CHAP. III. 56. Where females are honoured, there the deities are pleased; but where they are dishonoured, there 'all religious acts become fruitless. 6 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 fes'tivals 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. 6 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 pre'scribed ceremonies, by neglect of reading the Veda, • and and by irreverence toward a Bráhmen, great families CHAP. < are sunk to a low state: 6 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 Véda, 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 nuptial 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 6 sages sages to be performed each day by such as keep ' house. 6 70. Teaching and studying the scripture is the sacrament of the Véda; offering cakes and water, the sacrament of the Manes; sacrament of the Deities; an oblation to fire, the giving rice or other food 'to living creatures, the sacrament of spirits; re ceiving guests with honour, the sacrament of men: 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. 75. Let every man in this second order employ himself daily in reading the scripture, and in per forming ployed in the sacrament of deities, he supports this whole animal and vegetable world; 'forming the sacrament of the Gods; for, being em- CHAP. III. 76. Since his oblation of clarified butter, duly cast into the flame, ascends in smoke to the sun; from the sun it falls in rain; from rain comes vegetable food; and from such food animals derive their subsistence. 77. As all creatures subsist by receiving support from air, thus all orders of men exist by receiving support from house-keepers; 78. And since men of the three other orders are each day nourished by them with divine learning and ' with food, a house-keeper is for this reason of the most eminent order: 79. That order, therefore, must be constantly sus'tained with great care by the man who seeks unperishable bliss in heaven, and in this world pleasurable sensations; an order which cannot be sustained by men with uncontrolled organs. 80. The divine sages, the manes, the gods, the spirits, and guests, pray for benefits to masters of 'families; let these honours, therefore, be done to them by the house-keeper who knows his duty: 6 81. Let him honour the Sages by studying the Veda: the Gods, by oblations to fire ordained by law; the Manes, by pious obsequies; men by supply'ing them with food; and spirits, by gifts to all animated creatures. CHAP. 6 6 82. Each day let him perform a sráddha with boiled rice and the like, or with water, or with milk, roots, and fruit; for thus he obtains favour from departed progenitors. 83. He may entertain one Bráhmen in that sacra'ment among the five, which is performed for the Pitris; but, at the oblation to all the Gods, let him not invite even a single priest. 84. In his domestick fire for dressing the food of all the Gods, after the prescribed ceremony, let a · Bráhmen make an oblation each day to these following divinities; 6 85. First to AGNI, god of fire, and to the lunar sepontily; god, severally; then, to both of them at once; next to the assembled gods; and afterwards, to DHANWANTARI, god of medicine; 86. TO CUнU', goddess of the day, when the new moon is discernible; to ANUMATI, goddess of the day, after the opposition; to PRAJAPATI, or the Lord of Creatures; to DYA'VA' and PRITHIVI', goddesses of sky and earth; and lastly, to the fire of the good sacri'fice. 87. Having thus, with fixed attention, offered clarified butter in all quarters, proceeding from the east in a southern direction, to INDRA, YAMA, Varuna, and 'the god SO'MA, let him offer his gift to animated 'creatures : 88. Saying, |