of the most minute rules of conduct. During all
this time the student had to subsist entirely on food obtained by
begging from house to house; and his behaviour towards the preceptor and
his family was to be that prompted by respectful attachment and implicit
obedience. In the case of girls no investiture takes place, but for them
the nuptial ceremony is considered as an equivalent to that rite. On
quitting the teacher's abode, the young man returns to his family and
takes a wife. To die without leaving legitimate offspring, and
especially a son, capable of performing the periodical rite of obsequies
(_sraddha_), consisting of offerings of water and balls of rice, to
himself and his two immediate ancestors, is considered a great
misfortune by the orthodox Hindu. There are three sacred "debts" which a
man has to discharge in life, viz. that which is due to the gods, and of
which he acquits himself by daily worship and sacrificial rites; that
due to the _rishis_, or ancient sages and inspired seers of the Vedic
texts, discharged by the daily study of the scripture; and the "final
debt" which he owes to his _manes_, and of which he relieves himself by
leaving a son. To these three some authorities add a fourth, viz. the
debt owing to humankind, which demands his continually practising
kindness and hospitality. Hence the necessity of a man's entering into
the married state. When the bridegroom leads the bride from her father's
house to his own home, and becomes a _griha-pati_, or householder, the
fire which has been used for the marriage ceremony accompanies the
couple to serve them as their _garhapatya_, or domestic fire. It has to
be kept up perpetually, day and night, either by themselves or their
children, or, if the man be a teacher, by his pupils. If it should at
any time become extinguished by neglect or otherwise, the guilt incurred
thereby must be atoned for by an act of expiation. The domestic fire
serves the family for preparing their food, for making the five
necessary daily and other occasional offerings, and for performing the
sacramental rites above alluded to. No food should ever be eaten that
has not been duly consecrated by a portion of it being offered to the
gods, the beings and the _manes_. These three daily offerings are also
called by the collective name of _vaisvadeva_, or sacrifice "to all the
deities." The remaining two are the offering to Brahma, i.e. the daily
lecture of the scriptures, accompanied