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256
VEDIC HYMNS.
MANDALA III, HYMN 9. ASHTAKA III, ADHYÅYA 1, VARGA 5-6.
1. We, thy friends ?, have chosen thee for our protection, (we) the mortals (thee) the god, the offspring of the Waters, the blessed one with fine splendour, who gloriously advances, the unmenaced one.
2. When thou, finding pleasure in the wood, hast gone to thy mothers, the Waters, that return of thine, Agni, (to this world) should not be slighted, when dwelling afar thou hast come hither.
3. High above (all) pungent sharpness thou hast grown up!, and verily thou art kind-hearted. Some go forward here and there ; others sit around thee, in whose friendship thou abidest.
4. He who has passed beyond (all) failures, beyond all hindrances', the guileless, watchful ones have found him as a lion is found), when he had gone into the Waters;
5. He who had run as it were by his own might, Agni, who thus dwelt in concealment-Him Mâtarisvan brought hither from afar, from the gods, when he had been produced by attrition (of the woods).
6. (And thus) the mortals have taken thee up, O carrier of sacrificial food towards the gods ', because thou, O (god) belonging to Manus, protectest all sacrifices by the power of thy mind, O youngest one!
7? This is something glorious; herein thy wonderful power shows itself even to the simple, that the cattle lie down round about thee when
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