THE MORALS OF THE HOUSE 343
VII. 132. Of gathered leaves, pot-herbs, grass, utencils made with leather or cane, earthen pots, and all things made of stone.
VII. 132. A king, even though dying with want, must not receive any tax from a Brahman learned in the Vedas, nor suffer such a Brahmen, residing in his territories, to be afflicted with hunger.
VII. 134. Of that king, in whose dominion a learned Brahmen is afflicted with hunger, the whole kingdom will in a short time be afflicted with famine.
VII. 137, Let the king order a mere trifle to be paid, in the name of the annual tax, by the meaner inhabitants of his realm, who subsist by petty traffic.
VII. 138. By low handicraftsmen, artificers, and servile men, who support themselves by labour, the king may cause work to be done for a day in each month.
VIII. 394. Neither a blind man, nor an idiot, nor a cripple, nor a man full seventy years old, nor one who confers great benefits on priests of eminent learning, shall be compelled by any king to pay taxes.
X. 118. A military king, who takes even a fourth part of the crops of his realm at a time of urgent necessity, as of war or invasion, and protects his people to the utmost of his power, commits no sin:
X. 119. His peculiar duty is conquest, and he must not recede from battle; so that, while he defends by his arms the merchant and husbandman, he may levy the legal tax as the price of protection.
X. 120. The tax on the mercantile class, which in times of prosperity must be only a twelfth part of their crops, and a fiftieth of their personal profits, may be an eighth of their crops in a time of distress, or a sixth, which is the medium, or even a fourth in great public adversity; but a twentieth of their gains on money, and other moveables, is the highest tax; serving men, artisans, and mechanics, must assist by their labour, but at no time pay taxes.
X. 187. To the nearest sapinda, male or female, after him in the third degree, the inheritance next belongs; then, on failure of sapindas and of their issue the samanodaca, or distant kinsman, shall be the heir; or the spiritual preceptor, or the pupil, or the fellow student, of the deceased.
IX. 188. On failure of all those, the lawful heirs are such Brahmens, as have read the three Vedas, as are pure in body and mind, as have subdued their passions; and they must consequently offer the cake; thus the rites of obsequies cannot fail.