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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1No better order prevails within these several parts: prescriptions on one and the same subject are scattered about through several Fargards, without any subject being treated at once in a full and exhaustive way; and this occasions needless repetitions °®. The main cause of this disorder was, of course, that the advantage of order is rarely felt by Orientals; but it was further promoted by the very form of exposition adopted by the first composers of the Vendid4d. The law is revealed by Ahura in a series of answers to questions put to him by 1 For instance, Farg.V, 15-20; III, 24-29; 30-32; 33; IV, 47-49. 3 III, 14-21; 36 seq.; XIX, 11-25. ® The passages on medicine (VII, 36-44), and on the sea Vouru-kasha (V, 15-20). * It contains two digressions, the one on funeral laws, the other on husbandry. See Farg. III, Introd. 5 It contains one digression on physical well-being, which must have belonged originally to Farg. III. See Farg. IV, Introd. * V, 27-30= VII, 6-9; V, 45-54 = VII, 60-69; V, 57-62 = VII, 17-22. Ixxii VEND{DAD. Zarathustra'; and as these questions are not of a general character, but refer to details, the matter is much broken up into fragments, each of which, consisting of a question with its answer, stands by itself, as an independent passage. We shall treat in the following pages, first of the laws of purification, then of the civil laws, and, lastly, of the penalties both religious and civil. A. § 3. The first object of man is purity, yaozdau : ‘purity is for man, next to life, the greatest good?’ Purity and impurity have not in the Vendidad the exclusively spiritual meaning which they have in our languages: they do not refer to an inward state of the soul, but chiefly to a physical state of the body. Impurity or uncleanness may be described as the state of a person or a thing that is possessed of the demon; and the object of purification is to expel the demon. The principal means by which uncleanness enters man is death, as death is the triumph of the demon. When a man dies, as soon as the soul has parted from the body, the Drug Nasu or Corpse-Drug falls upon the dead from the regions of hell, and whoever thenceforth touches the corpse becomes unclean, and makes unclean whomsoever he touches 3. The Drug is expelled from the dead by means of the Sag-did, ‘the look of the dog:’ ‘a four-eyed dog’ or ‘a white one with yellow ears’ is brought near the body and is made to look at the dead; as soon as he has done so, the Drug flees back to hell *.
2The Drug is expelled from the dead by means of the Sag-did, ‘the look of the dog:’ ‘a four-eyed dog’ or ‘a white one with yellow ears’ is brought near the body and is made to look at the dead; as soon as he has done so, the Drug flees back to hell *. ' The outward form of the Vendidad has been often compared with that of the Books of Moses. But in reality, in the Bible, there is no conversation between God and the lawgiver: the law comes down unasked, and God gives commands, but gives no answers. In the Vendid&d, on the contrary, it is the wish of man, not the will of God, that is the first cause of the revelation. Man must ask of Ahura, who knows everything, and is pleased to answer (XVUI, 13 seq.) ; the law is ‘the question to Ahura,’ &hfiiri frashné, 2 Farg. V, 21, from Yasna XLVIII (XLVI)), 5. 3 Farg. VII, 1 seq. * In the shape of a fly. ‘The fly that came to the smell of the dead body was thought to be the corpse-spirit that came to take possession of the dead in the name of Ahriman’ (Justi, Persien, p. 88). INTRODUCTION, X. Ixxiii The Drug is expelled from the living, whom she has seized through their contact with the dead, by a process of washings with ox’s urine (g6méz or nirang) and with water, combined with the Sag-did *. The real import of these ceremonies is shown by the spells which accompany their performance: ‘Perish, O fiendish Drug! Perish, O brood of the fiend! Perish, O world of the fiend! Perish away, O Drug! Rush away, O Drug! Perish away, O Drug! Perish away to the [ regions of the north, never more to give unto death the living world of the holy spirit!’ Thus, in the death of a man, there is more involved than the death of one man: the power of death, called forth from hell, threatens from the corpse, as from a stronghold, the whole world of the living, ready to seize whatever may fall within his reach, and ‘from the dead defiles the living, and from the living rushes upon the living. When a man dies in a house, there is danger for three days lest somebody else should die in that house *. The notion or feeling, out of which these ceremonies grew, was far from unknown to the other Indo-European peoples : what was peculiar to Mazdeism was that it carried it to an extreme, and preserved a clearer sense of it, while elsewhere it grew dimmer and dimmer, and faded away. In fact, when the Greek, going out of a house where a dead man lay, sprinkled himself with water from the dpddyoy at the door, it was death that he drove away from himself. The Vedic Indian, too, although his rites were intended chiefly for the benefit of the dead, considered himself in danger and, while burning the corpse, cried aloud: ‘Away, go away, O Death! injure not our sons and our men!’ (Rigveda X, 18, 1.)
3The Vedic Indian, too, although his rites were intended chiefly for the benefit of the dead, considered himself in danger and, while burning the corpse, cried aloud: ‘Away, go away, O Death! injure not our sons and our men!’ (Rigveda X, 18, 1.) § 4. As to the rites by means of which the Drug is expelled, they are the performance of myths. There is nothing in worship but what existed before in mythology. What we call a practice is only an imitation of gods, an épotwots 6eg, as man fancies he can bring about the things 1 Farg. VIII, 35-72; IX, 12-36. * Saddar 78. Ixxiv VEND!DAD. he wants, by performing the acts which are supposed to have brought about things of the same kind when practised by the gods. The Parsis, being at a loss to find four-eyed dogs, interpret the name as meaning a dog with two spots above the eyes!: but it is clear that the two-spotted dog’s services are only accepted for want of a four-eyed one, or of a white one with yellow ears, which amounts to saying that there were myths, according to which the death-fiend was driven away by dogs of that description. This reminds one at once of the three-headed Kerberos, watching at the doors of hell, and, still more, of the two brown, four-eyed dogs of Yama, who guard the ways to the realm of death *. The identity of the four-eyed dog of the Parsi with Kerberos and Yama’s dogs appears, moreover, from the Parsi tradition that the yellow-eared dog watches at the head of the Kinvat bridge, which leads from this to the | next world, and with his barking drives away the fiend from the souls of the holy ones, lest he should drag them to hell *, Wherever the corpse passes by, death walks with it ; all along the way it has gone, from the house to its last resting-place, a spirit of death is breathing and threatening the living. Therefore, no man, no flock, no being whatever that belongs to the world of Ahura, is allowed to pass by 1 In practice they are still less particular: ‘ The Sag-dfd may be performed by a shepherd’s dog, by a house-dog, by a Vohunazga dog (see Farg. XIII, 19, n.), or by a young dog (a dog four months old),’ Comm. ad Farg. VII, 2. As birds of prey are as fiend-smiting as the dog, they are Nasu-smiters like him, and one may appeal to their services, when there is no dog at hand (see Farg. VII, 3, n. 3). ® Rig-veda X, 14, To seq.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1No better order prevails within these several parts: prescriptions on one and the same subject are scattered about through several Fargards, without any subject being treated at once in a full and exhaustive way; and this occasions needless repetitions °®. The main cause of this disorder was, of course, that the advantage of order is rarely felt by Orientals; but it was further promoted by the very form of exposition adopted by the first composers of the Vendid4d. The law is revealed by Ahura in a series of answers to questions put to him by 1 For instance, Farg.V, 15-20; III, 24-29; 30-32; 33; IV, 47-49. 3 III, 14-21; 36 seq.; XIX, 11-25. ® The passages on medicine (VII, 36-44), and on the sea Vouru-kasha (V, 15-20). * It contains two digressions, the one on funeral laws, the other on husbandry. See Farg. III, Introd. 5 It contains one digression on physical well-being, which must have belonged originally to Farg. III. See Farg. IV, Introd. * V, 27-30= VII, 6-9; V, 45-54 = VII, 60-69; V, 57-62 = VII, 17-22. Ixxii VEND{DAD. Zarathustra'; and as these questions are not of a general character, but refer to details, the matter is much broken up into fragments, each of which, consisting of a question with its answer, stands by itself, as an independent passage. We shall treat in the following pages, first of the laws of purification, then of the civil laws, and, lastly, of the penalties both religious and civil. A. § 3. The first object of man is purity, yaozdau : ‘purity is for man, next to life, the greatest good?’ Purity and impurity have not in the Vendidad the exclusively spiritual meaning which they have in our languages: they do not refer to an inward state of the soul, but chiefly to a physical state of the body. Impurity or uncleanness may be described as the state of a person or a thing that is possessed of the demon; and the object of purification is to expel the demon. The principal means by which uncleanness enters man is death, as death is the triumph of the demon. When a man dies, as soon as the soul has parted from the body, the Drug Nasu or Corpse-Drug falls upon the dead from the regions of hell, and whoever thenceforth touches the corpse becomes unclean, and makes unclean whomsoever he touches 3. The Drug is expelled from the dead by means of the Sag-did, ‘the look of the dog:’ ‘a four-eyed dog’ or ‘a white one with yellow ears’ is brought near the body and is made to look at the dead; as soon as he has done so, the Drug flees back to hell *.
2The Drug is expelled from the dead by means of the Sag-did, ‘the look of the dog:’ ‘a four-eyed dog’ or ‘a white one with yellow ears’ is brought near the body and is made to look at the dead; as soon as he has done so, the Drug flees back to hell *. ' The outward form of the Vendidad has been often compared with that of the Books of Moses. But in reality, in the Bible, there is no conversation between God and the lawgiver: the law comes down unasked, and God gives commands, but gives no answers. In the Vendid&d, on the contrary, it is the wish of man, not the will of God, that is the first cause of the revelation. Man must ask of Ahura, who knows everything, and is pleased to answer (XVUI, 13 seq.) ; the law is ‘the question to Ahura,’ &hfiiri frashné, 2 Farg. V, 21, from Yasna XLVIII (XLVI)), 5. 3 Farg. VII, 1 seq. * In the shape of a fly. ‘The fly that came to the smell of the dead body was thought to be the corpse-spirit that came to take possession of the dead in the name of Ahriman’ (Justi, Persien, p. 88). INTRODUCTION, X. Ixxiii The Drug is expelled from the living, whom she has seized through their contact with the dead, by a process of washings with ox’s urine (g6méz or nirang) and with water, combined with the Sag-did *. The real import of these ceremonies is shown by the spells which accompany their performance: ‘Perish, O fiendish Drug! Perish, O brood of the fiend! Perish, O world of the fiend! Perish away, O Drug! Rush away, O Drug! Perish away, O Drug! Perish away to the [ regions of the north, never more to give unto death the living world of the holy spirit!’ Thus, in the death of a man, there is more involved than the death of one man: the power of death, called forth from hell, threatens from the corpse, as from a stronghold, the whole world of the living, ready to seize whatever may fall within his reach, and ‘from the dead defiles the living, and from the living rushes upon the living. When a man dies in a house, there is danger for three days lest somebody else should die in that house *. The notion or feeling, out of which these ceremonies grew, was far from unknown to the other Indo-European peoples : what was peculiar to Mazdeism was that it carried it to an extreme, and preserved a clearer sense of it, while elsewhere it grew dimmer and dimmer, and faded away. In fact, when the Greek, going out of a house where a dead man lay, sprinkled himself with water from the dpddyoy at the door, it was death that he drove away from himself. The Vedic Indian, too, although his rites were intended chiefly for the benefit of the dead, considered himself in danger and, while burning the corpse, cried aloud: ‘Away, go away, O Death! injure not our sons and our men!’ (Rigveda X, 18, 1.)
3The Vedic Indian, too, although his rites were intended chiefly for the benefit of the dead, considered himself in danger and, while burning the corpse, cried aloud: ‘Away, go away, O Death! injure not our sons and our men!’ (Rigveda X, 18, 1.) § 4. As to the rites by means of which the Drug is expelled, they are the performance of myths. There is nothing in worship but what existed before in mythology. What we call a practice is only an imitation of gods, an épotwots 6eg, as man fancies he can bring about the things 1 Farg. VIII, 35-72; IX, 12-36. * Saddar 78. Ixxiv VEND!DAD. he wants, by performing the acts which are supposed to have brought about things of the same kind when practised by the gods. The Parsis, being at a loss to find four-eyed dogs, interpret the name as meaning a dog with two spots above the eyes!: but it is clear that the two-spotted dog’s services are only accepted for want of a four-eyed one, or of a white one with yellow ears, which amounts to saying that there were myths, according to which the death-fiend was driven away by dogs of that description. This reminds one at once of the three-headed Kerberos, watching at the doors of hell, and, still more, of the two brown, four-eyed dogs of Yama, who guard the ways to the realm of death *. The identity of the four-eyed dog of the Parsi with Kerberos and Yama’s dogs appears, moreover, from the Parsi tradition that the yellow-eared dog watches at the head of the Kinvat bridge, which leads from this to the | next world, and with his barking drives away the fiend from the souls of the holy ones, lest he should drag them to hell *, Wherever the corpse passes by, death walks with it ; all along the way it has gone, from the house to its last resting-place, a spirit of death is breathing and threatening the living. Therefore, no man, no flock, no being whatever that belongs to the world of Ahura, is allowed to pass by 1 In practice they are still less particular: ‘ The Sag-dfd may be performed by a shepherd’s dog, by a house-dog, by a Vohunazga dog (see Farg. XIII, 19, n.), or by a young dog (a dog four months old),’ Comm. ad Farg. VII, 2. As birds of prey are as fiend-smiting as the dog, they are Nasu-smiters like him, and one may appeal to their services, when there is no dog at hand (see Farg. VII, 3, n. 3). ® Rig-veda X, 14, To seq.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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