rformed in India on the completion of a house are represented
in modern Europe by the familiar "house-warming."

Page 169.

_I longed with all my lawless will_
_Some elephant by night to kill._

One of the regal or military caste was forbidden to kill an elephant
except in battle.

_Thy hand has made no Brahman bleed._

"The punishment which the Code of Manu awards to the slayer of a Brahman
was to be branded in the forehead with the mark of a headless corpse, and
entirely banished from society; this being apparently commutable for a
fine. The poem is therefore in accordance with the Code regarding the
peculiar guilt of killing Brahmans; but in allowing a hermit who was not a
_Divija_ (twice-born) to go to heaven, the poem is far in advance of the
Code. The youth in the poem is allowed to read the Veda, and to accumulate
merit by his own as well as his father's pious acts; whereas the exclusive
Code reserves all such privileges to _Divijas_ invested with the sacred
cord." Mrs. SPEIR'S _Life in Ancient India_, p. 107.

Page 174. The Praise Of Kings

"Compare this magnificent eulogium of kings and kingly government with
what Samuel says of the king and his authority: And Samuel told all the
words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.

And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over
you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his
chariots, and to be his horsemen: and some shall run before his chariots.

And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over
fifties, and will set them to work his ground, and to reap his harvest,
and to make his instrument of war, and instruments of his chariots.

And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks,
and to be bakers.

And he will take your fields, and your vineyards and your oliveyards, even
the best of them, and give them to his servants.

And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give
to his officers, and to his servants.

And he will take your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your
goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have
chosen you. I. _Samuel_, VIII.

In India kingly government was ancient and consecrated by tradition:
whence to change it seemed disord