Night! the terrestrial realm hath been filled with the Father's
power and might.
Thou spreadest forth on high unto the seats of Heaven: dark-
ness that strikes with awe comes near.
Each moving thing finds rest in her whose yonder boundary is
not seen, nor that which keeps her separate.
O spacious, darksome Night, may we uninjured reach the end of
thee, reach, O thou blessed One, thine end.
Thy ninety-nine examiners, O Night, who look upon mankind,
Eighty-and-eight in number, or seven-and-seventy are they.
Sixty-and-six, O opulent, fifty-and-five, O happy One,
Forty-and-four and thirty-three are they, O thou enriched with
spoil.
Twenty-and-two hast thou, O Night, eleven, yea, and fewer still.
With these protectors guard us well. O Daughter of the Sky, to-
day.
Let not a fiends or spiteful man, let no ill-wisher master us.
Let not the robber seize our cows, nor the wolf take our sheep
today.
Let not the thief, O Blessed, seize our horses, nor she-fiends our
men.
Let thief and robber run away on pathways most remote from
us.
Far from us let Rope with Fangs, far from us let the wicked
flee.
Do thou make blind and headless. Night, the serpent with his
pungent breath.
Crush the wolf's jaws in pieces, strike the robber dead against a
post.
In thee, O Night, do we abide: we here will sleep. Be watchful
thou.
Give thou protection to our kine; and to our horses, and our
men.
