who knows the Véda and its Angas, who desires long life:

42. They who are acquainted with past times, have preserved, on this subject, holy strains chanted by every breeze, declaring, that "seed must not be sown in the field of another man."

43. As the arrow of that hunter is vain, who shoots it into the wound, which another had made just before in the antelope, thus instantly perishes the seed, which a man throws into the soil of another:

44. Sages, who know former times, consider this earth (Priťhiví) as the wife of king PRITHU; and thus they pronounce cultivated land to be the property of him, who cut away the wood, or who cleared and tilled it; and the antelope, of the first hunter, who mortally wounded it.

45. Then only is a man perfect, when he consists of three persons united, his wife, himself, and his son; and thus have learned Bráhmens announced this maxim: "The husband is even one person with his wife," for all domestick and religious, not for all civil, purposes.

46. Neither by sale nor desertion can a wife be released from her husband: thus we fully acknowledge the law enacted of old by the Lord of creatures.

47. Once is the partition of an inheritance made; once is a damsel given in marriage; and once does a man say "I give:" these three are, by good men, done once for all and irrevocably.

48. As with cows, mares, female camels, slave-girls, milch buffalos, she-goats, and ewes, it is not the owner of the bull or other father, who owns the offspring, even thus is it with the wives of others.

49. They, who have no property in the field, but, having grain in their possession, sow it in soil owned by another, can receive no advantage whatever from the corn, which may be produced:

50. Should a bull beget a hundred calves on cows not owned by his master, those calves belong solely to the proprietors of the cows; and the strength of the bull was wasted:

51. Thus men, who have no marital property in women, but sow in the fields owned by others, may raise up fruit to the husbands; but the procreator can have no advantage from it.

52. Unless there be a special agreement between the owners of the land and of the seed, the fruit belongs clearly to the land-owner; for the receptacle is more important than the seed:

53. But the owners of the seed and of the soil may be considered in this world as joint owners of the crop, which they agree, by special compact in consideration of the seed, to divide between them.

54. Whatever man owns a field, if seed, conveyed into it by water or wind, should germinate, the plant belongs to the land-owner: the mere sower takes not the fruit.

55. Such is the law concerning the offspring of cows, and mares, of female camels, goats, and sheep, of slave-girls, hens, and milch buffalos, unless there be a special agree

ment.

56. THUS has the comparative importance of the soil and the seed been declared to you: I will next propound the law concerning women, who have no issue by their husbands.

57. The wife of an elder brother is considered as motherin-law to the younger; and the wife of the younger as daughter-in-law to the elder:

58. The elder brother, amorously approaching the wife of the younger, and the younger, caressing the wife of the elder, are both degraded, even though authorized by the husband or spiritual guide, except when such wife has no issue.

59. On failure of issue by the husband, if he be of the servile class, the desired offspring may be procreated, either by his brother or some other sapinda, on the wife, who has been duly authorized:

60. Sprinkled with clarified butter, silent, in the night, let the kinsman thus appointed beget one son, but a second by no means, on the widow or childless wife:

61. Some sages, learned in the laws concerning women, thinking it possible, that the great object of that appointment may not be obtained by the birth of a single son, are of

opinion, that the wife and appointed kinsman may legally procreate a second.

62. The first object of the appointment being obtained according to law, both the brother and the widow must live together like a father and a daughter by affinity.

63. Either brother, appointed for this purpose, who deviates from the strict rule, and acts from carnal desire, shall be degraded, as having defiled the bed of his daughter-in-law, or of his father.

64. By men of twice-born classes no widow, or childless wife, must be authorized to conceive by any other than her lord; for they, who authorize her to conceive by any other, violate the primeval law.

65. Such a commission to a brother or other near kinsman is no where mentioned in the nuptial texts of the Véda a; nor is the marriage of a widow even named in the laws concerning marriage.

66. This practice, fit only for cattle, is reprehended by learned Bráhmens; yet it is declared to have been the practice even of men, while VE'NA had sovereign power:

67. He, possessing the whole earth, and thence only called the chief of sage monarchs, gave rise to a confusion of classes, when his intellect became weak through lust.

68. Since his time the virtuous disapprove of that man, who, through delusion of mind, directs a widow to receive the caresses of another for the sake of progeny.

69. The damsel, indeed, whose husband shall die after troth verbally plighted, but before consummation, his brother shall take in marriage according to this rule:

70. Having espoused her in due form of law, she being clad in a white robe, and pure in her moral conduct, let him approach her once in each proper season, and until issue be had.

71. LET no man of sense, who has once given his daughter to a suitor, give her again to another; for he, who gives away his daughter, whom he had before given, incurs the guilt and fine of speaking falsely in a cause concerning mankind.

72. EVEN though a man have married a young woman in legal form, yet he may abandon her, if he find her blemished,

afflicted with disease, or previously deflowered, and given to him with fraud:

73. If any man give a faulty damsel in marriage, without disclosing her blemish, the husband may annul that act of her ill-minded giver.

74. SHOULD a man have business abroad, let him assure a fit maintenance to his wife, and then reside for a time in a foreign country; since a wife, even though virtuous, may be tempted to act amiss, if she be distressed by want of subsistence :

75. While her husband, having settled her maintenance, resides abroad, let her continue firm in religious austerities; but, if he leave her no support, let her subsist by spinning and other blameless arts.

76. If he live abroad on account of some sacred duty, let her wait for him eight years; if on account of knowledge or fame, six; if on account of pleasure, three: after those terms have expired, she must follow him.

77. FOR a whole year let a husband bear with his wife, who treats him with aversion; but, after a year, let him deprive her of her separate property, and cease to cohabit with her.

78. She, who neglects her lord, though addicted to gaming, fond of spirituous liquors, or diseased, must be deserted for three months, and deprived of her ornaments and household furniture:

79. But she, who is averse from a mad husband, or a deadly sinner, or an eunuch, or one without manly strength, or one afflicted with such maladies as punish crimes, must neither be deserted nor stripped of her property.

80. A WIFE, who drinks any spirituous liquors, who acts immorally, who shows hatred to her lord, who is incurably diseased, who is mischievous, who wastes his property, may at all times be superseded by another wife.

81. A barren wife may be superseded by another in the eighth year: she, whose children are all dead, in the tenth; she, who brings forth only daughters, in the eleventh; she, who speaks unkindly, without delay;

82. But she, who, though afflicted with illness, is beloved

and virtuous, must never be disgraced, though she may be superseded by another wife with her own consent.

83. If a wife, legally superseded, shall depart in wrath from the house, she must either instantly be confined, or abandoned in the presence of the whole family:

84. But she, who, having been forbidden, addicts herself to intoxicating liquor even at jubilees, or mixes in crowds at theatres, must be fined six racticàs of gold.

85. WHEN twice-born men take wives, both of their own class and others, the precedence, honour, and habitation of those wives, must be settled according to the order of their classes:

86. To all such married men, the wives of the same class only (not wives of a different class by any means) must perform the duty of personal attendance, and the daily business relating to acts of religion;

87. For he, who foolishly causes those duties to be performed by any other than his wife of the same class, when she is near at hand, has been immemorially considered as a mere Chandála begotten on a Bráhmenì.

88. To an excellent and handsome youth of the same class, let every man give his daughter in marriage, according to law; even though she have not attained her age of eight years:

89. But it is better, that the damsel, though marriageable, should stay at home till her death, than that he should ever give her in marriage to a bridegroom void of excellent qualities.

90. Three years let a damsel wait, though she be marriageable; but, after that term, let her chuse for herself a bridegroom of equal rank:

91. If, not being given in marriage, she chuse her bridegroom, neither she, nor the youth chosen, commits any offence;

92. But a damsel, thus electing her husband, shall not carry with her the ornaments, which she received from her father, nor those given by her mother or brethren: if she carry them away, she commits theft.

93. He, who takes to wife a damsel of full age, shall not