extracted from poison, may be quaffed; women, jewels and other valuables, and water, can never, according to the scriptures, be impure or unclean.  For the benefit of Brahmanas and kine, and on occasions of transfusion of castes, even a Vaisya may take up weapons for his own safety.  Drinking alcoholic liquors, killing a Brahmana, and the violation of the preceptor’s bed, are sins that, if committed consciously, have no expiation.  The only expiation laid down for them is death.  The same may be said of stealing gold and the theft of a Brahmana’s property.  By drinking alcoholic liquors, by having congress with one with whom congress is prohibited, by mingling with a fallen person, and (a person of any of the other three orders) by having congress with a Brahmani, one becomes inevitably fallen.  By mixing with a fallen person for one whole year in such matters as officiation in sacrifices and teaching sexual congress, one becomes fallen.  One, however, does not become so by mixing with a fallen person in such matters as riding on the same vehicle, sitting on the same seat, and eating in the same line.  Excluding the five grave sins that have been mentioned above, all other sins have expiations, provided for them.  Expiating those sins according to the ordinances laid down for them, one should not again indulge in them.  In the case of those who have been guilty of the first three of these five sins, (viz., drinking alcoholic liquors, killing a Brahmana, and violation of the preceptor’s bed), there is no restriction for their (surviving) kinsmen about taking food and wearing ornaments, even if their funeral rites remain unperformed when they die.  The surviving kinsmen should make no scruple about such things on such occasions.  A virtuous man should, in the observance of his duties, discard his very friends and reverend seniors.  In fact, until they perform expiation, they that are virtuous should not even talk with those sinners.  A man that has acted sinfully destroys his sin by acting virtuously afterwards and by penances.  By calling a thief a thief, one incurs the sin of theft.  By calling a person a thief who, however, is not a thief one incurs a sin just double the sin of theft.  The maiden who suffers her virginity to be deflowered incurs three-fourths of the sin of Brahmanicide, while the man that deflowers her incurs a sin equal to a fourth part of that of Brahmanicide.  By slandering Brahmanas or by striking them, one sinks in infamy for a hundred years.  By killing a Brahmana one sinks into hell for a thousand years.  No one, therefore, should speak ill of a Brahmana or slay him.  If a person strikes a Brahmana with a weapon, he will have to live in hell for as many years as the grains of dust that are soaked by the blood flowing from the wounded.  One guilty of foeticide becomes cleansed if he dies of wounds received in battle fought for the sake of kine and Brahmanas.  He may also be cleansed by casting his person on a blazing fire.[476]