CHAP. temned, as ministers of the base, by all such as pronounce texts of the Véda:

XI.

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 does an act forbidden, or is guilty of excess, even in legal gratifications of the senses, must per'form 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 :

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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.

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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 whit

'lows

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XI.

lows on his nails; a drinker of spirits, black teeth; CHAP. 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;

the

52. The stealer of a lamp, total blindness; '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 per'formed 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

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CHAP. spect of those after mentioned, but less than incest in a direct line, and some others.

XI.

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56. FALSE boasting of a high tribe, malignant information, before the king, of a criminal who must suffer death, and falsely accusing a spiritual preceptor, are crimes in the second degree, and nearly 6 equal to killing a Bráhmen.

57. Forgetting the texts of scripture, showing contempt of the Veda, giving false evidence without a 'bad motive, killing a friend without malice, eating things prohibited, or, from their manifest impurity, unfit to be tasted, are six crimes nearly equal to drinking spirits; but perjury and homicide require in • atrocious cases the harshest expiation.

58. To appropriate a thing deposited or lent for a time, a human creature, a horse, precious metals, a 'field, a diamond, or any other gem, is nearly equal to stealing the gold of a Bráhmen.

59. Carnal commerce with sisters by the same mother, with little girls, with women of the lowest 'mixed class, or with the wives of a friend or of a son, the wise must consider as nearly equal to a 'violation of the paternal bed.

60. SLAYING a bull or cow, sacrificing what ought not to be sacrificed, adultery, selling oneself, de

serting a preceptor, a mother, a father, or a son,

omitting to read the scripture, and neglect of the 'fires prescribed by the Dhermasástra only.

61. The marriage of a younger brother before the CHAP.

elder, and that elder's omission to marry before the

XI.

younger, giving a daughter to either of them, and

officiating at their nuptial sacrifice,

62. Defiling a damsel, usury, want of perfect chastity in a student, selling a holy pool or garden, a wife, or a child,

63. Omitting the sacred investiture, abandoning a 'kinsman, teaching the Véda for hire, learning it from a hired teacher, selling commodities, that ought not to be sold,

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64. Working in mines of any sort, engaging in dykes, bridges, or other great mechanical works, spoiling medicinal plants repeatedly, subsisting by the harlotry of a wife, offering sacrifices and preparing 'charms to destroy the innocent,

65. Cutting down green trees for firewood, per'forming holy rites with a selfish view merely, and eating prohibited food once without a previous design.

66. Neglecting to keep up the consecrated fire, stealing any valuable thing besides gold, non-pay'ment of the three debts, application to the books of a false religion, and excessive attention to musick or dancing,

67. Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, familiarity by the twice-born with women who have 'drunk inebriating liquor, killing without malice a wo

man, a Súdra, a Vaisya, or a Cshatriya, and denying a future

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XI.

CHAP. a future state of rewards and punishments, are all crimes in the third degree, but higher or lower according to circumstances.

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68. GIVING pain to a Bráhmen, smelling at any spirituous liquor or any thing extremely fetid and 'unfit to be smelt, cheating, and unnatural practices ' with a male, are considered as causing a loss of ' class.

69. To kill an ass, a horse, a camel, a deer, an elephant, a goat, a sheep, a fish, a snake, or a buffalo, is declared an offence, which degrades the 'killer to a mixed tribe.

70.

ACCEPTING presents from despicable men, illegal traffick, attendance on a Súdra-master, and 'speaking falsehood, must be considered as causes of "exclusion from social repasts.

71. KILLING an insect, small or large, a worm, or

a bird, eating what has been brought in the same basket with spirituous liquor, stealing fruit, wood, or 'flowers, and great perturbation of mind on trifling 'occasions, are offences which cause defilement.

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72. You shall now be completely instructed in 'those penances, by which all the sins just mentioned are expiable.

73. IF a Bráhmen have killed a man of the sa'cerdotal class, without malice prepense, the slayer being far superiour to the slain in good qualities, he 6 must himself make a hut in a forest and dwell in 'it