________________
SATAPATHA-BRAHMANA.
'Kindled, blaze forth, O Agni, before us, (with inexhaustible flame, O youngest! perpetual viands accrue unto thee')'-he puts it on ;-the Virâg means food: with food he thus gratifies him. Three pieces of wood he puts on,-threefold is Agni as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, with so much food he thus gratifies him.
204
41. He then offers oblations, this is just as if, after serving food to some one, one gives him something to drink. With the dipping-spoon (sruva) he offers the first two, with the offering-ladle (sruk) the last (oblation); (the first) with (Vâg. S. XVII, 77), 'O Agni, may we, with hymns and thoughts, speed this day this (sacrifice) of thine, even as a steed, as a noble, heart-stirring deed''-that is, 'whatever heart-stirring hymn is thine, may I speed (perform) that for thee.' With a pankti (verse) he offers,-of five feet consists the Pankti, of five layers the fire-altar, five seasons are a year, and Agni is the year: as great as Agni is, as great as is his measure, with so much food he thus gratifies him.
42. He then offers (the second oblation), the one for Visvakarman, Visvakarman (the all-worker) is this Agni: it is him he thereby gratifies,-with (Vâg. S. XVII, 78), 'Thought I offer, with mind and ghee, that is, 'The thought of these (priests and Sacrificer) I offer with mind and ghee; '—' that the gods come hither,'-that is, 'that the gods may come hither;'-'enjoying their offeringmeal, the holy-minded,'-that is, the true-minded;
-'to Visvakarman, the lord of all existence, I offer, that is, 'to that Visvakarman who is the lord of all that here exists I offer;'-'every day the
