serve my superiors and the old.  O thou best of Brahmanas!  I always speak the truth, never envy others; and give to the best of my power.  I live upon what remaineth after serving the gods, guests, and those that depend on me.  I never speak ill of anything, small or great.  O thou best of Brahmanas, the actions of a former life always follow the doer.  In this world there are three principal professions, viz., agriculture, rearing of cattle, and trade.  As regards the other world, the three Vedas, knowledge, and the science of morals are efficacious.  Service (of the other three orders) hath been ordained to be the duty of the Sudra.  Agriculture hath been ordained for the Vaisyas, and fighting for the Kshatriyas, while the practice of the Brahmacharya vow, asceticism, recitation of mantras, and truthfulness have been ordained for the Brahmanas.  Over subjects adhering to their proper duties, the king should rule virtuously; while he should set those thereto that have fallen away from the duties of their order.  Kings should ever be feared, because they are the lords of their subjects.  They restrain those subjects of theirs that fall away from their duties as they restrain the motions of the deer by means of their shafts.  O regenerate Rishi, there existeth not in the kingdom of Janaka a single subject that followeth not the duties of his birth.  O thou best of the Brahmanas, all the four orders here rigidly adhere to their respective duties.  King Janaka punisheth him that is wicked, even if he be his own son; but never doth he inflict pain on him that is virtuous.  With good and able spies employed under him, he looketh upon all with impartial eyes.  Prosperity, and kingdom, and capacity to punish, belong, O thou best of Brahmanas, to the Kshatriyas.  Kings desire high prosperity through practice of the duties that belong to them.  The king is the protector of all the four orders.  As regards myself, O Brahmana, I always sell pork and buffalo meat without slaying those animals myself.  I sell meat of animals, O regenerate Rishi, that have been slain by others.  I never eat meat myself; never go to my wife except in her season; I always fast during the day, and eat, O regenerate one, in the night.  Even though the behaviour of his order is bad, a person may yet be himself of good behaviour.  So also a person may become virtuous, although he may be slayer of animals by profession.  It is in consequence of the sinful acts of kings that virtue decreaseth greatly, and sin beginneth to prosper.  And when all this taketh place the subjects of the kingdom begin to decay.  And it is then, O Brahmana, that ill-looking monsters, and dwarfs, and hunch-backed and large-headed wights, and men that are blind or deaf or those that have paralysed eyes or are destitute of the power of procreation, begin to take their birth.  It is from the sinfulness of kings that their subjects suffer numerous mischiefs.  But this our king