The 'non-injury' rule does not apply, of course, to sacrifice (_ib_.III.

268).

In the epic the commandments are given sometimes as ten, sometimes as eight.
In order to give a completed exposition of Brahmanism we have passed beyond the period of the great heresies, to which we must soon revert.
But, before leaving the present division of the subject, we select from the mass of Brahmanic domestic rites, the details of which offer in general little that is worth noting, two or three ceremonies which possess a more human interest, the marriage rite, the funeral rite, and those strange trials, known among so many other peoples, the ordeals.

We sketch these briefly, wishing merely to illustrate the religious side of each ceremony, as it appears in one or more of its features.
THE MARRIAGE RITE.
Traces of exogamy may be suspected in the bridegroom's driving off with his bride, but no such custom, of course, is recognized in the law.

On the contrary, the groom is supposed to belong to the same village, and special rites are enjoined 'if he be from another village.' But again, in the early rule there is no trace of that taint of family which the totem-scholars of to-day cite so loosely from Hindu law.