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228 INDIA AS DESCRIBEN. IN EARLY TEXTS
hanas clean after eating, when on his rounds for alms, if politely requested to step nearer orto wait a moment, he passes stolidly on, refuses to accept food if it is brought to him before he has started on his round, if it has been prepared specially for him, to accept any invitation, to accept food direct from the mouth of the pot or pan lest those vessels should be struck or scraped on his account. He will not accept food placed within the threshold, placed among the sticks or pestles. He does not accept food from persons while they are eating, from a woman with child, from a mother giving suck, from a woman when she is in her private chamber. He will not accept food where a dog is standing by or flies are swarming round. He will not accept fish nor meat, nor strong drink, nor intoxicants, nor gruel. He feeds on the four kinds of filth (cowdung, cow's urine, ashes and clay). He never drinks cold water. He is contented with alms received from one house only, or from two houses, or so on up to only seven houses. He keeps himself going on only one alms or only two, or so on up to only seven. He takes his food only once a day, or once every two days, or so on up to once every seven days or up to even half a month'.1
1 Based on the Dialogues of the Buddha, op. cit, p. 227f.; Digha. 2, p. 166.
