Aitareyabrahmana 2.30

2.30

The two-deity [cups] are the vital breaths; the iḷā is cattle. Having consumed the two-deity [cups], he invokes the iḷā. The iḷā is cattle; it is cattle that he invokes, cattle that he places in the sacrificer. Regarding this they say: 'Should one eat the intermediary iḷā first, or consume the hotṛ's cup?' He should eat the intermediary iḷā first, then consume the hotṛ's cup. Because he consumes the two-deity [cups] first, the drinking of Soma is first consumed by him. Therefore, he should eat the intermediary iḷā first, then consume the hotṛ's cup. Thus he encloses food on both sides with the two drinkings of Soma, for the enclosing of food. The two-deity [cups] are the vital breaths; the hotṛ's cup is the self. He pours the remnants of the two-deity [cups] into the hotṛ's cup; the hotṛ thus pours the vital breaths into his self, for the full span of life, to attain the full span of life. He reaches the full span of life who knows thus.