Fourth, Khari, Shor, or very brackish water. This irrigation is said to bear finer and more abundant produce than the others.
Wanklyn and Chapman state that all drinking. waters may reasonably be required to be of such a degree of purity as not to yield more than 0.03 millegrani of albuinenoid ammonia per litre of water, equal to 0.08 parts per million. lf not in this state naturally, all water that is to be used for drinking ought to be filtered until it becomes so.
Tho people of India, and Hindus in particular, have been -highly careless of the wells and tanks from which their drinking and cooking waters have been obtained ; but in 18S3 they printed in 13 languages a lecture which Surgeon-General Furnell gave in Madras. That otlicer said that excellent laws and regulations bad been laid down by ancient lawgivers. lie pointed wit that in the Yajur Veda, the part called Arana con tains the following commandments Do not spit out with retching in the water. Do not pass urine or discharge excreta in the water. Do not drop blood in the water. Do not throw any hair, or nails, or bones, or ashes, nor dip dirty clothes into water. For to do so is to abuse a precious gift of the gods and disg,race them.' Then, passing on to the Smriti, or the rules laid down by the lawgivers regarding the use and a,buse of water, he showed that the Yagnya Valkya prohibits the drinking of eight kinds of water :—(1) water kept boiled by a stranger, (2) foaming water, (3) heavy dirty water, (4) water giving off offensive smells, (5) water rising in bubbles, (6) hot water, (7) muddy water, (8) salt water.
The sage Shatatapa prohibits bathing in a tank or pond defiled by the following persons by washing or bathing :—Those suffering from sore eyes or itch on the head or ear ; those subject to epileptic attacks, or ulceration in the head running off through the nostril, or to consumption ; or those affected by leprosy, or small-pox, or diar rhcea, cholera, or other contag,ious diseases.
In the second book of Ramayana, the Prince Bharata cans down npon himself a curse if he were guilty of something charged against him, by saying,— ' His sin, who deadly poison throws To spoil the water as it flows, Lay on the wretch its burden dread Who gave consent when Rama fled.' In Uddhava Gita of the 11th book of the Bhagavata Parana or Krishna's legend, the divine Krishna advised to drink no other water but that filtered or strained through a clean cloth.
Again, the Yagnya Valkya prohibits the use of wat,er that remains after washing one's feet or hands and other parts of the human body, or the remnant of what another person drinks, or the water near the dhobi's place for clothes, or where chandala or butchers, chucklers, and other out castes wash themselves, or where women after child-birth or people under pollution bathe.
All these authorities are taken from the chapter headed Charukanda, or the use of water, in the book of the Hindu law by Vaidyandha, held in high esteem by the Hindu community of S. India.
Dr. Parkes, the greatest authority in hygiene, sums up the department of his manual which treats of water, with the following practical conclusions :—An epidemic of diarrhcea in a community is almost always owing either to impure air, impure water, or bad food ; and if it extends over many families, almost certainly to water. Diarrhcea or dysentery constantly affect ing a community, or returning periodically at certain times of the year, a very sudden and localized outbreak of either typhoid fever, malarions fever, or cholera, are alniost certainly from bad water ; and Dr. Macnamara, says cholera could be warded off.
The Arabian littoral has a scanty supply of potable water, and at several places, sweeter water, obtained from springs under the sea, is used in preference. Of this a notable instance occurs at Katif town, 25 miles from Bahrein, where, in the open sea, in from 3 to 4 fathoms, are several of such springs.
There are at Bahrein also, in what is called the Inner Harbour, and elsewhere, several submarine springs, which are generally 10 to 12 feet from the sea-surface. But the island population is not dependent on them for its supply, as it has a perennial spring sufficient to keep the whole surface of the island under cultivation. Their fresh water is got by diving. The diver, sitting in his boat, winds a great goat-skin bag around his left arm, the hand grasping its mouth ; then he takes in his hand, or stands on, a heavy stone, to which is attached a strong line, and, thus equipped, he plunges in and quickly reaches the bottom. Instantly opening the bag over the strong jet of fresh water he springs up, at the same time closing the 'bag. The stone is then hauled up, and the diver, after taking breath, plunges in again. The source of these copious submarine springs is thought to be in the hills of Arabia some 50 or 60 nines distant. To facilitate the filling the water bag,, a stone with an aperture in its centre is usually fitted over the mouth of the spring.—Surgeon-Gencral Farnell ; Lubbock's Origin of Civil. p. 200 ; Forbes' Rasanzala oi. Hindu Annals, ii. pp. 239, 240 ; Ward.