The abandonment of the young of elephants, horses, cows, buffaloes and more especially of the human kind, if brought forth on the day of the new moon when a digit thereof is faintly visible in the morning, is laid down as a rule. If they be brought forth on the new moon day when no vestige of the Moon becomes visible, expiatory rites should be performed in accordance with the prescribed rule, to avert the evil of such births; the rule of abandonment is absolute except when the creature born is a specimen of womankind.