﻿SSG ON THE RELl^ilOUS CEREi^ONIES 



The priest then takes up two leaves of cii^a grass, 

 and Avith another blade of the same grass, cuts off 

 the length of a span, saying " Pure leaves ! be sacred 

 to Vishn'u ;■' and throws them into a vessel of cop- 

 per or other metal. Again he takes two leaves of 

 grass, and holding the tips between the thumb and 

 rino; ihiii'cr of his riijht hand, and the roots between 

 the thumb and ring finger of his left, and crossing 

 Ijis right handover his left, he takes up clarified but- 

 ter on the curvature of the grass, and thus silently 

 casts some into the fire three several times. Me then 

 fc-prinklcs both the leaves with water, and throws 

 them away. He afterwards sprinkles with water the 

 vessel containing clarified butter, and puts it on the 

 fire and takes it oft" again three times, and thus con- 

 cludes the ceremony of hallowing the butter ; during 

 the course of which, while he holds the leaves of 

 grass in both hands, he recites this prayer, ''May 

 the (hvine generator, [VISHNU,] purify thee by 

 means of \t.his\ faultless pure leaf; and may the sun 

 do so by means of \his\ rays of light ! be this obla- 

 tion efficacious." 



The priest must next hallow the wooden ladle by 

 thrice turning therein his fore-finger and thumb, de- 

 scribing with their tips the figure of 7 in the inside, 

 and the figure of 9 on the outside of the bowl of the 

 ladle. Then dropping his right knee, he sprinkles 

 water from the palms of his hands on the whole 

 isouthern side of the fire, from west to east, saying, 

 *' Aditi ! [mother of the Gods] grant me thy ap- 

 probation. " He does the same on the whole western 

 side, from south to north, saying, ''Anumati!* 

 grant me thy approbation;" and on the northern 

 side, saying *' Saraswati ! grant me thy approba- 

 tion." And lastly he sprinkles water all round the 

 fire, while he pronounces this text, " Generous sun 1 



approve 



* The moon wanting a digit of full. 



