Note 916 — Chapter III · THE ORDEAL OF RED-HOT IRON.
Reading edition
Institutes of Vishnu, XI.—Yajnavalkya II. 103-6 (Stenzler’s Translation, p. 61).
It is easy to understand the prescription of Vishnu that the fire ordeal is not to be administered to blacksmiths or to invalids, but not so easy that it was forbidden during summer and autumn (Ib. X. 25-6). Yajnavalkya, moreover, says that the ordeals of fire, water, and poison are for Sudras (II. 98).