75. Let every man in this second order employ himself daily in reading the scripture, and in performing the sacrament of the Gods; for, being employed in the sacrament of deities, he supports this whole animal and vegetable world;

76. Since his oblation of clarified butter, duly cast into the flame, ascends in smoke to the sun; from the sun it falls in rain; from rain comes vegetable food; and from such food animals derive their subsistence.*

77. As all creatures subsist by receiving support from air, thus all orders of men exist by receiving support from housekeepers;

78. And since men of the three other orders are each day nourished by them with divine learning and with food, a house-keeper is for this reason of the most eminent order:

79. That order, therefore, must be constantly sustained with great care by the man who seeks unperishable bliss in heaven, and in this world pleasurable sensations; an order which cannot be sustained by men with uncontrolled organs.

80. The divine sages, the manes, the gods, the spirits, and guests, pray for benefits to masters of families; let these honours, therefore, be done to them by the housekeeper who knows his duty:

81. Let him honour the Sages by studying the Véda: the Gods, by oblations to fire ordained by law; the Manes, by pious obsequies; men by supplying them with food; and spirits, by gifts to all animated creatures.

82. Each day let him perform a sráddha with boiled rice and the like, or with water, or with milk, roots, and fruit; for thus he obtains favour from departed progenitors.

83. He may entertain one Bráhmen in that sacrament among the five, which is performed for the Pitris; but, at the oblation to all the Gods, let him not invite even a single priest.

84. In his domestick fire for dressing the food of all the

* I have been particular in marking the words of this verse in Italick letters, as the translation is very paraphrastical. Indeed the original verse, which will be found exactly in the Roman letters, conveys in the latter part the exact germ of the doctrine which has been so ably handled of late by an eminent writer, namely, the dependence of population upon sustenance.

Gods, after the prescribed ceremony, let a Bráhmen make an oblation each day to these following divinities;

85. First to AGNI, god of fire, and to the lunar god, severally; then, to both of them at once; next to the assembled gods; and afterwards, to DHANWANTARI, god of medicine;

86. To СUHU, goddess of the day, when the new moon is discernible; to ANUMATI, goddess of the day, after the opposition; to PRAJA PATI, or the Lord of Creatures; to DYA'VA' and PRITHIVI, goddesses of sky and earth; and lastly, to the fire of the good sacrifice.

87. Having thus, with fixed attention, offered clarified butter in all quarters, proceeding from the east in a southern direction, to INDRA, YAMA, VARUNA, and the god So'MA, let him offer his gift to animated creatures :

88. Saying, "I salute the Maruts," or Winds, let him throw dressed rice near the door; saying, "I salute the water-gods," in water; and on his pestle and mortar, saying, "I salute the gods of large trees."

89. Let him do the like in the north-east, or near his pillow, to SRI', the goddess of abundance; in the south-west, or at the foot of his bed, to the propitious goddess BHADRACA'LI; in the centre of his mansion, to BRAHMA' and his household god;

90. To all the Gods assembled, let him throw up his oblation in the open air; by day, to the spirits who walk in light; and by night, to those who walk in darkness:

91. In the building on his house-top, or behind his back, let him cast his oblation for the welfare of all creatures; and what remains let him give to the Pitris with his face toward the south:

92. The share of dogs, of outcasts, of dog-feeders, of sinful men, punished with elephantiasis or consumption, of crows, and of reptiles, let him drop on the ground by little and little.

93. A Bráhmen, who thus each day shall honour all beings, will go to the highest region in a straight path, in an irradiated form.

94. When he has performed his duty of making oblations,

let him cause his guest to take food before himself; and let him give a portion of rice, as the law ordains, to the mendicant who studies the Véda:

95. Whatever fruit shall be obtained by that student, as the reward of his virtue, when he shall have given a cow to his preceptor, according to law, the like reward to virtue shall be obtained by the twice-born house-keeper, when he has given a mouthful of rice to the religious mendicant.

96. To a Bráhmen who knows the true principle of the Véda, let him present a portion of rice, or a pot of water, garnished with fruit and flowers, due ceremonies having preceded :

97. Shares of oblations to the Gods, or to the Manes, utterly perish, when presented, through delusion of mind, by men regardless of duty, to such ignorant Bráhmens as are mere ashes;

98. But an offering in the fire of a sacerdotal mouth, which richly blazes with true knowledge and piety, will release the giver from distress, and even from deadly sin.

99. To the guest who comes of his own accord, let him offer a seat and water, with such food as he is able to prepare, after the due rites of courtesy.

100. A Bráhmen coming as a guest, and not received with just honour, takes to himself all the reward of the housekeeper's former virtue, even though he had been so temperate as to live on the gleanings of harvests, and so pious as to make oblations in five distinct fires.

101. Grass and earth to sit on, water to wash the feet, and, fourthly, affectionate speech are at no time deficient in the mansions of the good, although they may be indigent.

102. A Bráhmen, staying but one night as a guest, is called an atiť'hi; since continuing so short a time, he is not even a sojourner for a whole tit' hi, or day of the moon.

103. The house-keeper must not consider as an atit'hi a mere visitor of the same town, or a Bráhmen, who attends him on business, even though he come to the house where his wife dwells, and where his fires are kindled.

104. Should any house-keepers be so senseless, as to seek, on pretence of being guests, the food of others, they would

fall after death, by reason of that baseness, to the condition of cattle belonging to the giver of such food.

105. No guest must be dismissed in the evening by a house-keeper; he is sent by the retiring sun; and, whether he come in fit season or unseasonably, he must not sojourn in the house without entertainment.

106. Let not himself eat any delicate food, without asking his guest to partake of it: the satisfaction of a guest will assuredly bring the house-keeper wealth, reputation, long life, and a place in heaven.

107. To the highest guests in the best form, to the lowest in the worst, to the equal, equally, let him offer seats, resting places, couches; giving them proportionable attendance when they depart; and honour, as long as they stay.

108. Should another guest arrive, when the oblation to all the Gods is concluded, for him also let the house-keeper prepare food, according to his ability; but let him not repeat his offerings to animated beings.

109. Let no Bráhmen guest proclaim his family and ancestry for the sake of an entertainment; since he, who thus proclaims them, is called by the wise a vántasí, or foulfeeding demon.

110. A military man is not denominated a guest in the house of a Bráhmen; nor a man of the commercial or servile class; nor his familiar friend; nor his paternal kinsman; nor his preceptor:

111. But if a warriour come to his house in the form of a guest, let food be prepared for him, according to his desire, after the before-mentioned Bráhmens have eaten.

112. Even to a merchant or a labourer, approaching his house in the manner of guests, let him give food, showing marks of benevolence at the same time with his domesticks:

113. To others, as familiar friends, and the rest beforenamed, who come with affection to his place of abode, let him serve a repast at the same time with his wife and himself, having provided it according to his best means.

114. To a bride, and to a damsel, to the sick, and to pregnant women, let him give food, even before his guests, without hesitation.

115. The idiot, who first eats his own mess, without having presented food to the persons just enumerated, knows not, while he crams, that he will himself be food after death for bandogs and vultures.

116. After the repast of the Bráhmen guest, of his kinsmen, and his domesticks, the married couple may eat what remains untouched.

117. The house-keeper, having honoured spirits, holy sages, men, progenitors, and household gods, may feed on what remains after those oblations.

118. He, who eats what has been dressed for himself only, eats nothing but sin: a repast on what remains after the sacrament is called the banquet of the good.

119. After a year from the reception of a visitor, let the house-keeper again honour a king, a sacrificer, a student returned from his preceptor, a son-in-law, a father-in-law, and maternal uncle, with a madhuperca, or present of honey, curds, and fruit.

120. A king or a Bráhmen arriving at the celebration of the sacrament, are to be honoured with a madhuperca; but not, if the sacrament be over: this is a settled rule.

121. In the evening let the wife make an offering of the dressed food, but without pronouncing any text of the Véda: one oblation to the assembled gods, thence named Vaiswadéva, is ordained both for evening and morning.

122. FROM month to month, on the dark day of the moon, let a twice-born man, having finished the daily sacrament of the Pitris, and his fire being still blazing, perform the solemn sráddha, called pindánwáhárya :

123. Sages have distinguished the monthly sráddha* by the title of anwáhárya, or after eaten, that is, eaten after the pinda, or ball of rice; and it must be performed with extreme care, and with flesh-meat in the best condition.

124. What Bráhmens must be entertained at that ceremony, and who must be excepted, how many are to be fed, and with what sorts of food, on all those articles, without omission, I will fully discourse.

* The words "of the Pitris," should follow "the monthly sráddha.”