22. Black the descent, the yellow eagles, clothing themselves in waters, fly up to the sky; they have come hither from the seat of righteousness; then, forsooth, with ghee they deluged the earth.
The verse occurs also above as vi. 22. 1, and pādas a-c below in xiii. 3. 9. For parallel passages etc. see die note to vi. 22. 1. It is RV. i. 164. 47, the last verse of the RV. hymn that is included in the AV. text here (RV. vss. 43-46 are our 25-28 below), although of the remaining five RV. vss. all but one (51) are found in other parts of our text.
23. She that is footless goes first of them (fem.) that have feet: who understood (ā-cit) that of you, O Mitra and Varuṇa? the embryo brings (ā-bhṛ) the burden of her; she (?) fills (? pṛ) truth, protects (ni-pā) untruth.
The last pāda is especially obscure: he? or she? or it? and which root pṛ, 'fill' or 'pass'? The verse is RV. i. 152. 3, where we read tārit instead of pāti at the end, and asya for asyās at end of c. Ppp. also has tārīt, but, instead of ā́ cid asyāḥ (or asya), it reads ād ṛtasya.
24. Virā́j [is] speech, virā́j earth, virā́j atmosphere, virā́j Prajāpati; virā́j became death, the over-king of the perfectibles (sādhyá); in his control are what was, what is to be; let him put in my control what was, what is to be.
⌊Prose.⌋ This verse, with all that follows it, is wanting in Ppp. The Anukr. reckons the whole first part to the pause as one pāda (20 syllables, a kṛti-pāda); the pada-text understands it as two, dividing after pṛthivī.
25. The dung-made smoke I saw from far, with the dividing one, thus beyond the lower; the heroes cooked a spotted ox (ukṣán); those were the first ordinances.
The construction and sense of b are very obscure. The verse is 43 of RV. i. 164, and the remaining three follow in order. ⌊Henry, Mém. de la Soc. de linguistique, ix. 247, cites the vs.⌋
26. Three hairy ones look out seasonably; in the (a?) year one of them shears itself; another looks upon all with might (çácībhis); of one is seen the rush, not the form.
The RV. version ⌊vs. 44⌋ has in c víçam éko abhí caṣṭe; our abhicáṣṭe is a regular case of antithetical accent. The RV. pada-text does not divide saṁvatsare. Haug interprets the verse of the three forms of Agni; Hillebrandt (Ved. Mythol., i. p. 472), of the moon (!?), sun, and wind.
27. Speech [is] four measured out quarters (padá); those are known by Brahmans who are skilful; three, deposited in secret, they do not set in motion (in̄gay-); a fourth of speech human beings speak.
This verse is found, without variant, in TB. (ii. 8. 85) and ÇB. (iv. i. 317), as well as in RV. ⌊vs. 45⌋. Our Bp.2D.Kp. read ná: īn̄gayanti in c.
