OR SACRED WRITINGS OF THE HINDUS. 437 



in the manner directed by tliis Veda, are not really 

 sacrifices of horses and men. In the first men- 

 tioned ceremony, six hundred and nine animals of 

 various prescribed kinds, domestic and wild, in- 

 cluding birds, fish, and reptiles, are made fast; 

 the tame ones, to twenty-one posts; and the wild, 

 in the intervals between the pillars : and, after cer- 

 tain prayers have been recited, the victims are let 

 loose without injury. In the other, a hundred and 

 eighty- five men of various specified tribes, cha- 

 racters, and professions, are bound to eleven posts : 

 and, after the hymn, concerning the allegorical 

 immolation of Na'ra'yan'a *, has been recited, 

 these human victims are liberated unhurt : and ob- 

 lations of butter are made on the sacrificial fire. 

 This mode of performing \\\q As warned'' ha and Pw- 

 rushamM'ha, as emblematic ceremonies, not as 

 real sacrifices, is taught in this Veda:--A\\(\. the in- 

 terpretation is fully confirmed by the rituals f, and 

 by commentators on the Sanhitd and Brahman a ; 

 one of whom assigns as the reason, ' because the 

 flesh of victims, which have been actually sacri- 

 ficed at a Yajnya, must be eaten by the persons 

 who offer the sacrifice : but a man cannot be al- 

 lowed, much less required, to eat human flesh J.' 

 It may be hence inferred, or conjectured at least. 



* Asiatic Researches, Vol. VII, p. 251. The version of the 

 hymn, as there given, should be amended by substituting, at the 

 15th verse, * binding' for * immolating.' A similarity of terms 

 led to that error, which the context did not correct ; for the 9th 

 verse is rightly translated. However, to follow the commentaries 

 strictly, even the terra, which there occurs, and which properly 

 signifies * immolated,'^ may be translated, * consecrated.' 



t I particularly advert to a separate ritual of the Purushamed'- 

 ha by Ya'jnyadf/va. 



X Cited from memorj' : I read the passage several years ago ; 

 but I cannot now recover it. 



Ff3 



