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HYMNS OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA.
breathing, do not go away from here; do ye carry anew to old age his body and his limbs!
7. To old age I make thee over, into old age I urge thee; may a happy old age guide thee ! Away shall go the other deaths, of which, it is said, there are a hundred more!
8. Upon thee (life unto) old age has been deposited, as a rope is tied upon a bull. That death which has fettered thee at thy birth with a firm rope, Brihaspati with the hands of the truth did strip off from thee.
II, 28. Prayer for long life pronounced over
a boy. 1. For thee alone, O (death from) old age, this (boy) shall grow up: the other hundred kinds of death shall not harm him! Like a provident mother in her lap Mitra shall befriend him, shall save him from misfortune!
2. May Mitra or Varuna, the illustrious, cooperating, grant him death from old age! Then Agni, the priest, who knows the ways, promulgates all the races of the gods.
3. Thou, (O Agni), rulest over all the animals of the earth, those which have been born, and those which are to be born : may not in-breathing leave this one, nor yet out-breathing, may neither friends nor foes slay him!
4. May father Dyaus (sky) and mother Prithivi (earth), co-operating, grant thee death from old age, that thou mayest live in the lap of Aditi a hundred winters, guarded by in-breathing and outbreathing!
5. Lead this dear child to life and vigour, O Agni,
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