juice at their pleasure, as before."
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Whither shall we bring,
where shall we lay the bodies of the dead, O Ahura Mazda?
Ahura Mazda answered:--
"On the highest summits, where they know there are always corpse-eating
dogs and corpse-eating birds, O holy Zarathustra! There shall the
worshippers of Mazda fasten the corpse, by the feet and by the hair,
with brass, stones, or clay, lest the corpse-eating dogs and the
corpse-eating birds shall go and carry the bones to the water and to the
trees."
If they shall not fasten the corpse, so that the corpse-eating dogs and
the corpse-eating birds may go and carry the bones to the water and to
the trees, what is the penalty that they shall pay?
Ahura Mazda answered:--
"They shall be Peshotanus: two hundred stripes with the Aspahe-astra,
two hundred stripes with the Sraosho-karana."
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Whither shall we bring,
where shall we lay the bones of the dead, O Ahura Mazda?
Ahura Mazda answered:--
"The worshippers of Mazda shall make a receptacle out of the reach of
the dog, of the fox, and of the wolf, and wherein rain-water cannot
stay. They shall make it, if they can afford it, with stones, plaster,
or earth; if they cannot afford it, they shall lay down the dead man on
the ground, on his carpet and his pillow, clothed with the light of
heaven, and beholding the sun."
[Footnote 12: This chapter deals chiefly with uncleanness arising from
the dead, and with the means of removing it from men and things.]
FUNERALS AND PURIFICATION
If a dog or a man die under a hut of wood or a hut of felt, what shall
the worshippers of Mazda do?
Ahura Mazda answered:--
"They shall search for a Dakhma, they shall look for a Dakhma all
around. If they find it easier to remove the dead, they shall take out
the dead, they shall let the house stand, and shall perfume it with
Urvasna or Vohu-gaona, or Vohu-kereti, or Hadha-naepata, or any other
sweet-smelling plant. If they find it easier to remove the house, they
shall take away the house, they shall let the dead lie on the spot, and
shall perfume the house with Urvasna, or Vohu-gaona, or Vohu-kereti, or
Hadha-naepata, or any other sweet-smelling plant."
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If in the house of a
worshipper of Mazda a dog or a man happens to die, and it is raining, or
snowing, or blowing, or it is dark, or the
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