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CHILD - MARRIAGES 269 cord to the previous ones; and also each time that a child is born to them, they may add a cord to the former ones. This the Vedam doth ordain, yet the Bramin Padmanaba said that it was not obeyed so nicely by all; but the more zealous each among them is in heathen- dom, the nicer he is to obey whatsoever the Vedam hath ordained respecting these cords/ ' The Bramines may not marry their children, whether sons or daughters/ says Roger in his twelfth chapter, l save to those who be of their caste, and herein are they very precise. And although the other castes also do not ordinarily marry their children except to their own caste, nevertheless it doth sometimes come to pass that they give their daughters to men who are of a higher caste, being led thereto by marking the rev- erence of the caste. But the Bramines cannot be led or enticed by such considerations, since if they should give their daughters to another caste, they must neces- sarily do despite to their own caste, for that it is the first in reverence. One might ask, however: " Be there, then, no Bra- mines who have wives from other castes? *' I answer, " Yes," but that cometh to pass thus: These sons of Bramines, when they are old in years and are no longer content with the wife of their youth, with whom they were wedded by their fathers' care, but seek to give rein to their lusts and to delight the flesh, ofttimes take to themselves wives of other castes who are well pleas- ing in their eyes both for the fair comeliness of their bodies and for the colour which adorneth them. Never-