Tîs din sûtak pânch roz ratwanti nâri, Sera karo shnân sil santokh suchh pyâri. Pâni bâni îdhni itna lîjo chhân. Daya dharm hirdê dharo guru batâi jân. Chori nindya jûth barjya bâd na kariyo koê. Amal tamâku bhang lil dûr hi tyâgo. Mad mâs se dekh ke dûr hi bhâgo. Amar rakhâo thât bail tani na bâho. Amâshya barat rûnkh lîlo na ghâo. Hom, jap samâdh pûja bâsh baikunthi pâo. Untîs dharm ki âkhri guru batâi soê, Pâhul doê par châvya jis ko nâm Bishnoi hoê. Which is thus interpreted: ‘For thirty days after child-birth and five days after a menstrual discharge a woman must not cook food. Bathe in the morning. Commit not adultery. Be content. Be abstemious and pure. Strain your drinking water. Be careful of your speech. Examine your fuel in case any living creature be burnt with it. Show pity to living creatures. Keep duty present to your mind as the Teacher bade. Do not steal. Do not speak evil of others. Do not tell lies. Never quarrel. Avoid opium, tobacco, bhang, and blue clothing. Flee from spirits and flesh. See that your goats are kept alive (not sold to Musalmâns, who will kill them for food). Do not plough with bullocks. Keep a fast on the day before the new moon. Do not cut green trees. Sacrifice with fire. Say prayers. Meditate. Perform worship and attain heaven. And the last of the twenty-nine duties prescribed by the Teacher—‘Baptize your children, if you would be called a true Bishnoi.’” [Social life.] 5. “Some of these precepts are not strictly obeyed; for instance, though ordinarily they allow no blue in their clothing, yet a Bishnoi, if he is a servant of the British Government, is allowed to wear a blue uniform; and Bishnois do use bullocks, though most of their farming is done with camels. They also seem to be unusually quarrelsome (in words) and given to use bad language. But they abstain from tobacco, drugs, and spirits, and are noted for their regard for animal life, which is such that not only will they not themselves kill any living creature, but they do their utmost to prevent others from doing so. Consequently their villages are generally swarming with antelope and other animals, and they forbid their Musalmân neighbours to kill them, and try to dissuade European sportsmen from interfering with them. They wanted to make it a condition of their settlement that no one should be allowed to shoot on their land, but at the same time they asked that they might be assessed at lower rates than their neighbours on the ground that the antelope being thus left undisturbed do more damage to their crops; but I told them that this would lessen the merit (pun) of their good actions in protecting the animals, and they must be treated just as the surrounding villages were. They consider it a good deed to scatter grain to pigeons and other birds, and often have a large number of half-tame birds about their villages. The day before