by certain rites, and that to
men, consisting in the entertainment of guests. The domestic
observances--many of them probably ancient Aryan family customs,
surrounded by the Hindus with a certain amount of adventitious
ceremonial--were generally performed by the householder himself, with
the assistance of his wife. There is, however, another class of
sacrificial ceremonies of a more pretentious and expensive kind, called
_srauta_ rites, or rites based on _sritu_, or revelation, the
performance of which, though not indispensable, were yet considered
obligatory under certain circumstances (see BRAHMANA). They formed a
very powerful weapon in the hands of the priesthood, and were one of the
chief sources of their subsistence. However great the religious merit
accruing from these sacrificial rites, they were obviously a kind of
luxury which only rich people could afford to indulge in. They
constituted, as it were, a tax, voluntary perhaps, yet none the less
compulsory, levied by the priesthood on the wealthy laity.

When the householder is advanced in years, "when he perceives his skin
become wrinkled and his hair grey, when he sees the son of his son," the
time is said to have come for him to enter the third stage of life. He
should now disengage himself from all family ties--except that his wife
may accompany him, if she chooses--and repair to a lonely wood, taking
with him his sacred fires and the implements required for the daily and
periodical offerings. Clad in a deer's skin, in a single piece of cloth,
or in a bark garment, with his hair and nails uncut, the hermit is to
subsist exclusively on food growing wild in the forest, such as roots,
green herbs, and wild rice and grain. He must not accept gifts from any
one, except of what may be absolutely necessary to maintain him; but
with his own little hoard he should, on the contrary, honour, to the
best of his ability, those who visit his hermitage. His time must be
spent in reading the metaphysical treatises of the Veda, in making
oblations, and in undergoing various kinds of privation and austerities,
with a view to mortifying his passions and producing in his mind an
entire indifference to worldly objects. Having by these means succeeded
in overcoming all sensual affections and desires, and in acquiring
perfect equanimity towards everything around him, the hermit has fitted
himself for the final and most exalted order, that of devotee or
religious mendicant. As suc