Note 74 — Chapter IV · ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

“The same Brâhmana lays down instructions for carving, and the Gopatha Brâhmana tells us who received the portions. The priests got the tongue, the neck, the shoulder, the rump, the legs, etc., while the master of the house wisely appropriated to himself the sirloin, and his wife had to be satisfied with the pelvis. Plentiful libations of Soma beer were to be allowed to wash down the meat. In the Satapatha Brâhmana we have a detailed account of the slaughter of a barren cow and its cooking. In the same Brâhmana there is an amusing discussion as to the propriety of eating the meat of an ox or cow. The conclusion is not very definite. ‘Let him (the priest) not eat the flesh of the cow and the ox.’ Nevertheless Yajnavalkya said (taking apparently a very practical view of the matter), ‘I, for one, eat it, provided it is tender.’”74