=Rites.=—­The practice of the religion is much more complicated.  Hymns and sacrifices are still offered to the gods, but the Brahmans have gradually invented thousands of minute customs so that one’s life is completely engaged with them.  For all the ceremonies of the religious life there are prayers, offerings, vows, libations, ablutions.  Some of the religious requirements attach themselves to dress, ornaments, etiquette, drinking, eating, mode of walking, of lying down, of sleeping, of dressing, of undressing, of bathing.  It is ordered:  “That a Brahman shall not step over a rope to which a calf is attached; that he shall not run when it rains; that he shall not drink water in the hollow of his hand; that he shall not scratch his head with both his hands.  The man who breaks clods of earth, who cuts grass with his nails or who bites his nails is, like the outcast, speedily hurried to his doom.”  An animal must not be killed, for a human soul may perhaps be dwelling in the body; one must not eat it on penalty of being devoured in another life by the animals which one has eaten.

All these rites have a magical virtue; he who observes them all is a saint; he who neglects any of them is impious and destined to pass into the body of an animal.

=Purity.=—­The principal duty is keeping one’s self pure; for every stain is a sin and opens one to the attack of evil spirits.  But the Brahmans are very scrupulous concerning purity:  men outside of the castes, many animals, the soil, even the utensils which one uses are so many impure things; whoever touches these is polluted and must at once purify himself.  Life is consumed in purifications.

=Penances.=—­For every defect in the rites, a penance is necessary, often a terrible one.  He who involuntarily kills a cow must clothe himself in its skin, and for three months, day and night, follow and tend a herd of cows.  Whoever has drunk of arrack[25] must swallow a boiling liquid which burns the internal organs until death results.

=The Monks.=—­To escape so many dangers and maintain purity, it is better to leave the world.  Often a Brahman when he has attained to a considerable age withdraws to the desert, fasts, watches, refrains from speech, exposes himself naked to the rain, holds himself erect between four fires under the burning sun.  After some years, the solitary becomes “penitent”; then his only subsistence is from almsgiving; for whole days he lifts an arm in the air uttering not a word, holding his breath; or perchance, he gashes himself with razor-blades; or he may even keep his thumbs closed until the nails pierce the hands.  By these mortifications he destroys passion, releases himself from this life, and by contemplation rises to Brahma.  And yet, this way of salvation is open only to the Brahman; and even he has the right to withdraw to the desert only in old age, after having studied the Vedas all his life, practised all the rites, and established a family.