THIRD BRÂHMANA
1. If a man wishes to reach greatness (wealth for performing sacrifices), he performs the upasad rule during twelve days (i. e. he lives on small quantities of milk), beginning on an auspicious day of the light half of the moon during the northern progress of the sun, collecting at the same time in a cup or a dish made of Udumbara wood all sorts of herbs, including fruits. He sweeps the floor (near the house-altar, âvasathya), sprinkles it, lays the fire, spreads grass round it according to rule, prepares the clarified butter (âgya), and on a day, presided over by a male star (nakshatra), after having properly mixed the Mantha (the herbs, fruits, milk, honey, &c.), he sacrifices (he pours âgya into the fire), saying: 'O Gâtavedas, whatever adverse gods there are in thee, who defeat the desires of men, to them I offer this portion; may they, being pleased, please me with all desires.' Svâhâ! 'That cross deity who lies down, thinking that all things are kept asunder by her, I worship thee as propitious with this stream of ghee.' Svâhâ!
