I, 15

KANDIKÂ 15.

1. Now the Sîmantonnayana (or parting of the pregnant wife's hair).

2 2. (it is performed) like the Pumsavana;

3. In her first pregnancy, in the sixth or eighth month.

4 15_4. After he has cooked a mess of sacrificial food, containing sesamum and Mudga beans, and has sacrificed to Pragâpati, he parts for the wife, who is seated to the west of the fire on a soft chair, her hair upwards (i.e. beginning from the front) with a bunch containing an even number of unripe Udumbara

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fruits, and with three bunches of Darbha grass, with a porcupine's quill that has three white spots, with a stick of Vîratara wood, and with a full spindle. with the words, 'Bhûr bhuvah svah.'

5. Or (he parts the hair once) with each of the (three) Mahâvyâhritis.

6 6. He ties (the Udumbara fruits, &c.) to a string of three twisted threads with (the words), 'Rich in sap is this tree; like the tree, rich in sap, be thou fruitful.'

7 7. (The husband) then says to two lute-players, 'Sing ye the king, or if anybody else is still more valiant.'

8 8. Here some also prescribe a certain stanza (to be sung by the lute-players): 'Soma alone is our king. May these human tribes dwell on thy banks, O (river) whose dominion is unbroken, N.N.!'—here he names the name of the river near which they dwell.

9. Then (follows) feeding of the Brâhmanas.

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