The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c10.46

c10.46

But the sacred thread is not the only trace of Orion's dress that we have retained. A reference to the Upanayana ceremonial will show that we have preserved belt, staff, skin, and all. Every boy, who is the subject of this ceremony, has to wear a *mekhalā* or grass cord round his waist, and we still put three knots to this cord just over the navel, as it were, to represent the three stars in the belt of Orion.* In the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā 4. 10, we are told that the knot of the *mekhalā*, when it is worn for sacrificial purposes, is to be tied with the mantra, "you are the knot of Soma,"† which Mahidhara explains as "a knot dear to Soma;" but which remembering that we have a similar verse in the Haoma Yasht, may be naturally interpreted to mean the knot of Soma, the presiding deity over the constellation of Orion. Then every boy whose *upanayana*, or the thread ceremony as it is popularly understood, is performed, must carry with him a stick of the *palāsha* or the fig-tree and the same passage in the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā says that for sacrificial purposes the stick (*daṇḍa*) is to be taken in hand by the Mantra, "O wood! be erect and protect me from sin till the end of this *yajña*." Here again Mahidhara interprets *yajña* to mean sacrifice for which the staff is taken up.