forms of interest, compound, periodical, stipulated, corporal, and daily, in addition to the use of a pledge. He lays down the rule that the heirs shall pay the debts of the dead, but provides that money due by a surety, a commercial debt, a fee due to the parents of the bride, immoral debts, and fines shall not devolve on the sons of the debtor.
We thus come to the most important portion of the civil law, the law of inheritance.
To leave male issue was considered a religious duty by the ancient Hindus, and in the older law-books several kinds of sons are recognized, some of whom were legitimate or quasi-legitimate, and might therefore inherit, while others were considered unlawful and were debarred from all rights to their fathers' estates. At an early time, however, a reaction appears to have set in against the recognition of sons legitimate and illegitimate, even to escape the torments of hell after death. Apastamba, who lived a century or more after Baudhayana, protests against the recognition of heirs and sons of various kinds, and explains away ancient customs by stating that what had been allowed in ancient times could not be permitted among the sinful men of the present time. He made a clear sweep, moreover, not only of niyoga, or the appointment of a wife to raise issue, but also of the adoption or the purchase of a son, and modern Hindus recognize no kinds of sons except legitimate sons, or those adopted in the absence of legitimate issue.
Lastly, we come to the subject of the law of parti-
