Kautilya's Arthashastra 14.3.28

14.3.28

trirātropoṣitaḥ kṛṣṇacaturdaśyāṃ puṣyayoginyāṃ śvapākīhastād vilakhāvalekhanaṃ krīṇīyāt //

Having fasted for three nights, one should, on the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month, the day being assigned to the star of Pushya, purchase from a low-caste woman (svapáki) vilikhávalekhana (finger nails?). Having kept them in a basket (kandolika), one should bury them apart in cremation grounds. Having unearthed them on the next fourteenth day, one should reduce them to a paste with kumári (aloe?) and prepare small pills out of the paste. Wherever one of the pills is thrown, chanting the above mantra, there the whole animal life falls into deep slumber.