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ten kinds of seeds are mentioned, rice and barley, sesamum and kidney beans, millet and panic seed, wheat, lentils, pulse, and vetches, while the White Yajur-Veda also mentions green gram, wild rice, and shamalo-grass. Grains were ground and sprinkled with curds, honey, and clarified butter, and made into different kinds of cake. Milk and its various preparations have ever been a favourite food in India.

Animal food was in use in the Brahmanic and Epic Period, and the cow and the bull were often laid under requisition. The Aitareya Brahmana states that an ox or a cow was killed when a king or an honoured guest was received; and an honoured guest is called, even in comparatively modern Sanskrit, a cow-killer.

In the Brahmana of the Black Yajur-Veda, the kind and character of the cattle which should be slaughtered in minor sacrifices, for the gratification of particular divinities, are laid down in detail, and the same Brahmana lays down instructions for carving, while the Gopatha Brahmana tells who received the different portions. The priests got the tongue, the neck, the shoulder, the rump, and the legs, while the master of the house appropriated to himself the sirloin, and his wife had to content herself with the