ITS BENEFIT IN HOT CLIMATES 191
all circumstances, were particularly valuable in a country where there is no other beast available for tilling or for transporting agricultural and commercial products. Besides which, the milk was an indispensable addition to the food of the multitude of poor natives who would otherwise have
no other food than insipid vegetables.
Perhaps we may also add another motive besides that of
preserving the species of these valuable animals, and that is the indigestible nature of beef. Indeed, in a climate where the organs of the stomach are so much weakened by excessive perspiration, the habitual use of heavy food would have soon destroyed the health of the people. I have known many Europeans who entirely left off eating
meat for this reason, because they found that they could not eat it without suffering afterwards from indigestion ].
At the same time the Hindu lawgivers knew the character
of their compatriots too well to imagine that simple prohibitions and punishments would suffice to save the lives
of these precious animals. So, calling religion to their aid, they deified them. To kill a cow— according to the principles of Hindu law— is not only a crime, but an awful sacrilege, a deicide, which can only be expiated by the death of the offender; while to eat of the flesh of a cow is a
1 '
Montesquieu says: There are many local laws peculiar to different
religious beliefs. The tenet of metempsychosis is peculiarly suited to the Indian climate. The excessive heat burns up all the pasture, and
there is little left with which to feed the cattle. There is always a danger of there being too few beasts to till the ground. Cattle multiply but slowly in that country, and are subject to many diseases. Hence it is that a religious law which protects them is very necessary from an
economical point of view. But while the pastures are all burnt up, rice and vegetables grow very well by the help of irrigation. Thus
a religious law which only allows of this kind of food is useful to the people of the country. Furthermore, while meat is usually tasteless in hot climates, milk and butter, which are obtained from these animals, form the chief items of food. The law forbidding cows to be killed and eaten as food is therefore not without reason in India( Esprit ' des
Lois, book xxiv. ch. 24). Dubois. Sir M. Monier-Williams in his book on Hinduism says in a foot-note:
'
Happily for the Hindus, the cow which supplies them with their only animal food— milk and butter— and the ox which helps to till their ground, were declared sacred at an early period. Had it not been so, this useful animal might have been exterminated in times of famine.
What is now a superstition had its origin, like some other superstitions, in a wise forethought.' Ed.