nful and base births,
and are hurled about in hells; where are sword-leaved trees, etc, and
where they are eaten, burned, spitted, and boiled; and they receive
births in despicable wombs; rebirth to age, sorrow, and unquenchable
death. But to secure supreme bliss a priest must study the Veda,
practice austerity, seek knowledge, subdue the senses, abstain from
injury, and serve his Teacher. Which of these gives highest bliss? The
knowledge of the spirit is the highest and foremost, for it gives
immortality. The performance of Vedic ceremonies is the most
productive of happiness here and hereafter. The Ten Commandments for
the twice-born are: Contentment, patience, self-control, not to steal,
purity, control of passions, devotion (or wisdom), knowledge,
truthfulness, and freedom from anger. These are concisely summarized
again in the following: 'Manu declared the condensed rule of duty for
(all) the four castes to be: not to injure a living thing; to speak
the truth; not to steal; to be pure; to control the passions' (VI. 92;
X. 63). The 'non-injury' rule does not apply, of course, to sacrifice
(_ib_. III. 268). In the epic the commandments are given sometimes as
ten, sometimes as eight.

In order to give a completed exposition of Brahmanism we have passed
beyond the period of the great heresies, to which we must soon revert.
But, before leaving the present division of the subject, we select
from the mass of Brahmanic domestic rites, the details of which offer
in general little that is worth noting, two or three ceremonies which
possess a more human interest, the marriage rite, the funeral rite,
and those strange trials, known among so many other peoples, the
ordeals. We sketch these briefly, wishing merely to illustrate the
religious side of each ceremony, as it appears in one or more of its
features.

THE MARRIAGE RITE.

Traces of exogamy may be suspected in the bridegroom's driving off
with his bride, but no such custom, of course, is recognized in the
law. On the contrary, the groom is supposed to belong to the same
village, and special rites are enjoined 'if he be from another
village.' But again, in the early rule there is no trace of that taint
of family which the totem-scholars of to-day cite so loosely from
Hindu law. The girl is not precluded because she belongs to the same
family within certain degrees. The only restriction in the
House-rituals is that she shall have had "on the mother's and father's
sid