8. But a twice-born man, who keeps a less provision of grain, yet presumes to taste the juice of the moon-plant, shall gather no fruit from that sacrament, even though he taste it at the first, or solemn, much less at any occasional, ceremony.

9. HE, who bestows gifts on strangers, with a view to worldly fame, while he suffers his family to live in distress, though he has power to support them, touches his lips with honey, but swallows poison; such virtue is counterfeit :

10. Even what he does for the sake of his future spiritual body, to the injury of those, whom he is bound to maintain, shall bring him ultimate misery both in this life and in the next.

11. SHOULD a sacrifice, performed by any twice-born sacrificer, and by a Bráhmen especially, be imperfect from the want of some ingredient, during the reign of a prince, who knows the law,

12. Let him take that article, for the completion of the sacrifice, from the house of any Vaisya, who possesses considerable herds, but neither sacrifices, nor drinks the juice of the moon-plant;

13. If such a Vaisya be not near, he may take two or three such necessary articles at pleasure from the house of a Súdra; since a Súdra has no business with solemn rites.

14. Even from the house of a Bráhmen or a Cshatriya, who possesses a hundred cows, but has no consecrated fire, or a thousand cows, but performs no sacrifice with the moonplant, let a priest without scruple take the articles wanted.

15. From another Bráhmen, who continually receives presents but never gives, let him take such ingredients of the sacrifice, if not bestowed on request: so shall his fame be spread abroad, and his habits of virtue increase.

16. Thus, likewise, may a Bráhmen, who has not eaten at the time of six meals, or has fasted three whole days, take at the time of the seventh meal, or on the fourth morning, from the man, who behaves basely by not offering him food, enough to supply him till the morrow :

17. He may take it from the floor, where the grain is trodden out of the husk, or from the field, or from the house,

or from any place whatever; but if the owner ask why he takes it, the cause of the taking must be declared.

18. The wealth of a virtuous Bráhmen must at no time be seized by a Cshatriya; but, having no other means to complete a sacrifice, he may take the goods of any man, who acts wickedly, and of any, who performs not his religious duties:

19. He, who takes property from the bad for the purpose before-mentioned, and bestows it on the good, transforms himself into a boat, and carries both the good and the bad over a sea of calamities.

20. Wealth, possessed by men for the performance of sacrifices, the wise call the property of the gods; but the wealth of men, who perform no sacrifice, they consider as the property of demons.

21. Let no pious king fine the man, who takes by stealth or by force what he wants to make a sacrifice perfect; since it is the king's folly, that causes the hunger or wants of a Bráhmen:

22. Having reckoned up the persons, whom the Bráhmen is obliged to support, having ascertained his divine knowledge and moral conduct, let the king allow him a suitable maintenance from his own household;

23. And, having appointed him a maintenance, let the king protect him on all sides; for he gains from the Bráhmen whom he protects, a sixth part of the reward for his virtue.

24. LET no Bráhmen ever beg a gift from a Súdra; for, if he perform a sacrifice after such begging, he shall, in the next life, be born a Chandála.

25. The Bráhmen who begs any articles for a sacrifice, and disposes not of them all for that purpose, shall become a kite or a crow for a hundred years.

*

26. Any evil-hearted wretch, who, through covetousness, shall seize the property of the gods or of Bráhmens, shall feed in another world on the orts of vultures.

27. THE sacrifice Vaiswánaré must be constantly performed on the first day of the new year, or on the new moon

*The bhása is explained to be a vulture, and not a kite, by Mr. Wilson.

of Chaitra, as an expiation for having omitted, through mere forgetfulness, the appointed sacrifices of cattle and the rites of the moon-plant:

28. But a twice-born man, who, without necessity, does an act allowed only in a case of necessity, reaps no fruit from it hereafter thus has it been decided.

29. By the Viswédévas, by the Sádhyas, and by eminent Rishis of the sacerdotal class, the substitute was adopted for the principal act, when they were apprehensive of dying in times of imminent peril ;

30. But no reward is prepared in a future state for that ill-minded man, who, when able to perform the principal sacrifice, has recourse to the substitute.

31. A PRIEST, who well knows the law, needs not complain to the king of any grievous injury; since, even by his own power, he may chastise those, who injure him :

32. His own power, which depends on himself alone, is mightier than the royal power, which depends on other men : by his own might, therefore, may a Bráhmen coerce his foes.

33. He may use, without hesitation, the powerful charms revealed to AT'HARVAN, and by him to ANGIRAS; for speech is the weapon of a Bráhmen: with that he may destroy his oppressors.

34. A soldier may avert danger from himself by the strength of his arm; a merchant and a mechanick, by their property; but the chief of the twice-born, by holy texts and oblations to fire.

35. A priest, who performs his duties, who justly corrects his children and pupils, who advises expiations for sin, and who loves all animated creatures, is truly called a Bráhmen : to him let no man say any thing unpropitious, nor use any offensive language.

36. Let not a girl, nor a young woman married or unmarried, nor a man with little learning, nor a dunce, perform an oblation to fire; nor a man diseased, nor one uninvested with the sacrificial string;

37. Since any of those persons, who make such an oblation, shall fall into a region of torture, together with him,

who suffers his hearth to be used: he alone, who perfectly knows the sacred ordinances, and has read all the Védas, must officiate at an oblation to holy fire.

38. A Bráhmen with abundant wealth, who presents not the priest, that hallows his fire, with a horse consecrated to PRAJA PATI, becomes equal to one who has no fire hallowed.

39. Let him, who believes the scripture, and keeps his organs in subjection, perform all other pious acts; but never in this world let him offer a sacrifice with trifling gifts to the officiating priest:

40. The organs of sense and action, reputation in this life, a heavenly mansion in the next, life itself, a great name after death, children and cattle, are all destroyed by a sacrifice offered with trifling presents: let no man, therefore, sacrifice without liberal gifts.

41. THE priest, who keeps a sacred hearth, but voluntarily neglects the morning and evening oblations to his fires, must perform, in the manner to be described, the penance chándrayana for one month; since that neglect is equally sinful with the slaughter of a son.

42. They, who receive property from a Súdra for the performance of rites to consecrated fire, are contemned, as ministers of the base, by all such as pronounce texts of the Véda:

43. Of those ignorant priests, who serve the holy fire for the wealth of a Súdra, the giver shall always tread on the foreheads, and thus pass over miseries in the gloom of death.

44. EVERY man, who does not an act prescribed, or does an act forbidden, or is guilty of excess, even in legal gratifications of the senses, must perform an expiatory penance.

45. Some of the learned consider an expiation as confined to involuntary sin; but others, from the evidence of the Véda, hold it effectual even in the case of a voluntary offence:

46. A sin, involuntarily committed, is removed by repeating certain texts of the scripture; but a sin committed intentionally, through strange infatuation, by harsh penances of different sorts.

47. IF a twice-born man, by the will of GOD in this

world, or from his natural birth, have any corporeal mark of an expiable sin committed in this or a former state, he must hold no intercourse with the virtuous, while his penance remains unperformed.

48. Some evil-minded persons, for sins committed in this life, and some for bad actions in a preceding state, suffer a morbid change in their bodies:

49. A stealer of gold from a Bráhmen has whitlows on his nails; a drinker of spirits, black* teeth; the slayer of a Bráhmen, a marasmus; the violator of his guru's bed, a deformity in the generative organs;

50. A malignant informer, fetid ulcers in his nostrils; a false detractor, stinking breath; a stealer of grain, the defect of some limb; a mixer of bad wares with good, some redundant member;

51. A stealer of dressed grain, dyspepsia; a stealer of holy words, or an unauthorized reader of the scriptures, dumbness; a stealer of clothes, leprosy; a horse-stealer, lameness;

52. The stealer of a lamp, total blindness; the mischievous extinguisher of it, blindness in one eye; a delighter in hurting sentient creatures, perpetual illness; an adulterer, windy swellings in his limbs:

53. Thus, according to the diversity of actions, are born men despised by the good, stupid, dumb, blind, deaf, and deformed.

54. Penance, therefore, must invariably be performed for the sake of expiation; since they, who have not expiated their sins, will again spring to birth with disgraceful marks.

55. KILLING a Bráhmen, drinking forbidden liquor, stealing gold from a priest, adultery with the wife of a father, natural or spiritual, and associating with such as commit those offences, wise legislators must declare to be crimes in the highest degree, in respect of those after mentioned, but less than incest in a direct line, and some others.

* The colour syáva has been before rendered "black-yellow" by the translator in v. 153, Chap. III.: here he simply translates it “black." It is a matter of little or no consequence, but the colour is generally interpreted brown. In MENU it is only employed to describe the teeth.