41. Thus was this whole assemblage of stationary and movable bodies framed by those high-minded beings, through the force of their own devotion, and at my command, with separate actions allotted to each.

42. Whatever act is ordained for each of those creatures here below, that I will now declare to you, together with their order in respect to birth.

43. Cattle and deer, and wild beasts with two rows of teeth, giants, and blood-thirsty savages, and the race of men, are born from a secundine;

44. Birds are hatched from eggs, so are snakes, crocodiles, fish without shells, and tortoises, with other animal kinds, terrestrial, as chamelions, and aquatick, as shell-fish:

45. From hot moisture are born biting gnats, lice, fleas, and common flies; these, and whatever is of the same class, are produced by heat.

46. All vegetables, propagated by seed or by slips, grow from shoots some herbs, abounding in flowers and fruits, perish when the fruit is mature;

47. Other plants, called lords of the forest, have no flowers, but produce fruit; and, whether they have flowers also, or fruit only, large woody plants of both sorts are named trees.

48. There are shrubs with many stalks from the root upwards, and reeds with single roots but united stems, all of different kinds, and grasses, and vines or climbers, and creepers, which spring from a seed or from a slip.

49. These animals and vegetables, encircled with multiform darkness, by reason of past actions, have internal conscience, and are sensible of pleasure and pain.

50. All transmigrations, recorded in sacred books, from the state of BRAHMA', to that of plants, happen continually in this tremendous world of beings; a world always tending to decay.

51. HE, whose powers are incomprehensible, having thus created both me and this universe, was again absorbed in the supreme Spirit, changing the time of energy for the time of repose.

52. When that Power awakes, (for, though slumber be not

predicable of the sole eternal Mind, infinitely wise and infinitely benevolent, yet it is predicated of BRAHMA', figuratively, as a general property of life) then has this world its full expansion; but, when he slumbers with a tranquil spirit, then the whole system fades away;

53. For, while he reposes, as it were, in calm sleep, embodied spirits, endued with principles of action, depart from their several acts, and the mind itself becomes inert;

54. And when they once are absorbed in that supreme essence, then the divine soul of all beings withdraws his energy, and placidly slumbers;

55. Then too this vital soul of created bodies, with all the organs of sense and of action, remains long immersed. in the first idea or in darkness, and performs not its natural functions, but migrates from its corporeal frame:

56. When, being again composed of minute elementary principles, it enters at once into vegetable or animal seed, it then assumes a new form.

57. Thus that immutable Power, by waking and reposing alternately, revivifies and destroys in eternal succession, this whole assemblage of locomotive and immovable creatures.

58. HE, having enacted this code of laws, himself taught it fully to me in the beginning: afterwards I taught it MARICHI and the nine other holy sages.

59. This my son BHRIGU will repeat the divine code to you without omission; for that sage learned from me to recite the whole of it.

60. BHRIGU, great and wise, having thus been appointed

by MENU to promulge his laws, addressed all the

Rishis with an affectionate mind, saying: Hear! 61. FROM this MENU named SWA'YAMBHUVA, or Sprung from the self-existing, came six descendants, other MENUS, or perfectly understanding the scripture, each giving birth to a race of his own, all exalted in dignity, eminent in power;

62. SWA'RO'CHISHA, AUTTAMI, TA'MASA, RAIVATA likewise and 'CHA'CSHUSHA, beaming with glory, and VAivaswata, child of the sun.

63. The seven MENUS, (or those first created, who are to

be followed by seven more) of whom SWA'YAMBHUVA is the chief, have produced and supported this world of moving and stationary beings, each in his own antara, or the period of his reign.

64. Eighteen niméshas, or twinklings of an eye, are one cásht'há; thirty cásht'hás, one calá; thirty calás, one muhúrta: and just so many muhúrtas let mankind consider as the duration of their day and night.

65. The sun causes the distribution of day and night, both divine and human; night being intended for the repose of various beings, and day for their exertion.

66. A month of mortals is a day and a night of the Pitris or patriarchs inhabiting the moon; and the division of a month being into equal halves, the half beginning from the full moon is their day for actions, and that beginning from the new moon is their night for slumber.

67. A year of mortals is a day and a night of the Gods, or regents of the universe seated round the north pole; and again their division is this, their day is the northern, and their night the southern course of the sun.

68. Learn now the duration of a day and a night of BRAHMA', and of the several ages which shall be mentioned. in order succinctly.

69. Sages have given the name of Crita to an age containing four thousand years of the Gods; the twilight preceding it consists of as many hundreds, and the twilight following it, of the same number:

70. In the other three ages, with their twilights preceding and following, are thousands and hundreds diminished by

one.

71. The divine years, in the four human ages just enumerated, being added together, their sum, or twelve thousand, is called the age of the Gods:

72. And, by reckoning a thousand such divine ages, a day of BRAHMA' may be known: his night also has an equal duration:

73. Those persons best know the divisions of the days and nights, who understand that the day of BRAHMA', which endures to the end of a thousand such ages, gives rise to

virtuous exertions; and that his night endures as long as his day.

he

74. At the close of his night, having long reposed, awakes, and awaking, exerts intellect, or reproduces the great principle of animation, whose property it is to exist unperceived by sense :

75. Intellect, called into action by his will to create worlds, performs again the work of creation; and thence first emerges the subtil ether, to which philosophers ascribe the quality of conveying sound;

76. From ether, effecting a transmutation in form, springs the pure and potent air, a vehicle of all scents; and air is held endued with the quality of touch:

77. Then from air, operating a change, rises light or fire, making objects visible, dispelling gloom, spreading bright rays; and it is declared to have the quality of figure;

78. But from light, a change being effected, comes water with the quality of taste; and from water is deposited earth with the quality of smell: such were they created in the beginning.

79. The before-mentioned age of the Gods, or twelve thousand of their years, being multiplied by seventy-one, constitutes what is here named a Menwantara, or the reign of a MENU.

80. There are numberless Menwantaras; creations also and destructions of worlds, innumerable: the Being supremely exalted performs all this, with as much ease as if in sport; again and again, for the sake of conferring happiness.

81. In the Crita age the Genius of truth and right, in the form of a Bull, stands firm on his four feet; nor does any advantage accrue to men from iniquity;

82. But in the following ages, by reason of unjust gains, he is deprived successively of one foot; and even just emoluments, through the prevalence of theft, falsehood, and fraud, are gradually diminished by a fourth part.

83. Men, free from disease, attain all sorts of prosperity, and live four hundred years in the Crita age; but, in the Trétà and the succeeding ages, their life is lessened gradually by one quarter.

cestors, and on his descendants, as far as the seventh person; and He alone deserves to possess this whole earth.

106. This most excellent code produces every thing auspicious; this code increases understanding; this code procures fame and long life; this code leads to supreme bliss.

107. In this book appears the system of law in its full extent, with the good and bad properties of human actions, and the immemorial customs of the four classes.

108. Immemorial custom is transcendent law, approved in the sacred scripture, and in the codes of divine legislators: let every man, therefore, of the three principal classes, who has a due reverence for the supreme spirit which dwells in him, diligently and constantly observe immemorial custom:

109. A man of the priestly, military, or commercial class, who deviates from immemorial usage, tastes not the fruit of the Véda; but, by an exact observance of it, he gathers that fruit in perfection.

110. Thus have holy sages, well knowing that law is grounded on immemorial custom, embraced, as the root of all piety, good usages long established.

111. THE creation of this universe, the forms of institution and education, with the observances and behaviour of a student in theology; the best rules for the ceremony on his return from the mansion of his preceptor;

112. The law of marriage in general, and of nuptials in different forms; the regulations for the great sacraments, and the manner, primevally settled, of performing obsequies;

113. The modes of gaining subsistence, and the rules to be observed by the master of a family; the allowance and prohibition of diet, with the purification of men and utensils;

114. Laws concerning women, the devotion of hermits, and of anchorets wholly intent on final beatitude, the whole duty of a king, and the judicial decision of controversies,

115. With the law of evidence and examination; laws concerning husband and wife, canons of inheritance; the prohibition of gaming, and the punishments of criminals;

116. Rules ordained for the mercantile and servile classes, with the origin of those that are mixed; the duties and