18. The cooked goat, having five rice-dishes, driving off perdition, sets [one] in the heavenly (svargá) world; with it may we conquer worlds that possess suns.
As noted above, the verse is wanting in Ppp.
19. [The goat] which one deposited with the Brahman, and which among the people (vikṣú); what scattered drops (viprúṣ) [there are] of the rice-dishes, of the goat—all that of ours, O Agni, do thou later know in the world of the well-done, at the meeting of the ways.
20. The goat verily strode out here (idám) in the beginning; this [earth] became its breast, the sky its back, the atmosphere its middle, the quarters its (two) sides, the (two) oceans its paunches;
⌊Prose—20, 21, and 22.⌋
21. Both truth and right its eyes, all truth [and] faith its breath, the virā́j its head; this verily is an unlimited offering, namely (yát) the goat with five rice-dishes.
The second satyam in vs. 21 is doubtless a corrupt reading, and the Ppp. version indicates that we should have instead rūpám ('the universe its form,' instead of 'all truth'). Ppp. reads, for the two verses: ajaṣ pañcāudano vy akramaia tasyo ’ra iyam abhavad udaram antarikṣam: dyāuṣ ṭe pṛṣṭhaṁ diçaṣ pārçve: dīçaç cā ’tidīçaç ca çṛn̄ge satyaṁ ca ṛtaṁ ca cakṣuṣī viçvarūpaṁ çraddhā etc. All the saṁhitā-mss. read ca rtáṁ (instead of ca ṛtáṁ) near the beginning of vs. 21. The text of the Anukr. is apparently defective, leaving out the metrical definition of vss. 20-22 and vs. 25.
22. An unlimited offering does he obtain, an unlimited world does he take possession of (ava-rudh), who gives a goat with five rice-dishes, with the light of sacrificial gifts.
Wanting in Ppp., as noted above.
23. He should not split its bones; he should not suck out its marrow; taking it all together, he should cause it to enter here and here.
Or, 'should cause this and this to enter'; the sense is obscure. Ppp. reads in c sarvāṇi for sarvam enam. By calling the verse a purauṣṇih, the Anukr. intends that its first two pādas be read as one, of 12 syllables. The Kāuç. quotes (66. 31, 32; next after quotations of verses from hymn 3) both halves of the verse, the latter to accompany the act of piercing an object and scattering it into a pit filled with water.
24. This and this verily becomes its form; therewith one makes it come together; food, greatness, refreshment it yields (duh) to him who gives a goat with five rice-dishes, with the light of sacrificial gifts.
