The institutes of Vishnu (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1880)

X, I. ORDEALS. 55
25. The (ordeal by) fire must not be adminis-
tered to lepers, to infirm persons, or to black-
smiths ;
26. Nor must it ever be administered in autumn
or summer.
27. The (ordeal by) poison must not be adminis-
tered to lepers, bilious persons, or Brahmazzas ;
28. Nor during the rainy season.
29. The (ordeal by) water must not be adminis-
tered to persons afflicted with phlegm or (another)
illness, to the timid, to the asthmatic, nor to those
who gain their subsistence from water (such as
fishermen and the like);
30. Nor during (the two cold seasons) Hemanta
and Nisira (or from middle of November to middle
of March);
31. The (ordeal by) sacred libation must not be
administered to atheists ;
32. Nor when the country is afflicted with disease
or pestilence.
33. Let the judge summon the defendant at the
time of sunrise, after having fasted on the previous
day and bathed in his clothes, and make him go
through all the ordeals in the presence of (images of)
the gods and of the (assessors and other) Brahmazzas.
X.
1. Now follows the (rule regarding the ordeal by)
balance.
29. Nand. infers from a text of Narada (not found in his Insti-
tutes), that the plural is made use of in this Sfttra in order to
include women, children, sickly, old, and feeble persons.
32. According to Nand., the particle £a is used here in order to
include fire, wind, grasshoppers, and other plagues.
X. 5, 6. Y. II, ioo.