7. If the flesh-eating Agni hath entered our house, seeing this other Jātavedas, him I take afar for the Fathers' sacrifice; let him kindle the hot drink (gharmá) in the highest station.
The verse is also RV. x. 16. 10, where is read vas for nas in a, devám for dūrám in c, and invāt for indhām in d. It is used in Kāuç. 71. 6 with vs. 4 (see note to latter).
8. I send far forth the flesh-eating Agni; let him go, carrying evil (riprá-), to Yama's subjects; here let this other Jātavedas carry the oblation, a god to the gods, foreknowing.
The verse is also RV. x. 16. 9 (and VS. xxxv. 19 ⌊with yamarā́jyam⌋): our text defaces the meter of c, d by omitting evá after ihá and inserting devás. ⌊Cf. MGS. ii. 1. 8 and p. 149.⌋ This and the two following verses are used in Kāuç. 71. 12 to accompany the removed fire. ⌊The same three vss. are quoted by the comm. to 81. 33.⌋
9. I, being sent, take the flesh-eating Agni, a death, making people fixed with the thunderbolt; I, knowing, separate (? ni-çās) him from the householder's fire; also in the world of the Fathers be he [their] portion.
Ppp. reads iṣitaṁ in a, and, in d, lokaṁ paramo yotu. The sense of b is so strange that we cannot but suspect a corrupt text. ⌊Roth would read tṛṅhantam, ZDMG. xlviii. 107.⌋ In d, nearly all the saṁhitā-mss. (all save Bs.E.) read loké ‘pi, which is therefore probably the true text. The description by the Anukr. of this fairly regular triṣṭubh is very strange.
10. The flesh-eating Agni, active, praiseworthy, I send forth by the roads that the Fathers go; come thou not back by those that the gods go; be thou just there (átra); watch thou over the Fathers.
Ppp. reads, in c-d, mā devayānāis pathibhir ā gā ’trāi ’va, which does not help the defective meter; of this the Anukr. takes no notice.
11. They kindle the devouring one (sáṁkasuka) in order to well-being, becoming cleansed, bright, purifying; he abandons evil (riprá), passes over sin; Agni, kindled, purifies with a good purifier.
Ppp. combines ene ’ti in c. The Anukr. does not heed that the first pāda is properly jagatī. The verse is quoted in Kāuç. 71. 5 (see note to vs. 1). ⌊Caland, WZKM. viii. 368, thinks that this verse (not xviii. 4. 41) is intended at Kāuç. 86. 18.⌋ ⌊Over "devouring," as rendering of sáṁkasuka (which occurs in vss. 11-14, 19, 40), W. has interlined 'crushing' in three instances.⌋
12. God Agni the devouring hath ascended the backs of the sky; being released out of sin, he hath released us from imprecation.
Some of our mss. (P.M.W.E.) read nír éṇaso in c. Ppp. reads, here and below, saṁkusika-.
13. On this devouring Agni do we wipe off evils; we have become fit for sacrifice, cleansed; may he prolong our life-times.
