Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/71

 VARIOUS HINDU CUSTOMS 46 are attended by persons following them with umbrellas; for as they highly esteem beauty, attention is given to everything which can improve their looks. They respect alike truth and virtue; therefore they do not assign any privilege to the old, unless they pos- sess superior wisdom. They marry many wives, who are purchased from their parents, and give in exchange for them a yoke of oxen. Some marry wives to possess obedient attend- ants, others with a view to pleasure and numerous offspring, and the wives may prostitute themselves, unless chastity is enforced by compulsion. No one wears a garland when sacrificing, or burning incense, or pouring out a libation. They do not stab, but strangle the victim, so that nothing mutilated, but only that which is entire, may be offered to the Deity. A person convicted of bearing false witness suffers a mutilation of his extremities. He who has maimed another not only undergoes in return the loss of the same limb, but his hand also is cut off. If he has caused a workman to lose his hand or his eye, he is put to death. Megasthenes says that none of the Indians employ slaves, but, according to Onesikritos, this is peculiar to the people in the territory of Mousikanos. He speaks of this as an excellent rule and mentions many others to be found in that country, as the effects of a govern- ment by good laws. The care of the king's person is committed to women, who are also purchased from their parents. The body-guard, and the rest of the military, are stationed