________________
IX KÂNDA, I ADHYÂYA, I BRÂHMANA.
be healthy and of good cheer! 5. May he plead for us as our intercessor, the first divine physician. crushing all serpents, turn thou aside all practices of witchcraft ! 6. That tawny one, and the ruddy and the brown one, the auspicious—the Rudras that hover around him by thousands in the quarters: their wrath do we deprecate. 7. That one who glideth downwards (the sun) bloodred and blue-necked—the cowherds have seen him and the waterbearers (f. the clouds) have seen him-be he gracious unto us, when seen! 8. Reverence be to the blue-necked, thousand-eyed showerer; and what henchmen there are of his, to them do I render homage. 9. Loose thou the string from the ends of thy bow; and cast away the arrows in thy hand, O holy one! 10. Stringless be the bow of the coil-braided one, and arrowless his quiver ! may his arrows be futile, and empty his scabbard' II With that plague-repelling weapon in thy hand, with thy bow, protect us, O best of showereis, on all sides! 12. May the shaft of thy bow spare us on all sides, and far from us lay down that quiver of thine! 13. Unstringing the bow, and breaking off the points of thy shafts, be thou gracious and well-disposed unto us, O thousand-eyed lord of a hundred quivers! 14. Reverence be to thine unstrung weapon, the powerful one; and reverence be to thine arms and to thy bow! 15 Neither our full-grown, nor our little one, neither the virile, nor the unborn, neither our father strike thou, nor our mother: harm not our dear bodies, O Rudra! 16. Neither to our children, and our children's children, nor to our life, neither to our kine nor to our horses do thou injury smite not our shining warriors: with offering we ever invoke thee, O Rudra!
II. 17. Reverence be to the golden-armed leader of hosts, and to the lord of regions be reverencel reverence be to the green-haired trees, and to the lord of beasts be reverence! reverence be to the grass-hued shining one, and to the lord of roads be reverence! reverence be to the gold-locked wearer of the sacied cord, and to the lord of the strong-bodied be reverence! 18. Reverence be to the dusky smiter, and to the lord of food be reverencel reverence be to Bhava's weapon, and to the lord of moving creatures be reverencel reverence be to the strung-bowed Rudra, and to the loid of fields be reverence! reverence be to the inviolable charioteer, and to the lord of forests be reverence! 19. Reference be to the ruddy architect, and to the lord of trees be reverence! reverence be to the ubiquitous producer of wealth, and to the lord of plants be reverence! reverence be to the wise merchant, and to the lord of forest retreats be reverence! reverence be to the loud-noised crier,
