The same becomes the case with
every other man that engages in fight. Every warrior accoutred in armour,
by advancing against foes in battle array, becomes installed in that
sacrifice. Indeed, it is a settled conclusion that such a person, by
acting in this way, comes to be regarded as the performer of the
sacrifice of battle.'
"Amvarisha said, 'What constitutes the libations in that sacrifice? What
constitutes its liquid offerings? What is its Dakshina? Who, again, are
regarded its Ritwijas? Tell me all this, O performer of a hundred
sacrifices.'
"Indra said, 'Elephants constitute the Ritwijas of that sacrifice, and
steeds are its Audharyus. The flesh of foes constitutes ifs libations,
and blood is its liquid offering.[290] Jackals and vultures and ravens,
as also winged shafts, constitute its Sadasyas. These drink the remnants
left of the liquid offering in this sacrifice and eat the remnants of its
libations. Heaps of lances and spears, of swords and darts and axes,
blazing, sharp, and well-tempered, constitute the ladles of the
sacrificer. Straight, sharp, and well-tempered arrows, with keen points
and capable of piercing the bodies of foes, impelled from well-stretched
bows, constitute its large double-mouthed ladles. Sheathed in scabbards
made of tiger-skin and equipped with handles made of ivory, and capable
of cutting off the elephant's trunk, the swords form the Sphises of this
sacrifice.[291] The strokes inflicted with blazing and keen lances and
darts and swords and axes, all made of hard iron, constitute its profuse
wealth procured from the respectable people by agreement in respect of
the amount and period.
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