That, Bounteous One, she may live blest in her fortune and her sons.

26 Let the Nourisher take thy hand and hence conduct thee; may the two healers on their car transport thee.

Go to the house to be the household's mistress and speak as lady to thy gathered people.

27 Happy be thou and prosper with thy children here: be vigilant to rule thy household in this home.

Closely unite thy body with this man, thy lord. So shall ye, full of years, address your company.

31 Consumptions, from her people, which follow the bride's resplendent train,

These let the Holy One again bear to the place from which they came.

32 Let not the highway thieves who lie in ambush find the wedded pair.

By pleasant ways let them escape the danger, and let foes depart.

33 Signs of good fortune mark the bride: come all of you and look at her.

Wish her prosperity, and then return unto your homes again.

36 I take thy hand in mine for happy fortune, that thou mayst reach old age with me thy husband.

God hath given thee to be my household's mistress.

37 O Lord, send her on as most auspicious, her who shall be the sharer of my pleasures;

Her who shall twine her loving arms about me, and welcome all my love.

39 God hath given the bride with splendour and with ample life.

Long lived be he who is her lord; a hundred autumns let him live.

42 Be ye not parted; dwell ye here, reach the full time of human life.

With sons and grandsons sport and play, rejoicing in your own abode.

43 So may God bring children forth to us; may the Friend adorn us till old age come nigh.

Not inauspicious enter thou thy husband's house: bring blessing to our bipeds and our quadrupeds.

44 Not evil-eyed, no slayer of thy husband, bring weal to cattle, radiant, gentle-hearted;

Loving the righteous, delightful, bearing heroes, bring blessing to our quadrupeds and bipeds.

45 O Bounteous One, make this bride blest in her sons and fortunate.

Vouchsafe to her ten sons, and make her husband the eleventh man.

46 Over thy husband's father and thy husband's mother bear full sway.

Over the sister of thy lord, over his brothers rule supreme.

47 So may the Universal Powers, so may the waters join our hearts.

May the Creator and the Disposer together bind us close.

HYMN LXXXVII. Against Evil.

1 Balm with oil the mighty destroyer of evil; to the most famous Friend I come for shelter.

Enkindled, sharpened by our rites, may the Radiant One protect us in the day and night from evil.

2 O Knower of all that is born, with teeth of iron, enkindled with Thy flame attack the evil ones.

Seize with Thy tongue the foolish worshippers of false gods: rend, put within Thy mouth the raw-flesh eaters.

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 Bending Thy shafts through worship, whetting their points with song as if with whetstones,

Pierce to the heart therewith the sorcerers, and break their arms uplifted to attack Thee.

5 Pierce through the sorcerer's skin; let the destroying dart with fire consume him.

Rend his joints, O Knower of all, let the eater of flesh, flesh-seeking, track his mangled body.

6 Where now Thou seest one of these evil ones, standing still or roaming,

Or flying on those paths in air's mid-region, sharpen the shaft and as an archer pierce him.

7 Tear from the evil spirit what he hath seized and with his spears hath captured.

Blazing before him strike him down; let spotted carrion-eating kites devour him.

8 Whosoever is, he himself, or acteth as, an evil one,

Him grasp, O Ever Young, with Thy fuel, to the seer's eye give him as booty.

9 With keen glance guard the worship, thou Sage, conduct it onward to the righteous.

Let not the fiends, O Beholder of men, harm Thee, burning against the evil ones to slay them.

10 Look on the fiend amid men, as Beholder of men: rend his three extremities in pieces.

Demolish with Thy flame his ribs; the sorcerer's root destroy Thou triply.

11 Thrice let Thy noose surround the evil one who with his falsehood injures Holy Order.

Loud roaring with Thy flame, crush him and cast him down before the singer.

12 Lead the worshipper that eye wherewith Thou lookest on the hoof-armed evil one.

With light celestial, in the manner of the ancient seer, burn up the foot of him who ruins truth with falsehood.

13 What curse the pair this day have uttered, what heated word the worshippers have spoken,

Each arrowy taunt sped from the angry spirit, pierce to the heart therewith the sorcerers.

14 With fervent heat exterminate the evil ones; destroy the fiends with burning flame.

Destroy the foolish worshippers of false gods; blaze and destroy the insatiable monsters.

15 May the righteous destroy this day the evil-doer; may each hot curse of his return and blast him.

Let arrows pierce the liar in his vitals, and the net of all enclose the sorcerer.

16 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, tear off the heads of such with fiery fury.

17 The cow gives milk each year, O Beholder of men: let not the sorcerer ever taste it.

If one would glut him with the beestings, pierce with Thy flame his vitals as he meets Thee.

18 Let the fiends drink the poison of the cattle; may the Boundless cast off the evildoers.

May the Light-giver give them up to ruin, and be their share of plants and herbs denied them.

19 From days of old Thou slayest evil ones: never shall the wicked in fight o'ercome Thee.

Burn up the foolish ones, the flesh-devourers: let none of them escape Thine heavenly arrow.

20 Guard us from above and under, protect us from behind us and before us;

And may Thy flames, most fierce and never wasting, glowing with fervent heat, consume the sinner.

21 From rear, from front, from under, from above us, O King, protect us as a Sage with wisdom.

Guard to old age Thy friend, O Friend, Eternal: as Immortal, guard us mortals.

22 We set Thee round us as a fort, victorious One, Thee a Sage,

Of hero lineage, day by day, destroyer of our treacherous foes.

23 Burn with Thy poison turned against the treacherous brood of the wicked,

With Thy sharpened glow, with lances armed with points of flame.

25 Shoot forth with Thy flame, demolish them on every side.

Break Thou the sorcerer's strength, the vigour of the wicked.

HYMN LXXXVIII. The Radiant.

1 Dear, ageless offering is made in the light-discovering, heaven-pervading Light.

The servants of God spread forth through His celestial nature, that He might bear the world up and sustain it.

2 The world was swallowed and concealed in darkness: the Light was born, and brightness became apparent.

The angels, the broad earth, and the heavens, and plants, and waters gloried in His friendship.

3 Inspired by the righteous who claim our adoration, I now will praise the Eternal, Lofty One,

Him who hath spread abroad the earth with lustre, this heaven, and both the worlds, and air's mid-region.

4 Earliest priest, whom all accepted, and chose him, and anointed him with butter,

He swiftly made all things that fly, stand, travel, all that hath motion, the Knower of all that is born.

5 Because Thou, Knower of all, stoodest at the world's head with Thy refulgent splendour,

We sent Thee forth with hymns and songs and praises: Thou filledst heaven and earth, God meet for worship.

6 Head of the world is the Light in the night-time; then, as the sun, at morn springs up and rises.

Then to his task goes the prompt priest foreknowing the wondrous power of those who must be honoured.

7 Lovely is he who, kindled in his greatness, hath shone forth, seated in the heavens, refulgent.

With resonant hymns all who guard our bodies have offered up their offering for God's sake.

8 First the hymnal was brought into being; then the light, then the offering.

It was their worship that guards our bodies: the heavens know it, the earth, the waters know it.

9 He whom the righteous have praised, in whom they offered up all worlds and creatures,

With his bright glow heated earth and heaven, urging himself right onward in his grandeur.

10 Then by the praise they made appear in heaven the light that fills both worlds through strength and vigour.

They made it to appear in threefold essence: it ripens plants of every form and nature.

11 What time the servants of God, whose due is worship, set the sun in heaven,

When the pair, ever wandering, sprang to being, all creatures that existed looked upon them.

12 For all the world of life the Lord made the Light of all men to be the days' bright banner,

Him who hath spread abroad the radiant mornings, and, coming with his light, unveils the darkness.

13 The wise and holy servants of God engendered the Light of all men, whom age ne'er touches.

The ancient star that wanders on for ever, lofty and strong, Lord of the living being.

14 We call upon the Sage with holy verses, the Light of all men, the ever-beaming,

Who hath surpassed both heaven and earth in greatness: He is Lord below, Lord above us.

15 I have heard mention of two several pathways, ways of the forefathers and of the righteous and mortals.

On these two paths each moving creature travels, each thing between the Father and the Mother.

16 These two united paths bear him who journeys, born from the head and pondered with the spirit.

He stands directed to all things existing, hasting, unresting in his fiery splendour.

17 Which of us twain knows where they speak together, upper and lower of the two rite-leaders?

Our friends have helped to gather our assembly. They came to worship; who will announce it?

18 How many are the fires and suns in number? What is the number of the dawns and waters?

Not jestingly I speak to you, O forefathers. Sages, I ask you this for information.

19 As great as is the fair-winged morning's presence to him who dwells beside us,

Is what the scholar does when he approaches to worship and sits below the priest.

HYMN LXXXIX. The Mighty.

1 I will extol the most heroic Mighty One, who with His might forced earth and sky asunder; who hath filled all with width as man's Upholder, surpassing floods and rivers in His greatness.

2 The sun is His sign: throughout the wide expanses shall He turn it, swift as car-wheels, hither. Like a stream resting not but ever active He hath destroyed, with light, the black-hued darkness.