CHAP. VIII. whether in publick or in private, no crime is com'mitted by the slayer: fury recoils upon fury. 352. MEN, who commit overt-acts of adulterous in'clinations for the wives of others, let the king banish from his realm, having punished them with such bodily marks, as excite aversion; 353. Since adultery causes, to the general ruin, ' a mixture of classes among men: thence arises violation of duties; and thence is the root of felicity quite destroyed. 6 6 354. A man before noted for such an offence, who converses in secret with the wife of another, shall pay the first of the three usual amercements; 355. But a man, not before noted, who thus converses with her for some reasonable cause, shall pay no fine; since in him there is no transgression. 356. He, who talks with the wife of another man ' at a place of pilgrimage, in a forest or a grove, or at the confluence of rivers, incurs the guilt of an 'adulterous inclination: 357. To send her flowers or perfumes, to sport and jest with her, to touch her apparel and ornaments, to sit with her on the same couch, are held 'adulterous acts on his part; 358. To touch a married woman on her breasts or any other place, which ought not to be touched, or, • being 'being touched unbecomingly by her, to bear it com- CHAP. placently, are adulterous acts with mutual assent. 359. A man of the servile class, who commits 'actual adultery with the wife of a priest, ought to 'suffer death; the wives, the wives, indeed, of all the four classes must ever be most especially guarded. 6 6 6 360. Mendicants, encomiasts, men prepared for a sacrifice, and cooks and other artisans, are not prohibited from speaking to married women. 361. Let no man converse, after he has been for bidden, with the wives of others: he, who thus converses, after a husband or father has forbidden him, shall pay a fine of one suverna. 362. These laws relate not to the wives of publick dancers or singers, or of such base men, as live by intrigues of their wives; men, who either carry women to others, or, lying concealed at home, permit them to hold a culpable intercourse : 363. Yet he, who has a private connexion with such women, or with servant-girls kept by one master, or 'with female anchorets of an heretical religion, shall be compelled to pay a small fine. 364. 365. From a girl, who makes advances to a man VIII. · of CHAP. of a high class, let not the king take the smallest fine; but her, who first addresses a low man, let him 'constrain to live in her house well guarded. 366. A low man, who makes love to a damsel of high birth, ought to be punished corporally; but he, 'who addresses a maid of equal rank, shall give the nuptial present and marry her, if her father please. 367. Or the man, who through insolence forcibly 'contaminates a damsel, let the king instantly order "two fingers to be amputated, and condemn him to pay a fine of six hundred panas: 368. A man of equal rank, who defiles a consenting ' damsel, shall not have his fingers amputated, but shall pay a fine of two hundred panas, to restrain him from a repetition of his offence. 6 369. A damsel, polluting another damsel, must be fined two hundred panas, pay the double value of 'her nuptial present, and receive ten lashes with a whip; 370. But a woman, polluting a damsel, shall have ' her head instantly shaved, and two of her fingers chopped off; and shall ride, mounted on an ass, through the publick street. 6 6 371. SHOULD a wife, proud of her family and the great qualities of her kinsmen, actually violate the duty, which she owes to her lord, let the king condemn her to be devoured by dogs in a place much frequented; C 372. And VIII. 372. And let him place the adulterer on an iron CHAP. 'bed well heated, under which the executioners shall 'throw logs continually, till the sinful wretch be 'there burned to death. 373. OF a man once convicted, and a year after guilty of the same crime, the fine must be doubled; 'so it must, if he be connected with the daughter of an outcast or with a Chándálí woman. 6 374. A mechanick or servile man, having an adul'terous connexion with a woman of a twice-born class, whether guarded at home or unguarded, shall thus 'be punished: if she was unguarded, he shall lose the part offending, and his whole substance; if guarded, and a priestess, every thing, even his life. 6 375. For adultery with a guarded priestess, a merchant shall forfeit all his wealth after imprisonment for a year; a soldier shall be fined a thousand panas, and be shaved with the urine of an ass: 376. But, if a merchant or soldier commit adultery with a woman of the sacerdotal class, whom ' her husband guards not at home, the king shall only fine the merchant five hundred, and the soldier a • thousand: 377. Both of them, however, if they commit that ' offence with a priestess not only guarded but eminent for good qualities, shall be punished like men of the 'servile class, or be burned in a fire of dry grass or ' reeds. 378. A Bráhmen, CHAP. VIII. 6 378. A Bráhmen, who carnally knows a guarded woman without her free will, must be fined a thousand panas; but only five hundred if he knew her with her free consent. 379. Ignominious tonsure is ordained, instead of capital punishment, for an adulterer of the priestly class, where the punishment of other classes may 'extend to loss of life. 6 380. Never shall the king slay a Bráhmen, though ' convicted of all possible crimes: let him banish the ' offender from his realm, but with all his property secure, and his body unhurt : 6 6 381. No greater crime is known on earth than 383. But a Bráhmen, who shall commit adultery ' with a guarded woman of those two classes, must ' be fined a thousand panas; and, for the like offence ' with a guarded woman of the servile class, the fine of a soldier or a merchant shall be also one thousand. 384. For adultery with a woman of the military class, if unguarded, the fine of a merchant is five |