and so forth, generation after generation, through many illustrious sages and their sons, all the way to Yājñavalkya, who received from Uddālaka, from Aruṇa, from Opaveśi, from Kuśri, from Vājaśravas, from Jīhvāvān Bādhyoga, from Asita Vārṣagaṇa, from Harita Kāśyapa, from Hilpa Kāśyapa, from Kaśyapa Naidhruvi, from Vāca Āmbhiṇya, from Āditya. From Āditya, the white Yajus are declared by Vājasaneya Yājñavalkya. Another lineage is recited: Pautimāṣī’s son from Kātyāyanī’s son, Kātyāyanī’s son from Gautamī’s son, and so forth, through many generations, including Alambī’s son, Vaiyāghrapadī’s son, Kāṇvī’s son, and Kāpī’s son.