A hymn to Night for protection from fiends, robbers, snakes and wolves

Hymns of the Atharva Veda, by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1895], at sacred-texts.com

HYMN XLVII

A hymn to Night for protection from fiends, robbers, snakes and wolves

1Night! 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.
2Each 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.
3Thy ninety-nine examiners, O Night, who look upon mankind,
  Eighty-and-eight in number, or seven-and-seventy are they.
4Sixty-and-six, O opulent, fifty-and-five, O happy One,
  Forty-and-four and thirty-three are they, O thou enriched with
   spoil.
5Twenty-and-two hast thou, O Night, eleven, yea, and fewer still.
  With these protectors guard us well. O Daughter of the Sky, to-
   day.
6Let 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.
7Let 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.
8Far 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.
9Crush the wolf's jaws in pieces, strike the robber dead against a
   post. p. 250
  In thee, O Night, do we abide: we here will sleep. Be watchful
   thou.
10Give thou protection to our kine; and to our horses, and our
   men.