Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/308

 the instruments of music are employed. Then orders are given throughout all the districts to sacrifice to the various princes, high ministers, and officers who benefited the people; praying that there may be a good harvest of grain.

9. The husbandmen present (the first-fruits of) their millet; and in this month the son of Heaven partakes of it along with pullets, and with cherries set forth beside them, first offering a portion in the apartment behind the ancestral temple.

10. The people are forbidden to cut down the indigo plant to use it in dyeing.

11. Or to burn wood for charcoal, or to bleach cloth in the sun.

12. The gates of cities and villages should not be shut, nor should vexatious inquiries be instituted at the barrier gates or in the markets.