________________
VI, 18.
THE HERMIT IN THE FOREST.
201
13. Let him eat vegetables that grow on dry land or in water, flowers, roots, and fruits, the productions of pure trees, and oils extracted from forest-fruits.
14. Let him avoid honey, flesh, and mushrooms growing on the ground (or elsewhere, the vegetables called) Bhůstrina, and Sigruka, and the Sleshmântaka fruit.
15. Let him throw away in the month of Åsvina the food of ascetics, which he formerly collected, likewise his worn-out clothes and his vegetables, roots, and fruit.
16. Let him not eat anything (grown on) ploughed (land), though it may have been thrown away by somebody, nor roots and fruit grown in a village, though (he may be) tormented (by hunger).
17. He may eat either what has been cooked with fire, or what has been ripened by time; he either may use a stone for grinding, or his teeth may be his mortar.
18. He may either at once (after his daily meal) cleanse (his vessel for collecting food), or lay up a
14. Bhûstrina, i.e. Andropogon Schoenanthus, Sigruka, according to Når., the same as the Sobhanangana, i.e. Moringa Pterygosperma, the horse-radish tree, the leaves of which are said to be used as a vegetable. According to Medh., these two vegetables are known among the Bâhîkas, in the Panjab; according to Gov., Kull., Râgh., the former is found in Mâlva. Sleshmântaka, i.e. Cordia Myxa. According to Medh., bhaumâni, those which grow on or come from the ground,' has to be taken as a separate word, and denotes a plant, known to the woodmen, named Gogihvika, Phlomnis or Premna Esculenta. Gov., När., and Kull. give the construction adopted above, and the latter two declare that mushrooms growing on trees are likewise forbidden.
16. Though he may be in distress,' i.e. tormented by hunger' (Gov., Kull.), or "sick' (Når.).
18. 'He may either at once (after his daily meal) cleanse (his
Digitized by Google