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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1The Aspahé-astra is once called astra mairya, ‘the astra for the account to be given,’ that is, ‘for the payment of the penalty’ (Farg. XVIII, 4). * Farg. IV, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38; 39, 41, 42; V, 443 VI, 5) 9: 19, 48, &c. f 2 Ixxxiv VEND{DAD. § 20. If one reviews the different crimes described in the Vendidad, and the respective penalties prescribed for them, one cannot but wonder at first sight at the strange inequality between crime and penalty. Beccaria would have felt uncomfortable while reading the Vendid4d. It is safer to kill a man than to serve bad food to a shepherd’s dog, for the manslayer gets off with ninety stripes, whereas the bad master is at once a Peshétanu!, and will receive two hundred stripes. Two hundred stripes are awarded if.one tills land in which a corpse has been buried within the year *, if a woman just delivered of a child drinks water, if one suppresses the menses of a woman ¢, if one performs a sacrifice in a house where a man has just died °, if one neglects fastening the corpse of a dead man so that birds or dogs may not take dead matter to trees and rivers ® Two hundred stripes if one throws on the ground a bone of a man’s corpse, or of a dog’s carcase, as big as two ribs ; four hundred if one throws a bone as big as an arm bone, six hundred if one throws a skull, one thousand if the whole corpse’. Four hundred stripes if one, being in a state of uncleanness, touches water or trees °, four hundred if one covers with a cloth a dead man’s feet, six hundred if one covers his legs, one thousand if the whole body® be so covered. Five hundred stripes for killing a whelp, six hundred for killing a stray dog, seven hundred for a house-dog, eight hundred for a shepherd’s dog, one thousand stripes for killing a Vangh4para dog”, ten thousand stripes for killing a water-dog 1. Capital punishment is expressly pronounced only against the false cleanser ™ and the ‘ carrier alone 3%,’ Yet any one who bethinks himself of the spirit of the old Aryan legislation will easily conceive that there may be in 1 Farg. IV, 40, and XIII, 24. ® Farg. VI, 5. : Pare: yi Jo seq. ‘ Fare. xvi 13 seq. arg. V, 39-44. arg. VI, 47 seq. T Farg. VI, 18 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 104 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 23 seq. ” Farg. XIII, 8 seq. and 4. " Farg. XIV, 1 seq. 9 Farg. 1X, 47 seq. © Farg. III, 14 sq. Yet there were other capital crimes. See below, § 23. INTRODUCTION, X. Ixxxv
2‘ Fare. xvi 13 seq. arg. V, 39-44. arg. VI, 47 seq. T Farg. VI, 18 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 104 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 23 seq. ” Farg. XIII, 8 seq. and 4. " Farg. XIV, 1 seq. 9 Farg. 1X, 47 seq. © Farg. III, 14 sq. Yet there were other capital crimes. See below, § 23. INTRODUCTION, X. Ixxxv its eyes many crimes more heinous, and to be punished more severely, than manslaughter: offences against man injure only one man; offences against gods endanger all | mankind. Noone should wonder at the unqualified cleanser '' being put to death who reads Demosthenes’ Neaera ; the Persians who defiled the ground by burying a corpse were not more severely punished than the Greeks were for defiling with corpses the holy ground of Delos’, or than the conquerors at Arginousae ; nor would the Athenians, who put to death Atarbes?, have much stared at the awful revenge taken for the murder of the sacred dog. There is hardly any prescription in the Vendidad, however odd and absurd it may seem, but has its counterpart or its explanation in other Aryan legislations: if we had a Latin or a Greek Vendidéd, I doubt whether it would look more rational. § 21. Yet, if theoretically the very absurdity of its principles is nothing peculiar to the Mazdean law, nay, is a proof of its authenticity, it may be doubted whether it could ever have been actually applied in the form stated in the texts. It may be doubted whether the murder of a shepherd’s dog could have actually been punished with eight hundred stripes, much more whether the murder of a water-dog could have been really punished with ten thousand stripes, unless we suppose that human endurance was different in ancient Persia from what it is elsewhere, or even in modern Persia herself*. Now as we see that in modern tradition bodily punishment is estimated in money value, that is to say, converted into fines, a conversion which is alluded to in the Pahlavi translation‘, it may readily be admitted that as early as the time of the last edition of the Vendid4d, that conversion had already been made. In the Ravéets, two hundred stripes, or a Tanafahr, are estimated as equal to three hundred istirs or twelve hundred dirhems, or thirteen hundred and fifty rupees ; 1 Diodor. XII, 58. % Aelianus, Hist. Var. V, 17. 3 In the time of Chardin, the number of stripes inflicted on the guilty never exceeded three hundred; in the old German law, two hundred; in the Hebrew law, forty. * Ad Farg. XIV, 2. f 3 Ixxxvi VEND{DAD.
3XII, 58. % Aelianus, Hist. Var. V, 17. 3 In the time of Chardin, the number of stripes inflicted on the guilty never exceeded three hundred; in the old German law, two hundred; in the Hebrew law, forty. * Ad Farg. XIV, 2. f 3 Ixxxvi VEND{DAD. a stripe is therefore about equal to six rupees?. How far that system prevailed in practice, whether the guilty might take advantage of this commutation of his own accord, or only with the assent of the judge, we cannot decide. It is very likely that the riches of the fire-temples came for the most part from that source, and that the sound of the dirhems often made the Sraoshé-#arana fall from the hands of the Mobeds. That the system of financial penalties did not, however, suppress the system of bodily penalties, appears from the customs of the Parsis who apply both, and from the Pahlavi Commentary which expressly distinguishes three sorts of atonement: the atonement by money (khvAastak), the atonement by the Sraoshé-farana, and the atonement by cleansing. § 22. This third element of atonement is strictly religious. It consists in repentance, which is manifested by avowal of the guilt and by the recital of a formula of repentance, the Patet. The performance of the Patet has only a religious effect: it saves the sinner from penalties in the other world, but not from those here below; it delivers him before God, but not before man. When the sacrilegious cleanser has repented his sin, he is not the less flayed and beheaded, but his soul is saved?. Yet, although it has no efficacy in causing the sin to be remitted, the absence of it has power to cause it to be aggravated °. § 23. Thus far for sins that can be atoned for. There are some that are an4peretha, ‘inexpiable, which means, as it seems, that they are punished with death here below, and with torments in the other world. Amongst the anaperetha sins are named the burning of the dead, the burying of the dead ‘, the eating dead matter ®, unnatural sin®, and self-pollution’. Although ' In later Parstism every sin (and every good deed) has its value in money fixed, and may thus be weighed in the scales of Rashnu. If the number of the good-deed dirhems outweigh the number of sin dirhems, the soul is saved. Herodotos noticed the same principle of compensation in the Persian law of his time (I, 137; cf. VII, 194). 3 Farg. IX, 49,n.; ef. III, 20 seq. > Farg. IV, 20, 24, 28, 32, 35, &c. * Farg. I, 13, 17; Strabo XV, 14. 5 Farg. VII, 23 seq. * Farg. I, 12; ef. VIII, 32. 7 Farg. VIII, 27. INTRODUCTION, xX. Ixxxvii it is not expressly declared that these sins were punished with death, yet we know it of several of them, either from Greek accounts or from Parsi tradition. There are also whole classes of sinners whose life, it would seem, can be taken by any one who detects them in the act, such as the courtezan, the highwayman, the Sodomite, and the corpseburner ?.
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.
1The Aspahé-astra is once called astra mairya, ‘the astra for the account to be given,’ that is, ‘for the payment of the penalty’ (Farg. XVIII, 4). * Farg. IV, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38; 39, 41, 42; V, 443 VI, 5) 9: 19, 48, &c. f 2 Ixxxiv VEND{DAD. § 20. If one reviews the different crimes described in the Vendidad, and the respective penalties prescribed for them, one cannot but wonder at first sight at the strange inequality between crime and penalty. Beccaria would have felt uncomfortable while reading the Vendid4d. It is safer to kill a man than to serve bad food to a shepherd’s dog, for the manslayer gets off with ninety stripes, whereas the bad master is at once a Peshétanu!, and will receive two hundred stripes. Two hundred stripes are awarded if.one tills land in which a corpse has been buried within the year *, if a woman just delivered of a child drinks water, if one suppresses the menses of a woman ¢, if one performs a sacrifice in a house where a man has just died °, if one neglects fastening the corpse of a dead man so that birds or dogs may not take dead matter to trees and rivers ® Two hundred stripes if one throws on the ground a bone of a man’s corpse, or of a dog’s carcase, as big as two ribs ; four hundred if one throws a bone as big as an arm bone, six hundred if one throws a skull, one thousand if the whole corpse’. Four hundred stripes if one, being in a state of uncleanness, touches water or trees °, four hundred if one covers with a cloth a dead man’s feet, six hundred if one covers his legs, one thousand if the whole body® be so covered. Five hundred stripes for killing a whelp, six hundred for killing a stray dog, seven hundred for a house-dog, eight hundred for a shepherd’s dog, one thousand stripes for killing a Vangh4para dog”, ten thousand stripes for killing a water-dog 1. Capital punishment is expressly pronounced only against the false cleanser ™ and the ‘ carrier alone 3%,’ Yet any one who bethinks himself of the spirit of the old Aryan legislation will easily conceive that there may be in 1 Farg. IV, 40, and XIII, 24. ® Farg. VI, 5. : Pare: yi Jo seq. ‘ Fare. xvi 13 seq. arg. V, 39-44. arg. VI, 47 seq. T Farg. VI, 18 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 104 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 23 seq. ” Farg. XIII, 8 seq. and 4. " Farg. XIV, 1 seq. 9 Farg. 1X, 47 seq. © Farg. III, 14 sq. Yet there were other capital crimes. See below, § 23. INTRODUCTION, X. Ixxxv
2‘ Fare. xvi 13 seq. arg. V, 39-44. arg. VI, 47 seq. T Farg. VI, 18 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 104 seq. ® Farg. VIII, 23 seq. ” Farg. XIII, 8 seq. and 4. " Farg. XIV, 1 seq. 9 Farg. 1X, 47 seq. © Farg. III, 14 sq. Yet there were other capital crimes. See below, § 23. INTRODUCTION, X. Ixxxv its eyes many crimes more heinous, and to be punished more severely, than manslaughter: offences against man injure only one man; offences against gods endanger all | mankind. Noone should wonder at the unqualified cleanser '' being put to death who reads Demosthenes’ Neaera ; the Persians who defiled the ground by burying a corpse were not more severely punished than the Greeks were for defiling with corpses the holy ground of Delos’, or than the conquerors at Arginousae ; nor would the Athenians, who put to death Atarbes?, have much stared at the awful revenge taken for the murder of the sacred dog. There is hardly any prescription in the Vendidad, however odd and absurd it may seem, but has its counterpart or its explanation in other Aryan legislations: if we had a Latin or a Greek Vendidéd, I doubt whether it would look more rational. § 21. Yet, if theoretically the very absurdity of its principles is nothing peculiar to the Mazdean law, nay, is a proof of its authenticity, it may be doubted whether it could ever have been actually applied in the form stated in the texts. It may be doubted whether the murder of a shepherd’s dog could have actually been punished with eight hundred stripes, much more whether the murder of a water-dog could have been really punished with ten thousand stripes, unless we suppose that human endurance was different in ancient Persia from what it is elsewhere, or even in modern Persia herself*. Now as we see that in modern tradition bodily punishment is estimated in money value, that is to say, converted into fines, a conversion which is alluded to in the Pahlavi translation‘, it may readily be admitted that as early as the time of the last edition of the Vendid4d, that conversion had already been made. In the Ravéets, two hundred stripes, or a Tanafahr, are estimated as equal to three hundred istirs or twelve hundred dirhems, or thirteen hundred and fifty rupees ; 1 Diodor. XII, 58. % Aelianus, Hist. Var. V, 17. 3 In the time of Chardin, the number of stripes inflicted on the guilty never exceeded three hundred; in the old German law, two hundred; in the Hebrew law, forty. * Ad Farg. XIV, 2. f 3 Ixxxvi VEND{DAD.
3XII, 58. % Aelianus, Hist. Var. V, 17. 3 In the time of Chardin, the number of stripes inflicted on the guilty never exceeded three hundred; in the old German law, two hundred; in the Hebrew law, forty. * Ad Farg. XIV, 2. f 3 Ixxxvi VEND{DAD. a stripe is therefore about equal to six rupees?. How far that system prevailed in practice, whether the guilty might take advantage of this commutation of his own accord, or only with the assent of the judge, we cannot decide. It is very likely that the riches of the fire-temples came for the most part from that source, and that the sound of the dirhems often made the Sraoshé-#arana fall from the hands of the Mobeds. That the system of financial penalties did not, however, suppress the system of bodily penalties, appears from the customs of the Parsis who apply both, and from the Pahlavi Commentary which expressly distinguishes three sorts of atonement: the atonement by money (khvAastak), the atonement by the Sraoshé-farana, and the atonement by cleansing. § 22. This third element of atonement is strictly religious. It consists in repentance, which is manifested by avowal of the guilt and by the recital of a formula of repentance, the Patet. The performance of the Patet has only a religious effect: it saves the sinner from penalties in the other world, but not from those here below; it delivers him before God, but not before man. When the sacrilegious cleanser has repented his sin, he is not the less flayed and beheaded, but his soul is saved?. Yet, although it has no efficacy in causing the sin to be remitted, the absence of it has power to cause it to be aggravated °. § 23. Thus far for sins that can be atoned for. There are some that are an4peretha, ‘inexpiable, which means, as it seems, that they are punished with death here below, and with torments in the other world. Amongst the anaperetha sins are named the burning of the dead, the burying of the dead ‘, the eating dead matter ®, unnatural sin®, and self-pollution’. Although ' In later Parstism every sin (and every good deed) has its value in money fixed, and may thus be weighed in the scales of Rashnu. If the number of the good-deed dirhems outweigh the number of sin dirhems, the soul is saved. Herodotos noticed the same principle of compensation in the Persian law of his time (I, 137; cf. VII, 194). 3 Farg. IX, 49,n.; ef. III, 20 seq. > Farg. IV, 20, 24, 28, 32, 35, &c. * Farg. I, 13, 17; Strabo XV, 14. 5 Farg. VII, 23 seq. * Farg. I, 12; ef. VIII, 32. 7 Farg. VIII, 27. INTRODUCTION, xX. Ixxxvii it is not expressly declared that these sins were punished with death, yet we know it of several of them, either from Greek accounts or from Parsi tradition. There are also whole classes of sinners whose life, it would seem, can be taken by any one who detects them in the act, such as the courtezan, the highwayman, the Sodomite, and the corpseburner ?.
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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