Five verses. A dove sent as the envoy of Destruction (Nirriti) has entered the dwelling and settled by the fireplace. The family asks the gods that the visit be harmless to two-footed and four-footed, that Agni accept their offering and the winged missile pass them by; they honour Yama, Death, as its sender, call the owl's screech ineffective, and chase the bird out with holy verses.
Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer § 10.165
The same verses divided into three short charms, with additions: reverence to Yama who first reached the river and is lord of two-footed and four-footed; the envoys of Destruction, dove and owl, 'sent or not sent', are to be without effect.
Split into three charms for averting misfortune; adds the owl as a second envoy and the verse on Yama exploring the path.
Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1895) § 6.27-29
Sources: Hymns of the Rigveda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1896), hymns read for the Vedic layer; Hymns of the Atharva-Veda, tr. R. T. H. Griffith (1895)
Singers steady themselves and call a man's spirit back for sense, strength and life.
The gods build the first hearth, climb it and see only impenetrable darkness.
The childless sage Mrikandu is offered by Shiva a choice: a good son who dies at sixteen or a fool who lives long.
The funeral hymn gives the dead to Pushan, who knows the far road; the Isha Upanishad asks him to uncover the face of the True.
King Prithu, son of Vena, makes the Earth yield grain by milking her as a cow; told as a cosmic milking in the Atharvaveda, a friendly one in the Mahabharata and a chase in the Puranas.
The Sun's wife cannot bear his splendour.
Agni, afraid of the priestly work, hides in the waters and plants.
Yama chooses death, finds the path to the other world and becomes king of those who follow; the funeral hymn directs the dead to him past his two dogs.