A prayer for the recovery of a sick man.

1 Seize to thyself this trust of life for ever: thine be longevity which nothing shortens. Thy spirit and thy life again I bring thee: die not, nor vanish into mist and darkness.

2 Come to the light of living men, come hither: I draw thee to a life of a hundred autumns. Loosing the bonds of death, the curse that holds thee, by God's leave I give thee age of very long duration.

3 Thy breath is recovered from the wind, thy vision from the sun. Thy mind I stablish and secure within thee: feel in thy members, use thy tongue, conversing.

4 I blow upon thee with the breath of men and beasts, as on a fire new-kindled.

5 Let this man live, let him not die: we raise him, we recover him. I make for him a healing balm. May God forbid death to slay this man.

6 Here for sound health I take a living, animating plant, preserving, queller of disease, victorious, full of power and might.

7 Seize him not, but encourage and release him: here let him stay, though thine, in all his vigour. O God, Source of all being, Healer, pity and protect him: give him full life and drive away misfortunes.

8 Comfort him and pity him, O God: let him arise and go his way. Unharmed, with all his members, hearing well, with old age, may he through a hundred years win profit with his soul.

9 May the angels' missile pass thee by. I bring thee safe from the mist: from death have I preserved thee. Far have I banished the fire of the funeral pile: I place a rampart for thy life's protection.

10 Saving him from that misty path of thine which cannot be defied, from that descent of death, we make for him a shield of prayer.

11 I give thee both the acts of breath, health, lengthened life, and death by age. All the evil that roams around to harm thee I chase away.

12 Far off we drive malignity, destruction, the flesh-devouring evil spirits and seizure. And all the demon kind, the brood of sin, like darkness, we dispel.

13 I win thy life from God, the Living, the Everlasting, the All-Knowing. This I ask for thee, that thou mayst not suffer harm, that thou mayst be content, that all be well with thee.

14 Gracious to thee be heaven and earth, bringing no grief, and drawing nigh! Pleasantly shine the sun for thee, the wind blow sweetly to thy heart! Let the celestial waters full of milk flow happily for thee.

15 Auspicious be the plants to thee! I have upraised thee, borne thee from the lower to the upper earth: let the sun and the moon, signs of God, protect thee there.

16 Whatever robe to cover thee or girdle thou makest for thyself, we make it pleasant to thy frame: may it be soft and smooth to touch.

17 When, with a very keen and cleansing razor, our hair and beards thou shavest as a barber, smoothing our face steal not our vital forces.

18 Auspicious unto thee be rice and barley, causing no painful sickness or consumption. These two expel consumption, these deliver from calamity.

19 Thy food, thy drink, whate'er they be, corn grown by cultivation, milk,—food eatable, uneatable, I make all poisonless for thee.

20 We give thee over as a charge to God, Lord of Day and Night, in trust to both. Keep him, O God, for me from stingy fiends, from those who fain would feed on him.

21 A hundred, yea, ten thousand years we pray for thee, ages two, three, four. May God the Mighty and the Radiant and all the angels, with willing favour look on thee.

22 To autumn, to winter, spring and summer's care we commend thee. We commend thee to auspicious years wherein the plants and herbs grow up.

23 Death is lord of men and of beasts only by the decree of God. Away I bear thee from the power of death: be not afraid.

24 Thou, still uninjured, shalt not die: be not afraid; thou shalt not die. Here where I am men do not die before their time, nor go to lowest depths of gloom.

25 Here verily all creatures live, the cow, the horse, the man, the beast; here where this holy prayer is used, a rampart that protecteth life. Let it preserve thee from the ill will of thy peers and of thy friends.

26 Live very long, be healthy: let not the vital breath forsake thy body before its time.

27 One and a hundred modes of death, dangers that may be overcome,—may God deliver thee from these, when He who is dear to all men so decrees.

28 Thou art a sign of the radiant power of God, prompt to save, a remedy against fiends and foes, yea, a banisher of malady, the heating balm called Putudru.