The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c10.50

c10.50

But I think here also we may trace a reference to Prajâpati alias Yajna. The third accompaniment of a newly initiated boy is the deer-skin. Theoretically it is necessary that he should be fully clothed in a deer-skin, but practically we now attach a small piece of deer-skin to a silk thread and wear this thread along with the *Yajnopavîta*. *Mekhalâ*, *ajina*, *danda* (the girdle, the skin and the staff) are thus the three distinguishing marks of a newly initiated boy; and what could they mean, except that the boy is made to assume the dress of Prajâpati as far as possible. To become a Brâhman is to imitate Prajâpati, the first of the Brâhmans. Prajâpati assumed the form of a deer, so the boy is clothed in a deer-skin; Prajâpati has a girdle round his waist (the belt of Orion), so has the boy his *mekhalâ* with three knots over the navel; and lastly, Prajâpati has a staff, and so the boy must have it too.