Parah, Chapter 3, Mishnah 9. This chapter follows the preparation of the Parah Adumah in order, stage by stage. In our mishnah the cow is bound and set upon the arranged woodpile, she is slaughtered, her blood is sprinkled toward the Beis Hamikdash, and the fire is lit.
"Kefasuha bechevel shel ma'agag": the cow was tied up with a rope of ma'agag. "Venosnuha al gav hama'aracha": she was then laid upon the pile of wood that had been prepared for her. "Roshah badorom ufaneha lama'arav": she was positioned with her head pointing southward and her face turned in a westerly direction.
A ma'agag rope is made from a species of reed. The reason for using it is exact: the entire service was to be carried out with materials that are not susceptible to ritual impurity, so even the rope that bound the cow was chosen from a substance that cannot become tamei.
"HaKohen omed bamizrach ufanav lama'arav." The kohen stood on the eastern side, with his face toward the west.
"Shachat bimino vekibel bismolo": the shechitah itself was performed with his right hand, while it was his left hand that caught the blood as it flowed out.
"Rebbe Yehudah omer". Rebbe Yehudah paints a different picture of how this was done: "bimino haya mekabel, venosein lismolo, umazeh bimino". In his description the kohen caught the blood with his right hand, transferred it across into his left, and then carried out the sprinkling with the right hand once again.
Now comes the sprinkling. "Toval vehizah sheva pe'amim": he dipped his finger into the blood and sprinkled seven separate times, "keneged Beis Kodesh HaKodashim", directing each sprinkling toward the innermost chamber of the Beis Hamikdash, the Holy of Holies.
"Al kol hazaya tvila." Each one of those seven sprinklings required its own fresh dipping into the blood; he did not sprinkle twice from a single dip.
"Gamar melehazos": once the seven sprinklings had been completed, the blood remaining on his hand had to be removed, and the mishnah tells us exactly where he removed it. "Kinach es yado", he wiped his hand clean, "begufah shel parah", against the carcass of the Parah Adumah itself.
"Yarad vehitzis es ha'eish ba'alisos." He then came down and kindled the fire using chips of wood.
"Rebbe Akiva omer". According to Rebbe Akiva, the material used to start the flame was "bacharios", branches taken from a palm tree.
With that, the fire is burning beneath the cow on the tower of wood, and the service of the Parah Adumah moves toward its next stage.