The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c30.s4.1.2

v2.c30.s4.1.2

If the milk mess were to be offered on this day, a twig of Palāça or Çamī wood was cut to drive away the calves from the cows, for the milking of the latter, a rite which is paralleled in western Europe.² The ceremonies of the second day consisted in the preparation of the rice, its pounding and husking, the cooking of the cakes, the preparation of the altar, the girding of the wife of the sacrificer, the looking at a pot of butter, the covering of the altar with the grass, and the setting up of the partitioning sticks which were intended to keep off evil spirits. At the end of these preliminaries the real sacrifice begins ; first come fifteen Sāmidhenī verses accompanying the laying on of kindling wood. The verses are joined into a single whole by the device of pausing after the first half verse of each. Then come two libations of the butter, doubtless in part at least necessary to make the fire burn brightly ; between them comes the Pravara, the enumeration of the seers who were claimed as ancestors by the sacrificer—or if he were not a Brahman by his Purohita—and the invitation of the gods, whom Agni is invoked to bring to the offering in the order in which they were to be honoured. After the second of these Āghāras comes the formal choosing of the Hotṛ by the Adhvaryu on the authority of the Āgnīdhra, in which the ancestors of the sacrificer are again named. The Hotṛ then touches the Adhvaryu and Āgnīdhra, in order doubtless to establish a community between them.