"Soota said, 'The Sarpa Satra (snake-sacrifice) then commenced according to due form. The sacrificial priests, competent in their respective duties according to the Shastras, dressed in black garments and their eyes red from contact with smoke, poured clarified butter into the blazing fire, uttering the appropriate mantras.
"Causing the hearts of all the snakes to tremble with fear, they poured clarified butter into the mouth of Agni uttering the names of the snakes. The snakes immediately began to fall into the blazing fire, deprived of physical feeling and piteously calling upon one another. Swollen and breathing hard, and twining each other with their heads and tails, they came in large numbers and fell into the fire.
"The white, the black, the blue, the old and the young--all fell alike into the fire, uttering various cries. Those measuring a krosa, and those measuring a yojana, and those of the measure of a gokarna, fell continuously with great violence into that first of all fires. Hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of snakes, deprived of all control over their bodyparts, perished on that occasion.
"Among those that perished, there were some that were like horses, other like trunks of elephants, and others of huge bodies and strength like maddened elephants of various colours and venomous poison, terrible and looking like maces (Gada in Hindi) furnished with iron-spikes, of great strength, ever inclined to bite, the snakes, pained with their mother's curse, fell into the fire.'"
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