CHAP. 52. X. Their clothes must be the mantles of the deceased; their dishes for food, broken pots; their ornaments, rusty iron; continually must they roam from place to place: 53. Let no man, who regards his duty religious and civil, hold any intercourse with them; let their transactions be confined to themselves, and their 'marriages only between equals: 54. Let food be given to them in potsherds, but not by the hands of the giver; and let them not ' walk by night in cities or towns: 6 55. By day they may walk about for the purpose who ' of work, distinguished by the king's badges; and 56. They shall always kill those, who are to be slain by the sentence of the law, and by the royal warrant; and let them take the clothes of the slain, their beds, and their ornaments. 57. HIM, who was born of a sinful mother, and consequently in a low class, but is not openly known, who, though worthless in truth, bears the semblance of a worthy man, let people discover by his acts: 58. Want of virtuous dignity, harshness of speech, cruelty, and habitual neglect of prescribed duties, betray in this world the son of a criminal mother. 59. Whether a man of debased birth assume the • character 6 character of his father or of his mother, he can at CHAP. no time conceal his origin: 60. He, whose family had been exalted, but whose parents were criminal in marrying, has a base nature, according as the offence of his mother was great or ' small. 6 61. In whatever country such men are born, as destroy the purity of the four classes, that country 'soon perishes, together with the natives of it. 6 62. Desertion of life, without reward, for the sake ' of preserving a priest or a cow, a woman or a child, may cause the beatitude of those base-born • tribes. 6 6 63. Avoiding all injury to animated beings, veracity, abstaining from theft, and from unjust seizure of property, cleanliness, and command over the bodily organs, form the compendious system of duty, which • MENU has ordained for the four classes. 64. SHOULD the tribe sprung from a Bráhmen, by 'a Súdrà-woman, produce a succession of children by 'the marriages of its women with other Bráhmens, the low tribe shall be raised to the highest in the 'seventh generation. 65. As the son of a Súdra may thus attain the rank of a Bráhmen, and as the son of a Bráhmen may sink to a level with Súdras, even so must it be with him, who springs from a Cshatriya; even so ' with him, who was born of a Vaisya. X. X. CHAP. 66. IF there be a doubt, as to the preference between him, who was begotten by a Bráhmen for his pleasure, but not in wedlock, o na Súdrà-woman, ' and him who was begotten by a Súdra on a Bráhmenì, 6 67. Thus is it removed: he, who was begotten by exalted man on a base woman, may by his an ' good acts become respectable; but he, who was begotten on an exalted woman by a base man, must himself continue base: 68. Neither of the two (as the law is fixed) shall be girt with a sacred string; not the former, be'cause his mother was low; nor the second, because the order of the classes was inverted. 69. As good grain, springing from good soil, is ' in all respects excellent, thus a man, springing from a respectable father by a respectable mother, has a claim to the whole institution of the twice-born. 70. Some sages give a preference to the grain; others to the field; and others consider both field and grain; on this point the decision follows: 71. Grain, cast into bad ground, wholly perishes, and a good field, with no grain sown in it, is a mere heap of clods; 72. But since, by the virtue of eminent fathers, 6 even the sons of wild animals, as Rishyasringa, and others, have been transformed into holy men revered and extolled, the paternal side, therefore, ‹ prevails. 73. BRAHMA' X 73. BRAHMA' himself, having compared a Súdra, CHAP. 'who performs the duties of the twice-born, with a 'twice-born man, who does the acts of a Súdra, · said: "Those two are neither equal nor unequal," that is, they are neither equal in rank, nor unequal in bad conduct. 6 74. LET such Bráhmens as are intent on the means ' of attaining the supreme godhead, and firm in their own duties, completely perform, in order, the six following acts: 75. Reading the Védas, and teaching others to 'read them, sacrificing, and assisting others to sa'crifice, giving to the poor, if themselves have enough, ' and accepting gifts from the virtuous if themselves are poor, are the six prescribed acts of the firstborn class; 6 76. But, among those six acts of a Bráhmen, three are his means of subsistence; assisting to sacrifice, teaching the Védas, and receiving gifts from a pure-handed giver. 77. Three acts of duty cease with the Bráhmen, ' and belong not to the Cshatriya; teaching the Védas, officiating at a sacrifice, and, thirdly, receiving pre 6 6 sents: 78. Those three are also (by the fixed rule of law) 'forbidden to the Vaisya; since MENU, the lord of ' all men, prescribed not those acts to the two classes, military and commercial. CHAP. X. 6 79. The means of subsistence, peculiar to the Cshatriya, are bearing arms, either held for striking or missile, to the Vaisya, merchandize, attending on 'cattle, and agriculture: but, with a view to the next life, the duties of both are almsgiving, reading, sacrificing. 6 6 80. Among the several occupations for gaining a livelihood the most commendable respectively for 'the sacerdotal, military, and mercantile classes, are teaching the Veda, defending the people, and commerce or keeping herds and flocks. 6 81. ' Yet a Bráhmen, unable to subsist by his duties just mentioned, may live by the duty of a soldier; for that is the next in rank. 82. If it be asked, how he must live, should he 'be unable to get a subsistence by either of those employments; the answer is, he may subsist as mercantile man, applying himself in person to tillage and attendance on cattle: a 83. But a Bráhmen and a Cshatriya, obliged to subsist by the acts of a Vaisya, must avoid with care, if they can live by keeping herds, the business of tillage, which gives great pain to sentient 'creatures, and is dependant on the labour of others, as bulls and so forth. 84. Some are of opinion, that agriculture is excellent; but it is a mode of subsistence which the ' benevolent greatly blame; for the iron-mouthed pieces |