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174
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
are the days and nights, and the days and nights indeed abide in the seasons ;—'fat-showering, honey-showering,'-—he thereby makes them fatshowering and honey-showering for himself.
19. 'The widely-shining by name,'—for the gods then called those bricks to them by their names, and in the same way in which they called them, they turned unto them; but the 'space-fillers' alone stood with averted faces discharging water, having no names applied to them. They called them by the name 'the widely-shining,' and they turned unto them. Hence, each time he has laid down ten bricks, he addresses them with the spacefilling? (verse)': he thereby makes them widelyshining (virâg), for the Virag (metre) consists of ten syllables :-wish-milking, never-failing,' — he thereby makes them wish-milking and never failing.
20. He then draws a frog, a lotus-flower, and a bamboo-shoot across (the central part of the altar). For the gods having now appeased him by the Satarudriya and the water, and having driven out his pain and evil, thereby still further appeased him; and in like manner does this (Sacrificer), now that he has appeased him by the Satarudriya and the water, and driven out his pain and evil, still further appease him thereby. In every direction he draws them: he thus appeases him everywhere.
21. And, again, as to why he draws them across. Now, in the beginning, when the Rishis, the vital airs, made up that Agni?, they sprinkled him with water : that water dripped off and became the frogs.
1 That is with the verse Vâg. S. XII, 54, beginning "Lokam prina,' 'Fill thou the space;' see part iii, p. 153 note.
2 See VI, 1, 1, 1-5.
