Atharva Veda · 78 of 724

HYMN XI

A charm for the recovery of a dangerously sick man 1. For life I set thee free by this oblation both from unmarked'.    decline and from consumption:   Or if the grasping demon have possessed him, free him from her,.   O Indra, thou and Agni! 2. Be his days ended, be he now departed, be he brought very    near to death already,   Out of Destruction's lap again I bring him, save him for life to    last a hundred autumns. 3. With sacrifice thousand-eyed and hundred-powered, bringing a    hundred lives, have I restored him,   That Indra through the autumns may conduct him safe to the    farther shore of all misfortune. 4. Live, waxing in thy strength a hundred autumns, live through    a hundred springs, a hundred winters!   Indra, Agni, Savitar, Brihaspati give thee a hundred! With    hundred-lived oblation have I saved him, 5. Breath, Respiration, come to him, as two car-oxen to their    stall!   Let all the other deaths, whereof men count a hundred, pass    away. 6. Breath, Respiration, stay ye here. Go ye not hence away from    him,   Bring, so that he may reach old age, body and members back    again. 7. I give thee over to old age, make thee the subject of old age.   Let kindly old age lead thee on. Let all the other deaths, whereof    men count a hundred, pass away! 8. Old age hath girt thee with its bonds even as they bind a bull    with rope.   The death held thee at thy birth bound with a firmly-knotted    noose,   Therefrom, with both the hands of Truth, Brihaspati hath loose-    ned thee.