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- O dice, give play that profit brings,
- Like cows that yield abundant milk:
- Attach me to a streak of gain,
- As with a string the bow is bound (vii. 5, 9).
A certain number of hymns contain charms to secure harmony, to allay anger, strife, and discord, or to procure ascendency in the assembly. The following one is intended for the latter purpose:—
- O assembly, we know thy name,
- "Frolic"[1] truly by name thou art:
- May all who meet and sit in thee
- Be in their speech at one with me (vii. 12, 2).
A few hymns consist of formulas for the expiation of sins, such as offering imperfect sacrifices and marrying before an elder brother, or contain charms for removing the defilement caused by ominous birds, and for banishing evil dreams.
- If waking, if asleep, I have
- Committed sin, to sin inclined,
- May what has been and what shall be
- Loose me as from a wooden post (vi. 115, 2).
A short hymn (vi. 120), praying for the remission of sins, concludes with this stanza:—
- In heaven, where our righteous friends are blessed,
- Having cast off diseases from their bodies,
- From lameness free and not deformed in members,
- There may we see our parents and our children.
Another group of hymns has the person of the king as its centre. They contain charms to be used at a royal election or consecration, for the restoration of an
