sits aloft, indulgently advising his children, as he does in the intermediate stage of the Br[=a]hmanas; and [=a]tm[=a] (brahma) too is recognized to be the real being of Brahm[=a], as in the Upanishads.[10] But none of this touches the practice of the common law, where the ordinary man is admonished to fear Yama’s hell and Varuna’s bonds, as he would have been admonished before the philosopher grew wiser than the Vedic seers.  Only personified Right, Dharma, takes his seat with shadowy Brahm[=a] among the other gods.[11]

What is the speech which the judge on the bench is ordered to repeat to the witnesses?  Thus says the law-giver Manu:  “When the witnesses are collected together in the court, in the presence of the plaintiff and defendant, the (Brahman) judge should call upon them to speak, kindly addressing them in the following manner:  ’Whatever you know has been done in this affair ... declare it all.  A witness who in testifying speaks the truth reaches the worlds where all is plenty ... such testimony is honored by Brahm[=a].  One who in testifying speaks an untruth is, all unwilling, bound fast by the cords of Varuna,[12] till an hundred births are passed.’ ... (Then, speaking to one witness):  ’Spirit (soul) is the witness for the Spirit, and the Spirit is likewise the refuge of the Spirit.  Despise not, therefore, thine own spirit (or soul), the highest witness of man.  Verily, the wicked think ‘no one sees us,’ but the gods are looking at them, and also the person within (conscience). Dyaus, Earth, the Waters, (the person in the) heart, Moon, Sun, Fire, Yama, Wind, Night, the twin Twilights, and Dharma know the conduct of all corporeal beings....  Although, O good man, thou regardest thyself, thinking, ‘I am alone,’ yet the holy one (saint) who sees the evil and the good, stands ever in thy heart.  It is in truth god Yama, the son of Vivasvant, who resideth in thy heart; if thou beest not at variance with him (thou needest) not (to) go to the Ganges and to the (holy land of) the Kurus (to be purified).’”

Here there is no abatement in Vedic polytheism, although it is circled round with a thin mist from later teachings.  In the same way the ordinary man is taught that at death his spirit (soul) will pass as a manikin out of his body and go to Yama to be judged; while the feasts to the Manes, of course, imply always the belief in the individual activity of dead ancestors.  Such expressions as ’The seven daughters of Varuna’ (sapta v[=a]ru[n.][=i]r im[=a]s, [=A]cv. Grih.  S. 2. 3. 3) show that even in detail the old views are still retained.  There is no advance, except in superstitions,[13] on the main features of the old religion.  So the same old fear of words is found, resulting in new euphemisms.  One must not say ‘scull,’ kap[=a]la, but call it bhag[=a]la, ‘lucky’ (Gaut. 9. 21); a factor in the making of African languages also, according to modern travellers.  Images of