6 6 but, with women of a different class, the following nuptial ceremonies are to be observed: 44. By a Cshatriyà on her marriage with a Bráhmen, an arrow must be held in her hand; by a Vaisyà woman, with a bridegoom of the sacerdotal or military class, a whip; and by a Súdrà bride, marrying a priest, a soldier, or a merchant, must be held the skirt of a mantle. 45. LET the husband approach his wife in due season, that is, at the time fit for pregnancy; let him be constantly satisfied with her alone; but, except on the forbidden days of the moon, he may approach her, being affectionately disposed, even out of due season, with a desire of conjugal intercourse. 46. Sixteen days and nights in each month, with four distinct days neglected by the virtuous, are 'called the natural season of women: 47. Of those sixteen, the four first, the eleventh, and the thirteenth, are reprehended: the ten re'maining nights are approved. 48. Some say, that on the even nights are con'ceived sons; on the odd nights daughters; therefore let the man, who wishes for a son, approach his wife in due season on the even nights; 49. But a boy is in truth produced by the greater quantity of the male strength; and a girl by a greater quantity of the female; by equality, an hermaphrodite, maphrodite, or a boy and a girl; by weakness or CHAP. deficiency, is occasioned a failure of conception. 50. He, who avoids conjugal embraces on the six reprehended nights and on eight others, is equal in chastity to a Brahmachárì, in whichever of the two next orders he may live. 51. LET no father, who knows the law, receive a gratuity, however small, for giving his daughter in marriage; since the man, who, through avarice, 'takes a gratuity for that purpose, is a seller of his offspring. 6 6 52. Whatever male relations, through delusion of mind, take possession of a woman's property, be it only her carriages or her clothes, such offenders will sink to a region of torment. 53. Some say that the bull and cow given in the nuptial ceremony of the Rishis, are a bribe to the father; but this is untrue; a bribe indeed, whether large or small, is an actual sale of the daughter. 54. When money or goods are given to damsels, whose kinsmen receive them not for their own use, it is no sale: it is merely a token of courtesy and 'affection to the brides. 55. Married women must be honoured and adorned I by their fathers and brethren, by their husbands, and 'by the brethren of their husbands, if they seek abundant prosperity : III. СНАР. III. 56. Where females are honoured, there the deities are pleased; but where they are dishonoured, there 'all religious acts become fruitless. 57. Where female relations are made miserable, the family of him who makes them so, very soon wholly perishes; but, where they are not unhappy, the family always increases. 58. On whatever houses the women of a family, 'not being duly honoured, pronounce an imprecation, 'those houses, with all that belong to them, utterly perish, as if destroyed by a sacrifice for the death of an enemy. 59. Let those women, therefore, be continually supplied with ornaments, apparel and food, at festivals and at jubilees, by men desirous of wealth. 60 In whatever family the husband is contented ' with his wife, and the wife with her husband, in that house will fortune be assuredly permanent. 61. Certainly, if the wife be not elegantly attired, 'she will not exhilarate her husband; and if her lord want hilarity, offspring will not be produced. 62. A wife being gaily adorned, her whole house is embellished; but, if she be destitute of ornament, 'all will be deprived of decoration. 63. By culpable marriages, by omission of prescribed ceremonies, by neglect of reading the Veda, ' and 6 ' and by irreverence toward a Bráhmen, great families CHAP. are sunk to a low state: 64. So they are by practising manual arts, by lend ing at interest and other pecuniary transactions, by begetting children on Súdràs only, by traffick in kine, horses, and carriages, by agriculture and by 'attendance on a king. 6 65. By sacrificing for such as have no right to sacrifice, and by denying a future compensation for good works, great families, being deprived of sacred knowledge, are quickly destroyed; 66. But families, enriched by a knowledge of the Veda, though possessing little temporal wealth, are ' numbered among the great, and acquire exalted fame. 67. LET the house-keeper perform domestick religious rites, with the muptial fire, according to law, and the ceremonies of the five great sacraments, and the several acts which must day by day be per'formed. 68. A house-keeper has five places of slaughter, or where small living creatures may be slain; his kitchen-hearth, his grindstone, his broom, his pestle ' and mortar, his water-pot; by using which, he becomes in bondage to sin : 69. For the sake of expiating offences committed ignorantly in those places mentioned in order, the 'five great sacraments were appointed by eminent sages III. CHAP. III. sages to be performed each day by such as keep ' house. 70. Teaching and studying the scripture is the sacrament of the Veda; offering cakes and water, the sacrament of the Manes; an oblation to fire, the sacrament of the Deities; giving rice or other food to living creatures, the sacrament of spirits; re'ceiving guests with honour, the sacrament of men : 6 71. Whoever omits not those five great ceremonies, if he have ability to perform them, is untainted by the sins of the five slaughtering-places, even though he constantly reside at home; 72. But whoever cherishes not five orders of beings, namely, the deities; those, who demand hospitality; those, whom he ought by law to maintain; his departed forefathers; and himself; that man lives not even though he breathe. 73. Some call the five sacraments ahuta and huta, ' prahuta, bráhmya-huta and prásita : 74. Ahuta, or unoffered, is divine study; huta, or offered, is the oblation to fire; prahuta, or well offered, is the food given to spirits; bráhmya-huta, is respect shewn to twice-born guests; and prásita, or well eaten, is the offering of rice or water to 'the manes of ancestors. 6 75. Let every man forming |