﻿248 ON THE RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES 



meat, nor any food seasoned with factitious salt; 

 they must use a plate made of the leaves of any tree 

 but the plantain, or else take their food from the 

 hands of some other persons ; they must not handle 

 a knife, or any other implement made of iron, nor 

 sleep upon a bed-stead, nor adorn their persons, but 

 remain squalid, and refrain from perfumes and other 

 gratifications ; they must likewise omit the daily 

 ceremonies of ablution and divine worship. On the 

 third and fifth days, as also on the seventh and ninth, 

 the kinsmen assemble, bathe in the open air, offer 

 tila and water to the deceased, and take a repast to- 

 gether ; they place lamps at cross roads, and in their 

 own houses, and likewise on the way to the cemetery, 

 and they observe vigils in honour of the deceased. 



On the last day of mourning, or earlier in those 

 countries where the obsequies are expedited on the 

 second or third day, the nearest kinsman of the de- 

 ceased gathers his ashes after offering a s'raddlia 

 singly for him. 



In the first place the kinsman smears with cow 

 dung the spot where the oblation is to be presented ; 

 and after washing his hands and feet, sipping water, 

 and taking up cu^a grass in his hand, he sits down 

 on a cushion pointed towards the south, and placed 

 upon a blade of cu^a grass, the tip of which must also 

 point towards the south. He then places near him 

 a bundle oi cits' a grass, consecrated by pronouncing 

 the word namah ! or else prepares a fire for oblations ; 

 then, ligliting a lamp \vith clarified butter or with 

 oil of sesamum, and arranging the food and other 

 things intended to be offered, he must sprinkle 

 himself with water, meditating on Vishn'u sur- 

 named the lotos-eyed, or revolving in his mind 

 this verse, "Whether pure or defiled, or wherever 

 he may have gone, he, who remembers the being, 

 whose eyes are like the lotos, shall be pure externally 

 and internally." Shifting the sacerdotal cord on 



hi? 



