e conversation. Thus end the
duties of the day.

The following are the things to be done occasionally as diversions or
amusements.

1. Holding festivals[23] in honour of different Deities.

2. Social gatherings of both sexes.

3. Drinking parties.

4. Picnics.

5. Other social diversions.

_Festivals._

On some particular auspicious day, an assembly of citizens should be
convened in the temple of Saraswati.[24] There the skill of singers, and
of others who may have come recently to the town, should be tested, and
on the following day they should always be given some rewards. After
that they may either be retained or dismissed, according as their
performances are liked or not by the assembly. The members of the
assembly should act in concert, both in times of distress as well as in
times of prosperity, and it is also the duty of these citizens to show
hospitality to strangers who may have come to the assembly. What is said
above should be understood to apply to all the other festivals which may
be held in honour of the different Deities, according to the present
rules.

_Social Gatherings._

When men of the same age, disposition and talents, fond of the same
diversions and with the same degree of education, sit together in
company with public women,[25] or in an assembly of citizens, or at the
abode of one among themselves, and engage in agreeable discourse with
each other, such is called a sitting in company or a social gathering.
The subjects of discourse are to be the completion of verses half
composed by others, and the testing the knowledge of one another in the
various arts. The women who may be the most beautiful, who may like the
same things that the men like, and who may have power to attract the
minds of others, are here done homage to.

_Drinking Parties._

Men and women should drink in one another's houses. And here the men
should cause the public women to drink, and should then drink
themselves, liquors such as the Madhu, Aireya, Sara, and Asawa, which
are of bitter and sour taste; also drinks concocted from the barks of
various trees, wild fruits and leaves.

_Going to Gardens or Picnics._

In the forenoon, men, having dressed themselves should go to gardens on
horseback, accompanied by public women and followed by servants. And
having done there all the duties of the day, and passed the time in
various agreeable diversions, such as the fighting of quails, cocks and
rams, and ot