Jaiminīya (Talavakāra) Brāhmaṇa 2-8.322

2-8.322

Now these are the ten-day rites (daśarātra). One who is being practiced against with sorcery should sacrifice with this which is a ten-day rite. These days are ten; there are ten breaths in a man. Day by day he encloses a breath: with a day a breath, with a day a breath. Not from there does that breath of his surpass [him], which one practicing sorcery against him might strike down. But they say: 'One practicing sorcery should sacrifice with it.' These days are ten; there are ten breaths in a man. Day by day he strikes down the breath of the other: with a day a breath, with a day a breath. Not from there is that breath of the other left over, by which he, being practiced against with sorcery, might live. For this is indeed the preeminence among ritual acts: that this Soma sacrifice, the ten-day rite, is arranged according to a disposition, [thinking], 'By that which is preeminent among ritual acts, let our sacrifice be arranged.'