{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/av/av05013.htm","path":"hin/av/av05013.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/av/av05013.htm","text":"Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895]\n1Varuna, Sage of heaven, hath given me the gift: with spells of\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0mighty power I draw thy poison out.\n \u00a0\u00a0Dug up, not dug, adherent, I have seized it fast: low hath thy\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0venom sunk like water in the sands.\n 2All the non-fluid portion of thy venom, I receive in these.\n \u00a0\u00a0I take thy middlemost, thy highest, lowest juice: may it be\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0spent and lest by reason of thy fear.\n 3Strong is my cry like thunder with the rainy cloud: with power-\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0ful incantation let thy strength be stayed.\n \u00a0\u00a0I, with the men to aid, have seized that juice of his; as light\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0from out the gloom, let S\u016brya rise on high\n 4I with this eye destroy thine eye, and with this poison conquer\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0thine.\n \u00a0\u00a0Live not, O Snake, but die the death: back go thy venom on\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0thyself.\n 5Listen to me, Black Snakes and hateful creatures, Lurker-in-\n \u00a0\u00a0Grass, Karait, and Brown, and Spotty,\n \u00a0\u00a0Approach not near the house my friend inhabits: give warning,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and rest quiet with your poison.\n 6Even as the cord that strings the bow, I slacken, as it were, the\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0cars.\n \u00a0\u00a0Of the All-conquering serpent's wrath, of the fierce rage of\n \u00a0\u00a0Black, and Brown, Taim\u0101ta, and Apodaka.\n 7And \u0100ligi and Viligi, their father and the mother too,\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0What will ye do? Your venomed sap, we know, is utterly\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0powerless.\n 8Daughter of Urug\u016bl\u0101, she-fiend whom the black, skinned mother\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0bare\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0All female serpents poison who crept swiftly near is impotent.\n 9Dwelling beside the mountain's slope, the quick-eared porcupine\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0exclaimed:\n \u00a0\u00a0Of all these she-snakes homed in earth the poison is most\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0powerless.\n 10T\u0101buva or not T\u0101buva, thou verily art not T\u0101buva: poison is\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0killed by T\u0101buva. p. a171\n \u00a0\u00a0Tastuva or not Tastuva, thou verily art not Tastuva: poison is\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0killed by Tastuva.","title":"Atharva Veda: Book 5: Hymn 13: A charm against snakes","type":"page"}