only, and taking a little water should then dip the toe of the right foot in it.  After washing, one should touch the crown of one’s head with the (right) hand.  With concentrated attention, one should next touch fire.  The man who knows how to observe all these ordinances with care, succeeds in attaining to the foremost place among his kinsmen.  One should, after finishing one’s meals, with one’s nose and eyes and ears and navel and both hands wash with water.  One should not, however, keep one’s hands wet.  Between the tip and the root of the thumb is situate the sacred Tirtha known by the name of Brahma.  On the back of the little finger, it is said, is situate the Deva-tirtha.  The intervening space between the thumb and the forefinger, O Bharata, should be used for discharging the Pitri rites, after touching water according to the ordinance.[476] One should never indulge in other people’s calumny.  Nor should one ever utter anything that is disagreeable.  The man that desires his own good should never seek to provoke against himself the wrath of others.  One should never seek to converse with a person that has fallen away from his order.  The very sight of such a person should be avoided.  One should never come in contact with a fallen person.  By avoiding such contact one succeeds in attaining to a long life.  One should never indulge in sexual congress at day-time.  Nor should one have congress with a maiden, nor with a harlot nor with a barren woman.  One should never have congress with a woman that has not bathed after the expiry of her functional period.  By avoiding such acts one succeeds in attaining to a long life.  After washing the several limbs directed, in view of religious acts, one should wash one’s lips thrice, and once more twice.  By doing this, one becomes purified and fit for religious acts.  The several organs of sense should each be washed once, and water should also be sprinkled over the whole body.  Having done this, one should go through the worship of the Pitris and the deities, agreeably with the ordinances of the Vedas.  Listen to me, O thou of Kuru’s race, as I tell thee what purification is cleansing and beneficial for a Brahmana.  Before beginning to eat and after finishing the meal, and in all acts requiring purification, the Brahmana should perform the achamana with water placed on the limb called the Brahmatirtha.[477] After ejecting any matter from the throat or spitting, one should wash one’s mouth before one can become pure.  A kinsman who happens to be old, or a friend who happens to be poor, should be established in one’s house and his comforts looked after as if he were a member of the family.  By doing this, one succeeds in acquiring both fame and long life.  The establishment of pigeons in one’s house is fraught with blessedness, as also of parrots both male and female.  If female these taken to one’s abode, they succeed in dispelling calamity.  The same is the case with cockroaches, If fireflies and vultures and wood-pigeons and bees