Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/87

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Chap. V.]
AS UNDERSTOOD BY THE HINDOOS.
79

cine, should be done when the breath is passing through the right nostril." After intercourse, it is beneficial to bathe, or at any rate to wash the hands, feet, and other parts, drink soup or milk, eat articles of food mixed with treacle, open the windows, and go to sleep. The lamp should be extinguished by the wife, who is then to occupy a separate bed. One should not sleep with the head towards the north. Sleeping with one's head towards the south is supposed to prolong life. One passes a dreamy night by keeping his head towards the west, and gets wealth by keeping it towards the east. A sound and quiet sleep is secured by muttering the names of the "Five Happy Sleepers," namely, Agasti, Madhava, Muchakanda, Kapila, and Astika. Nothing is so beneficial as to go to sleep regularly and rise early. If a man cultivates the habit of drinking eight anjalis (a measure formed by putting the hands together and hollowing the palms) of water every morning at sunrise, he will be free from the effects of old age and such diseases as haemorrhoids, inflammations, headache, shooting pain, and bilious affections, and will live for a hundred years. If one is accustomed to drink a small quantity of water