A prayer for protection against the evil spirits and the wicked.

1 I come with my offering to the Mighty, the slayer of demons; to the most famous Friend I come for shelter. May God the Radiant, whom our worship kindles and sharpens, protect us in the day and night from evil.

2 O All-Knowing God, whose power is as teeth of iron, attack the demons with thy flame. Seize with thy tongue the foolish worshippers of false gods: rend them, put within thy mouth the eaters of raw flesh.

3 Apply thy teeth, the upper and the lower, thou who hast both, enkindled and destroying. Roam also in the air, O King, around us, and with thy jaws assail the wicked spirits.

4 Pierce through the sorcerer's skin, O God; let the destroying dart with fire consume him. Rend his joints, All-Knowing! let the eater of raw flesh, seeking flesh, tear and destroy him.

5 Where now thou seest, O All-Knowing, a sorcerer, standing still or roaming, or one that flieth through the air's mid-region, pierce him as an archer, kindled to fury.

6 Bending thy shafts through our worship, O God, dipping thine arrows in the hymn to point them, pierce to the heart therewith the sorcerers, and break their arms uplifted to attack thee.

7 Rescue the captives also, All-Knowing! yea, those whom the sorcerers' spears have captured. Strike down that fiend, blazing before him, O God! Let spotted carrion-eating kites devour him.

8 Here tell this forth, O God: whosoever is, he himself, or acteth as, a demon, seize him, O thou Ever-Youthful, with thy fuel: to the eye of the Beholder of men give him as booty.

9 With keen glance guard our worship, O God; thou All-Wise, accept it. Let not the fiends, O Beholder of men, harm our worship, as thou burnest against the evil ones to slay them.

10 Look on the fiend 'mid men, as Beholder of men: rend thou his three extremities in pieces. Demolish with thy flame his ribs, O God: the sorcerer's root destroy thou triply.

11 Thrice, O God, let thy noose surround the demon who with his falsehood injures holy Order. Loud roaring with thy flame, O All-Knowing, fetter him in the presence of the singer.

12 O God, whatever curse the pair this day may utter, whatever rude rough word the worshippers have spoken, each arrowy taunt sped from the angry spirit,—pierce to the heart therewith the sorcerers.

13 With fervent heat exterminate the demons: destroy the fiends with glow and flame, O God. Destroy with fire the foolish worshippers of false gods: destroy the insatiate fiercely-burning creatures.

14 May God destroy to-day the evil-doer: may uttered curses turn again and strike him. Let arrows pierce the liar in his vitals, and the net of the All-Pervading enclose the sorcerer.

15 The fiend who smears himself with flesh of cattle, with flesh of horses and of human bodies, who steals the milch-cow's milk away, O God,—tear off the heads of such with fiery fury.

16 Let the fiends steal the poison of the cattle: may the earth cast off the evil-doers. May God the Light-giver give them up to ruin, and be their share of herbs and plants denied them.

17 The cow gives milk each year, O Beholder of men: let the sorcerer never taste it. O God, if one should glut him with the biestings, pierce with thy flame his vitals as he meets thee.

18 O God, from days of old thou slayest demons: never have fiends in fight o'ercome thee. Burn up the foolish ones, the flesh-devourers: let none of them escape thy heavenly arrow.

19 Guard us, O God, from above and under, protect us from behind and from before us; and may thy flames, most fierce and never wasting, glowing with fervent heat, consume the sinner.

20 From rear, from front, from under, from above us, O God, protect us as a sage with wisdom. Guard to old age thy friend as friend eternal: O Immortal, guard us mortals.

21 Lend thou the worshipper that eye, O God, wherewith thou lookest on the hoof-armed demons. With light celestial burn up the fool who ruins truth with falsehood.

22 We set thee round us as a fort, victorious God, thee, a sage, in conquering colour day by day, destroyer of the treacherous foe.

23 With deadly poison strike thou back the treacherous brood of fiends, O God, with thy sharpened glow, with rays that flash with points of flame.

24 God shines far and wide with lofty splendour, and by His greatness makes all things apparent. He conquers godless and malign enchantments, and sharpens both His horns to gore the ogres.

25 Thy two unwasting horns, O All-Knowing, keen-pointed weapons, sharpened by devotion—with these transfix the wicked-souled devourer, with fierce flame, All-Knowing! when he meets thee.

26 Bright, radiant, meet to be adored, immortal with refulgent glow, God drives the fiends away.