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a guest will assuredly bring the house-keeper wealth, reputation, long life, and a place in heaven.

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107. To the highest guests in the best form, to the 'lowest in the worst, to the equal, equally, let him 'offer seats, resting places, couches; giving them proportionable attendance, when they depart; and I honour, as long as they stay.

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108. Should another guest arrive, when the oblation to all the Gods is concluded, for him also let the house-keeper prepare food, according to his abi

lity; but let him not repeat his offerings to animated beings.

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109. Let no Bráhmen guest proclaim his family and ancestry for the sake of an entertainment; since he, 'who thus proclaims them, is called by the wise a vántásí, or foul-feeding demon.

110. A military man is not denominated a guest in the house of a Bráhmen; nor a man of the com'mercial or servile class; nor his familiar friend; nor his paternal kinsman; nor his preceptor :

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111. But if a warriour come to his house in the 'form of a guest, let food be prepared for him, according to his desire, after the before-mentioned Bráhmens have eaten.

112.

Even to a merchant or a labourer, approaching his house in the manner of guests, let him give

'food,

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food, showing marks of benevolence at the same time CHAP. with his domesticks:

113. To others, as familiar friends, and the rest 'before-named, who come with affection to his place ' of abode, let him serve a repast at the same time with his wife and himself, having amply provided it ' according to his best means.

114. To a bride, and to a damsel, to the sick, and to pregnant women, let him give food, even before 'his guests, without hesitation.

115. The idiot, who first eats his own mess, without having presented food to the persons just enumerated, 'knows not, while he crams, that he will himself be food after death for bandogs and vultures.

116.‹ After the repast of the Bráhmen guest, of his 'kinsmen, and his domesticks, the married couple may eat what remains untouched.

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117. The house-keeper, having honoured spirits, holy sages, men, progenitors, and household gods, may feed on what remains after those oblations.

118. He, who eats what has been dressed for him'self only, eats nothing but sin: a repast on what ' remains after the sacrament is called the banquet of the good.

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119. After a year from the reception of a visitor, let the house-keeper again honour a king, a sacrificer, a student returned from his preceptor, a son in-law,

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CHAP.
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a father-in-law, and a maternal uncle, with a madhuperca, or present of honey, curds, and fruit.

120. A king or a Bráhmen arriving at the celebra'tion of the sacrament, are to be honoured with a 'madhuperca; but not, if the sacrament be over this is a settled rule.

121. In the evening let the wife make an offering of the dressed food, but without pronouncing any text of the Veda: one oblation to the assembled 'gods, thence named Vaiswadéva, is ordained both for evening and morning.

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122. FROM month to month, on the dark day of 'the moon, let a twice-born man, having finished the daily sacrament of the Pitris, and his fire being still ⚫ blazing, perform the solemn sráddha, called pindánwáhárya:

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123. Sages have distinguished the monthly sráddha by the title of anwáhárya, or after eaten, that is, ' eaten after the pinda, or ball of rice; and it must be performed with extreme care, and with flesh-meat in the best condition.

124. What Bráhmens must be entertained at that ceremony, and who must be excepted, how many are to be fed, and with what sorts of food, on all 'those articles, without omission, I will fully discourse.

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125. At the sráddha of the gods he may entertain two Bráhmens; at that of his father, paternal grandfather, and paternal great-grandfather, three; or one

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only at that of the gods, and one at that for his CHAP. 'three paternal ancestors: though he abound in

'wealth, let him not be solicitous to entertain a large

company.

126. A large company destroys these five advantages; reverence to priests, propriety of time and place, purity, and the acquisition of virtuous Bráhmens: let him not therefore, endeavour to feed a 'superfluous number.

127. This act of due honour to departed souls, on 'the dark day of the moon, is famed by the appella'tion of pitrya, or ancestral: the legal ceremony, in 'honour of departed spirits, rewards with continual fruit, a man engaged in such obsequies.

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128. Oblations to the gods and to ancestors should ' be given to a most reverend Bráhmen, perfectly con' versant with the Véda; since what is given to him ' produces the greatest reward.

129. By entertaining one learned man at the oblation to the gods and at that to ancestors, he gains 'more exalted fruit than by feeding a multitude, who 'know not the holy texts.

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130. Let him inquire into the ancestry, even in a ' remote degree, of a Bráhmen, who has advanced to the end of the Véda: such a man, if sprung from good men, is a fit partaker of oblations to gods and to ancestors; such a man may justly be called an atit' hi, or guest.

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131. Surely,

III.

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Surely, though a million of men, unlearned in holy texts, were to receive food, yet a single man, learned in scripture, and fully satisfied with his entertainment, would be of more value than all of them together.

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132. Food, consecrated to the gods and the manes, 'must be presented to a theologian of eminent learning; for certainly, when hands are smeared with blood, they cannot be cleaned with blood only, nor can sin be removed by the company of sinners.

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133. As many mouthfuls as an unlearned man shall 'swallow at an oblation to the gods and to ancestors, so many redhot iron balls must the giver of the sráddha swallow in the next world.

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134. Some Bráhmens are intent on scriptural knowledge; others, on austere devotion; some are intent 'both on religious austerity and on the study of the Véda; others on the performance of sacred rites:

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135. Oblations to the manes of ancestors ought to 'be placed with care before such as are intent on 'sacred learning: but offerings to the gods may be presented, with due ceremonies, to Bráhmens of all the four descriptions.

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136. There may be a Brahmen, whose father had not studied the scripture, though the son has advanced to the end of the Véda; or there may be one, whose son has not read the Véda, though the 'father had travelled to the end of it:

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