Aitareyabrahmana 2.7

2.7

'Unite the demon with the blood,' he says.
With husks and chaff the gods excluded the demons from the oblational sacrifices,
and with blood from the great sacrifice. When he says, 'Unite the demon with the blood,'
he thereby expels the demons from the sacrifice with their own share.
Concerning this they say: 'One should not mention the demons at the sacrifice.
What demons? For the sacrifice is free of demons.'
Yet on the other hand they say: 'One should indeed mention them.
Whoever drives away a shareholder from his share, [the shareholder] avenges himself on him;
and if he does not avenge himself on him, then on his son or on his grandson; but he certainly avenges himself on him.'
If he mentions [them], he should mention [them] in a whisper.
What is in a whisper is concealed, as it were, and the demons are concealed, as it were.
Now if he mentions [them] aloud, he would be liable to produce demon-speech in his voice—
that speech which one speaks as demonic speech.
What an arrogant man speaks, what a madman speaks, that is demonic speech.
He does not become arrogant in himself, nor is an arrogant [descendant] born in his offspring, who knows this.
'Do not tear its entrails, thinking them an owl,
lest a shrieker shriek among your children and descendants, O slaughterers.'
To the slaughterers of the gods and to those of humans,
he thereby entrusts it.
'O Adhrigu, slaughter! Slaughter well! Slaughter, O Adhrigu!'
Three times he should say this, and 'O Apāpa.' Adhrigu is the slaughterer of the gods, and Apāpa is the restrainer;
he delivers it over to the slaughterers and to the restrainers.
'O slaughterers, what well-done deed you do here, that is for us;
what ill-done deed, that is elsewhere,' he says. Agni was the hotṛ priest of the gods;
he carved it with speech; with speech the hotṛ priest carves it.
Therefore, what they cut short, what they cut too far, what is defective, what is ruined,
he assigns that to the slaughterers and the restrainers;
the hotṛ priest frees himself safely, [obtaining] the full lifespan for living out the full lifespan.
He goes to his full lifespan who knows this.