व्यवहारमयूख (नीलकण्ठ भट्ट - पश्चिमी भारत की हिन्दू न्याय-संहिता एवं व्यवहार कोष)

70 VYAVAHĀRAMAYŪKHA
To human beings poison should be administered (as ordeal) in the fore-
noon and in a cool spot after mixing it with ghee thirty times as much
and after powdering it well.
Yājñavalkya (II. 110) states how poison is to be invoked
Poison! thou art the son of Brahmā thou art firm (or fixed) in the
duty of (deciding) the truth. Save (me) from this accusation and be like
nectar to me by truth (i. e. if I be innocent)
Nārada (p. 116 v. 325) says :
He (the person performing poison ordeal) should be kept in the shade,
should be guarded for the rest of the day without food. If he be not
affected by the (ordinary) effects of poison (till the end of the day) then
Manu says that he is purified (innocent)
The same author states another period (of waiting) when the quantity of
poison is very large
When a man shows no change (due to the circulation of poison) for a
period of five hundred clappings of hands, then he is purified (he should be
declared innocent) and then medical treatment should be resorted to (to
cure him)
In the system (treatises) on poison the stages of the working of poison
(are stated to be the following)
The first ¹working of poison causes horripilation, the next after that
(causes) perspiration and dryness of mouth, the next two (workings) pro-
duce in the body change of colour and tremor, the fifth stage of working
(gives rise to) restlessness of the eyes, hoarseness of throat and hiccough
the sixth causes heavy breath and loss of consciousness and the seventh
causes the death of the person who swallows the poison
Here (the person performing the ordeal) is to swallow the poison placed
before Mahādeva (an idol of Śiva) by the judge who has observed a fast.
'Now (begins) the method of the ordeal of koṣa (holy water)
Pitāmaha says
A man should be made to drink the water (of the worship) of that
deity of whom he is a devotee, but if he be equally a devotee of all deities
(i. e. if there is no special predilection in favour of one particular deity)
he should be made to drink the water of (the worship of) the Sun. The
water (of the worship) of Durgā should be given to thieves and to those
who live by the profession of arms, but a brāhmaṇa should not be made
to drink the water of the Sun.
Bṛhaspati (p. 318 v. 23) says

1. This verse is quoted in the Mit. (on Yāj. 2. 111)
   *P. 83 (text).