16. Of those born together the seventh they call sole-born; six, they say, are twins, god-born seers; the sacrifices (? iṣṭá) of them, distributed according to their abodes, quake in their station, being altered (vi-kṛ) in respect to form.
Iṣṭā́ni in c might equally mean 'things desired.' Sthātré in d is most probably loc. of -trá, since, if from sthātṛ́, we should expect instead the ablative. ⌊The vs. recurs at TA. i. 3. 1 with udyamā́s for íd yamā́s.⌋
17. Below the distant (pára), thus beyond the lower, bearing (bhṛ) her calf with her foot, the cow hath stood up; whitherwards, to what quarter (árdha) hath she forsooth gone away? where giveth she birth? for [it is] not in this herd.
The Anukr. takes no notice of the redundant syllable in a; we may suppose pará enā́- to be combined to parāí ’nā́-. ⌊The verse is repeated below as xiii. 1. 41. RV. ends with antáḥ for asmín. The Kaṭha variant párākāt for párāgāt (WZKM. xii. 282) shows an exchange of surd and sonant, the reverse of that noted at ii. 13. 3.⌋
18. Below the distant whoever knows his father, below the distant, thus beyond the lower—who, playing the poet, shall proclaim [him] here? from whence [is] heavenly mind produced?
RV. and Ppp. read, in a, b, yó asyā ’nuvéda pará enā́-, rectifying the meter and lightening the construction. Only the first two pādas have any "jagatī" character, and they are very irregular. But by giving this name the Anukr. shows that it reads our version; in RV. and Ppp. the verse is a pure triṣṭubh. Read in d kúto (for kṛ́to).
19. Them that are hitherward they call off-ward; them, again, that are off-ward they call hitherward; what things, O Soma, thou and Indra have done, those they draw, harnessed as it were with the pole of the welkin.
The verse is found also in JB. i. 279, with no various readings that are not evident corruptions. The 'them' of a, b is masc., probably the same with the 'they' of d (yuktā́ḥ, p.). Ppp. reads niyuktā instead of na yuktā.
20. Two eagles (suparṇá), joint companions, embrace the same tree; of them the one eats the sweet berry; the other looks on all the time, not partaking.
Ppp. reads in a suyujā. Here and in the next verse, as everywhere else, some of our mss. read píṣpalam. ⌊The vs. plays a rôle in the Upanishads: cf. Çvet. iv. 6; Muṇḍ. iii. 1. 1. Hillebrandt, Ved. Mythol., i. 466, 399, treats this and the following vss.⌋
21. On what tree the honey-eating eagles all settle and give birth—what they call the sweet berry in the top of it, that cannot he attain who knoweth not [his] father.
RV. has íd āhuḥ instead of yád āhúḥ in c, and so also Ppp. (but āhuṣ). In RV. this verse follows after our vs. 22. There is a redundant syllable in c of which the Anukr. takes no notice (and the pāda is also capable of being crowded together into eleven syllables).
