9. The eared hedgehog said this, coming down from the mountain: whichsoever of these (f.) are produced by digging, of them the poison is most sapless.
This verse, which is rather out of place here, seems like a variation of RV. i. 191. 16: kuṣumbhakás tád abravīd giréḥ pravartamānakáḥ: vṛ́çcikasyā ’rasáṁ viṣám. Ppp. begins with kaṇvā. ⌊For the diminutive, cf. iv. 37. 10 and xiv. 2. 63.⌋
10. Tābúva, not tābúva; verily thou art not tābúva; by tābúva [is] the poison sapless.
Ppp. has instead tāvucaṁ na tāvucaṁn aher asiktaṁ tāvucenā ’rasaṁ viṣam. With this verse, according to Kāuç. (29. 13), one sips water from a gourd.
11. Tastúva, not tastúva; verily thou art not tastúva; by tastúva [is] the poison sapless.
Ppp. has for a, b, tastuvaṁ na harisiktaṁ tastuvaṁ. But for the ⌊unlingualized⌋ n of tastúvena, the word in our mss. might be equally read tasrúva ⌊SPP. reports this reading⌋. With this verse, according to Kāuç. (29. 14), one "binds the navel." ⌊Weber, Sb. 1896, p. 681 (see also p. 873), gives an elaborate discussion of these two verses. He deems tābuva a misread tāthuva (root stu = sthā), 'stopping, bannend.' But see Barth, Revue de l'histoire des religions, xxxix. 26.⌋
14. Against witchcraft: with a plant.
[Çukra.—trayodaçakam. vānaspatyam. kṛtyāpratiharaṇam. ānuṣṭubham: 8, 5, 12. bhurij; 8. 3-p. virāj; 10. nicṛd bṛhatī; 11. 3-p. sāmnī triṣṭubh; 13. svarāj.]
⌊Part of verse 8 is prose.⌋ Found also (except vss. 3, 5, which are wanting, and 9, 13, which occur in ii.) in Pāipp. vii. (in the order 1, 2, 8, 12, 4, 10, 11, 7, 6). Quoted in Kāuç. (39. 7) with ii. 11 and several other hymns, in a ceremony against witchcraft; vs. 9 also separately in 39. 11. Not noticed in Vāit.
Translated: Zimmer, p. 396; Grill, 26, 147; Griffith, i. 210; Bloomfield, 77, 429; Weber, xviii. 216.
1. An eagle (suparṇá) discovered thee; a hog dug thee with his snout; seek thou to injure, O herb, him that seeks to injure; smite down the witchcraft-maker.
We have had the first half-verse already, as ii. 27. 2 a, b. Ppp. has, for d, prati kṛtyākṛto daha.
2. Smite down the sorcerers, smite down the witchcraft-maker; then, whoever seeks to injure us, him do thou smite, O herb.
Ppp. omits, probably by oversight, the first half-verse.
3. Having cut around out of [his] skin a strip (pariçāsá), as it were of a stag, fasten, O gods, upon the witchcraft-maker the witchcraft, like a necklace.
