aosho-karana."

[Footnote 11: This chapter is the only one in the Vendidad that deals
with legal subjects.]

UNCLEANNESS[12]

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Here is a man watering a
corn-field. The water streams down the field; it streams again; it
streams a third time; and the fourth time, a dog, a fox, or a wolf
carries some Nasu into the bed of the stream: what is the penalty that
this man shall pay?

Ahura Mazda answered:--

"There is no sin upon a man for any Nasu that has been brought by dogs,
by birds, by wolves, by winds, or by flies. For were there sin upon a
man for any Nasu that might have been brought by dogs, by birds, by
wolves, by winds, or by flies, how soon all this material world of mine
would be only one Peshotanu, bent on the destruction of righteousness,
and whose soul will cry and wail! so numberless are the beings that die
upon the face of the earth."

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Does water kill?

Ahura Mazda answered:--

"Water kills no man: Asto-vidhotu binds him, and, thus bound, Vayu
carries him off; and the flood takes him up, the flood takes him down,
the flood throws him ashore; then birds feed upon him. When he goes
away, it is by the will of Fate he goes."

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Does fire kill?

Ahura Mazda answered:--

"Fire kills no man: Asto-vidhotu binds him, and, thus bound, Vayu
carries him off; and the fire burns up life and limb. When he goes away,
it is by the will of Fate he goes."

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If the summer is past and
the winter has come, what shall the worshippers of Mazda do?

Ahura Mazda answered:--

"In every house, in every borough, they shall raise three rooms for the
dead."

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How large shall be those
rooms for the dead?

Ahura Mazda answered:--

"Large enough not to strike the skull of the man, if he should stand
erect, or his feet or his hands stretched out: such shall be, according
to the law, the rooms for the dead. And they shall let the lifeless body
lie there, for two nights, or for three nights, or a month long, until
the birds begin to fly, the plants to grow, the hidden floods to flow,
and the wind to dry up the earth. And as soon as the birds begin to fly,
the plants to grow, the hidden floods to flow, and the wind to dry up
the earth, then the worshippers of Mazda shall lay down the dead on the