Gandharvas and Racshases, whether separate or mixed, as when a girl is made captive by her lover, after a victory over her kinsmen, are permitted by law.

27. The gift of a daughter, clothed only with a single robe, to a man learned in the Véda, whom her father voluntarily invites, and respectfully receives, is the nuptial right called Bráhma.

28. The rite which sages call Daiva, is the gift of a daughter, whom her father has decked in gay attire, when the sacrifice is already begun, to the officiating priest, who performs that act of religion.

29. When the father gives his daughter away, after having received from the bridegroom one pair of kine, or two pairs, for uses prescribed by law, that marriage is termed A'rsha.

30. The nuptial rite called Prájápatya, is when the father gives away his daughter with due honour, saying distinctly, "May both of you perform together your civil and religious duties!"

31. When the bridegroom, having given as much wealth as he can afford to the father and paternal kinsman, and to the damsel herself, takes her voluntarily as his bride, that marriage is named A'sura.

32. The reciprocal connexion of a youth and a damsel, with mutual desire, is the marriage denominated Gandharva, contracted for the purpose of amorous embraces, and proceeding from sensual inclination.

33. The seizure of a maiden by force from her house, while she weeps and calls for assistance, after her kinsmen and friends have been slain in battle, or wounded, and their houses broken open, is the marriage styled Rácshasa.

34. When the lover secretly embraces the damsel, either sleeping or flushed with strong liquor, or disordered in her intellect, that sinful marriage,* called Paisácha, is the eighth and the basest.

35. The gift of daughters in marriage by the sacerdotal class, is most approved, when they previously have poured

*

That" sinful marriage" should have been "that most sinful mar

riage."

water into the hands of the bridegroom; but the ceremonies of the other classes may be performed according to their several fancies.

36. Among these nuptial rites, what quality is ascribed by MENU to each, hear now ye Bráhmens, hear it all from me, who fully declare it!

37. The son of a Bráhmì, or wife by the first ceremony, redeems from sin, if he performs virtuous acts, ten ancestors, ten descendants, and himself the twenty-first person.

38. A son, born of a wife by the Daiva nuptials, redeems seven and seven in higher and lower degrees; of a wife by the A'rsha, three and three; of a wife by the Prájápatya, six and six.

39. By four marriages, the Brahma and so forth, in direct order, are born sons illumined by the Véda, learned men, beloved by the learned,

40. Adorned with beauty, and with the quality of goodness, wealthy, famed, amply gratified with lawful enjoyments, performing all duties, and living a hundred years:

41. But in the other four base marriages, which remain, are produced sons acting cruelly, speaking falsely, abhorring the Véda, and the duties prescribed in it.

42. From the blameless nuptial rites of men spring a blameless progeny; from the reprehensible, a reprehensible offspring: let mankind, therefore, studiously avoid the culpable forms of marriage.

43. The ceremony of joining hands is appointed for those, who marry women of their own class; but, with women of a different class, the following nuptial ceremonies are to be observed:

44. By a Cshatriyà on her marriage with a Bráhmen, an arrow must be held in her hand; by a Vaisyà woman, with a bridegroom of the sacerdotal or military class, a whip; and by a Súdrà bride, marrying a priest, a soldier, or a merchant, must be held the skirt of a mantle.*

*The word pratóda rather implies a goad used to compel oxen, than a whip.

It may be remarked, that there seems to be some difficulty in reconciling the allusion in this verse of a Súdrà marrying a priest, when we

45. LET the husband approach his wife in due season, that is, at the time fit for pregnancy; let him be constantly satisfied with her alone; but, except on the forbidden days of the moon, he may approach her, being affectionately disposed, even out of due season, with a desire of conjugal intercourse.

46. Sixteen days and nights in each month, with four distinct days neglected by the virtuous, are called the natural season of women:

47. Of those sixteen, the four first, the eleventh, and the thirteenth, are reprehended: the ten remaining nights are approved.

48. Some say, that on the even nights are conceived sons; on the odd nights daughters; therefore let the man who wishes for a son, approach his wife in due season on the even nights;

49. But a boy is in truth produced by the greater quantity of the male strength; and a girl by a greater quantity of the female; by equality, an hermaphrodite, or a boy and a girl; by weakness or deficiency, is occasioned a failure of conception.

50. He, who avoids conjugal embraces on the six reprehended nights, and on eight others, is equal in chastity to a Brahmacharì, in whichever of the two next orders he may live.

51. LET no father, who knows the law, receive a gratuity, however small, for giving his daughter in marriage; since the man, who, through avarice, takes a gratuity for that purpose, is a seller of his offspring.

52. Whatever male relations, through delusion of mind, take possession of a woman's property, be it only her carriages or her clothes, such offenders will sink to a region of torment.

53. Some say that the bull and cow given in the nuptial ceremony of the Rishis, are a bribe to the father; but this is

find the prohibition so strong in verses 13, 14, 15, and 16 of this chapter. The text clearly intends a marriage with a Brahmen by the expression utcrishté védé “in the highest marriages."

untrue; a bribe indeed, whether large or small, is an actual sale of the daughter.

54. When money or goods are given to damsels, whose kinsmen receive them not for their own use, it is no sale: it is merely a token of courtesy and affection to the brides.

55. Married women must be honoured and adorned by their fathers and brethren, by their husbands, and by the brethren of their husbands, if they seek abundant prosperity:

56. Where females are honoured, there the deities are pleased; but where they are dishonoured, there all religious acts become fruitless.

57. Where female relations are made miserable, the family of him who makes them so, very soon wholly perishes; but, where they are not unhappy, the family always increases.

58. On whatever houses the women of a family, not being duly honoured, pronounce an imprecation, those houses, with all that belong to them, utterly perish, as if destroyed by a sacrifice for the death of an enemy.

59. Let those women, therefore, be continually supplied with ornaments, apparel and food, at festivals and at jubilees, by men desirous of wealth.

60. In whatever family the husband is contented with his wife, and the wife with her husband, in that house will fortune be assuredly permanent.

61. Certainly, if the wife be not elegantly attired, she will not exhilarate her husband; and if her lord want hilarity, offspring will not be produced.

62. A wife being gaily adorned, her whole house is embellished; but, if she be destitute of ornament, all will be deprived of decoration.

63. By culpable marriages, by omission of prescribed ceremonies, by neglect of reading the Véda, and by irreverence toward a Bráhmen, great families are sunk to a low state:

64. So they are by practising manual arts, by lending at interest and other pecuniary transactions, by begetting children on Súdràs only, by traffick in kine, horses, and carriages, by agriculture and by attendance on a king.

65. By sacrificing for such as have no right to sacrifice, and by denying a future compensation for good works, great families, being deprived of sacred knowledge, are quickly destroyed;

66. But families, enriched by a knowledge of the Véda, though possessing little temporal wealth, are numbered among the great, and acquire exalted fame.

67. LET the house-keeper perform domestick religious rites, with the nuptial fire, according to law, and the ceremonies of the five great sacraments, and the several acts which must day by day be performed.

68. A house-keeper has five places of slaughter, or where small living creatures may be slain; his kitchen-hearth, his grindstone, his broom, his pestle and mortar, his water-pot; by using which, he becomes in bondage to sin :

69. For the sake of expiating offences committed ignorantly in those places mentioned in order, the five great sacraments were appointed by eminent sages to be performed each day by such as keep house.

70. Teaching and studying the scripture is the sacrament of the Véda; offering cakes and water, the sacrament of the Manes; an oblation to fire, the sacrament of the Deities; giving rice or other food to living creatures, the sacrament of spirits; receiving guests with honour, the sacrament of men:

71. Whoever omits not those five great ceremonies, if he have ability to perform them, is untainted by the sins of the five slaughtering-places, even though he constantly reside at home;

72. But whoever cherishes not five orders of beings, namely, the deities; those, who demand hospitality; those, whom he ought by law to maintain; his departed forefathers; and himself; that man lives not even though he breathe.

73. Some call the five sacraments ahuta and huta, prahuta, brahmya-huta and prásita :

74. Ahuta, or unoffered, is divine study; huta, or offered, is the oblation to fire; prahuta, or well offered, is the food given to spirits; bráhmya-huta, is respect shewn to twiceborn guests; and prásita, or well eaten, is the offering of rice or water to the manes of ancestors.