promifed, BRAHMA confidered as receivable even from a finner:

249. Of him, who fhall difdain to accept 'fuch alms, neither will the manes eat the fune'ral oblations for fifteen years, nor will the fire convey the burnt facrifice to the gods.

250. A bed, houses, blades of cusa, perfumes, water, flowers, jewels, buttermilk, ground rice, fish, new milk, flesh-meat, and green vegetables, let him not proudly reject.

251. "When he wishes to relieve his natural parents or fpiritual father, his wife or others, whom he is bound to maintain, or when he is preparing to honour deities or guests, he may ' receive gifts from any perfon, but must not gratify himself with fuch presents:

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252. If his parents, however, be dead, or if he live without them in his own houfe, let him, when he feeks nourishment for himfelf, receive prefents invariably from good men

⚫ alone.

253.

'A labourer in tillage, a family friend,

a herdfman, a flave, a barber, a poor ftranger' 'offering his humble duty, are men of the fer'vile class, who may eat the food of their supe'riors:

254. As the nature of the poor ftranger is,

as the work is, which he defires to perform,

and as he may fhow most respect to the master'

of the house, even thus let him offer his fer

•vice;

235. For he, who defcribes himself to worthy men in a manner contrary to truth, is the moft finful wretch in this world: he is the worst of thieves, a stealer of minds.

256. All things have their fenfe afcer'tained by speech; in speech they have their bafis; and from speech they proceed: consequently, a falfifier of speech falfifies every thing.

257. WHEN he has paid, as the law directs, his debts to the fages, to the manes, and to the gods, by reading the fcripture, begetting a fon, • and performing regular facrifices, he may resign 'all to his fon of mature age, and refide in his family houfe, with no employmeut, but that of an umpire:

258. Alone, in some solitary place, let him 'conftantly meditate on the divine nature of the foul, for by fuch meditation he will attain happiness.

259. 'THUS has been declared the mode, by ' which a Brábmen, who keeps house, muft continually fubfift, together with the rule of de⚫votion ordained for a pupil returned from his preceptor; a laudable rule, which increases the beft of the three qualities.

260. A prieft, who lives always by these rules, who knows the ordinances of the Veda,

who is freed from the bondage of fin, shall be • abforbed in the divine effence.

CHAPTER THE FIFTH.

On Diet, Purification, and Women.

I.

1. THE fages, having heard those laws delivered for the conduct of housekeepers, thus addreffed the highminded BHRIGU, who pro'ceeded in a former birth from the genius of ‹ fire.

2. How, Lord, can death prevail over Brábmens, who know the fcriptural ordinances, ' and perform their duties, as they have been de'clared?'

3. Then he, whofe difpofition was perfect virtue, even ВHRIGU, the fon of MENU, thus ' answered the great Rifbis: Hear, from what 'fin proceeds the inclination of death, to destroy "the chief of the twice-born:

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4. Through a neglect of reading the Véda, through a desertion of approved ufages, through fupine remiffness in performing boly rites, and

through various offences in diet, the genius of ' death becomes eager to destroy them.

5. Garlick, onions, leeks, and mushrooms

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(which no twice-born man must eat), and all vegetables raised in dung,

6. Red gums or refins, exuding from trees, and juices from wounded ftems, the fruit félu, ' and the thickened milk of a cow within ten

་

days after her calving, a priest must avoid with $ great care. ́

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7. ‘Ricepudding boiled with tila, frumenty, ricemilk, and baked bread, which have not • been first offered to fome deity, fleshmeat also, the food of gods, and clarified butter, which have not first been touched, while holy texts were recited,

8. Fresh milk from a cow, whofe ten days

are not paffed, the milk of a camel, or any qua

druped with a hoof not cloven, that of an ewe, and that of a cow in heat, or whofe calf is dead ' or abfent from her,

9. 'That of any forest beaft, except the buffalo, the milk of a woman, and any thing naturally fweet but acidulated, muft all be care' fully fhunned:

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10. But among fuch acids, buttermilk may ⚫ be swallowed, and every preparation of buttermilk, and all acids extracted from pure flowers, roots, or fruit not cut with iron.

11. Let every twice-born man avoid carnivorous birds, and fuch as live in towns, and quadrupeds with uncloven hoofs, except those