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I, 190.
avaricious or cruel man, nor an enemy of a company (of traders) or of an association (of clansmen).
*185. Nor one who takes animal life, nor a leather manufacturer, nor a cripple, nor an outcast, nor a forger, nor a quack, nor an apostate, nor a robber, nor one of the king's attendants.
*186. Nor a Brahman who sells human beings, cattle, meat, bones, honey, milk, water, or butter, nor a member of a twice-born caste guilty of usury.
*187. Nor one who neglects his duties, nor a Kulika, nor a bard, nor one who serves low people, nor one who quarrels with his father, nor one who causes dissension. These are the incompetent witnesses.
*188. The slaves, impostors, and other incompetent witnesses who have been enumerated above, shall be witnesses nevertheless in suits of a specially grave character.
INCOMPETENT WITNESSES.
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*189. Whenever a heinous crime, or a robbery, or adultery, or one of the two kinds of insult has been committed, he must not inquire (too strictly) into the (character of the) witnesses.
*190. A child also cannot be (made a witness), nor a woman, nor one man alone, nor a cheat, nor a relative, nor an enemy. These persons might give false evidence.
185. One who takes animal life,' a butcher. 'A forger,' one who falsifies documents or coined money. 'A quack,' one who practises incantations and the like with mysterious formulas, medicines, &c. 'An apostate,' one who has left the order of religious mendicants. 'An attendant of the king,' a menial. A.
187. 'A Kulika,' a judge; or the head of a caste or guild. 'One who causes dissension,' one who causes friends or others to fall out with one another. Vîramitrodaya.
189. Manu VIII, 72; Yâgñavalkya II, 72; Gautama XIII, 9; Vishnu VIII, 6.
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