Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1thus: ‘Why do the dogs and birds gnaw this organised body, when still at last the body and life unite together at the raising of the dead?’ 8. And this is the reminding of the resurrection azd liberation, and it becomes the happiness and hope of the spirit of the body azd the other good spirits, and the fear aud vexation of the demons and fiends. CuaptTer XVII. 1. The sixteenth question is that which you ask thus: What is the purpose! of giving up a corpse to the birds? 2. The reply is this, that the construction of the body of those passed away is so wonderful that two co-existences have come together for z¢, one which is to occasion endurance (dér pad4yinidand) and one which is to cause conflict (nipé6rdinidand), and their natures are these, for watching the angels and averting the demons. 3. After appertaining ¢o z¢ the life—so long as z¢ zs in the locality of the place of the body—and the demons of dull intellects, who are frightened by the body, are just like a sheep startled by wolves when they shall further frighten zt by a wolf%. 4. The spirit of the body, on account of being the spiritual life (hdk5) for the heart in the body, is indestructible; so is the will which resided therein, even when they shall release it from z¢s abode. 5. In the same way the body of those who are 1 Assuming that 4han stands for 4hang. ? This last clause is a quotation, slightly altered, from Pahl. Vend. XIX, 108, 109. CHAPTER XVI, 8—xvil, 8, 39 passed away is so much the more innocently worthy of the rights (sind) of ome properly passed away, and what zt is therein provided with, as it has uttered thanksgivings, 6. For those guardian spirits who keep watch over the body of Keresdsp! the SAman are also such praises from the life and body, for that reason, moreover, when they unite. 7. The injury of the destroyer to the body of those passed away is contaminating; the Nasts (‘ corruption’)? rushes on it and, owing to its violence when it becomes triumphant over the life of the righteous man, and frightens it from the place of the catastrophe (hankar@ikth), and puts itself into the place of the body, that body is then, for that reason, called Nasat (‘dead matter’). 8. And, on account of the co-existence of rapid changing and the mode of attacking of the same Nasi, even when it is necessary for the disintegration of the body, this is also then to lie and change sanatorily. 1 An ancient hero, mentioned both in the Avesta and Shahnamah, who, owing to his disregard of religion, is said to be lying asleep on the plain of Pésy4nsai (probably the Pisin valley near Qandahér), watched by a myriad guardian spirits of the righteous, until he shall be hereafter aroused by the angels to kill the revived usurper Az-i Dahak (see Bd. XXIX, 7, 8, Byt. III, 59-61). Regarding his soul a legend is related in the Pahlavi tracts which precede Dd. in some MSS,., of which a translation will be found in Appendix I.
2XXIX, 7, 8, Byt. III, 59-61). Regarding his soul a legend is related in the Pahlavi tracts which precede Dd. in some MSS,., of which a translation will be found in Appendix I. ? Supposed to be a fiend who enters and pervades every corpse immediately after death, except in certain cases of violent death, when its arrival is delayed till the next period of the day (see Sls. X, 32). This exception is made in Vend. VII, 5, 6, and was probably intended, in most cases, to prevent a person who had met with a serious accident being left to perish, through fear of his death contaminating any one coming to his relief; not from any idea of the fiend being taken unawares by the suddenness of the death. This fiend is the Av. nasu (nom. nasus). 40 DADISTAN-f DfNiK. 9. Hence, as the body of men is formed out of hard bone and soft fat, that whzch is established is the expulsion of the bone from the fat. 10. For the bone through its hardness, when no damp fat is with it, and it does not become a holder of its damp, is itself essentially dry; and it becomes unconsumable and attaining durability, through dryness, out of the dead matter even for perpetuity. 311. And the sun is provided to make rotten, dispersed, and useless the fat that is around the bone, which on the decay of the animating life is to become increasingly damp, and, after the departure of life through terror and disgust (adéstth), it comes to rottenness and stench; and the noxious creatures in z¢ alike afflict it and the hard fart such as bone. 12. As regards the shrinking away of those who are sinners, the nearer way to a remedy is the gnawer away from men!'; the fat becomes separate from the bone, and is seized and digested, as by the separation of the fat from the dead matter for digestion, moreover, the permanent matter (asarth) and bone attain more fully unto their own nature (s4n6), and the body (k4lpid6) to emptiness. 13. Because there is no o¢ker way to consume that fat of men, since z¢ is most grievous to them (the sinners), and the pollution and contamination are made a blessing unto it (the gnawer). 14. The dispersers (astard6gar4n) completely disperse from it?; they are ap- ? That is, in the case of those who neglect the proper exposure of corpses, there is a natural remedy in the worms produced for consuming them. Perhaps the word khastar, ‘cutter or gnawer,’ stands for khastar, ‘ noxious creature.’ * The consumers of the corpse disperse when their work is done, and carry contamination with them unless purified by the sun’s heat, as described in § 15. CHAPTER XVII, 9—18. 41
3Perhaps the word khastar, ‘cutter or gnawer,’ stands for khastar, ‘ noxious creature.’ * The consumers of the corpse disperse when their work is done, and carry contamination with them unless purified by the sun’s heat, as described in § 15. CHAPTER XVII, 9—18. 41 pointed and produced, a production not worthy, for its defilement of those purified azd animals is contaminating, through contact again with men. 15. The crow (gal4g) and such-like, through scorching away by the fire of the luminaries, become worthy ; moreover, the affliction of that which is completely pure fire arises therefrom, as it is not able itself to come unto the scorched one, for then the defilement (darvakh) of the scorcher by the most grievous gnawer would be possible. ‘ 16. But it is not proper to recount (ang4stan6) the devouring of the noxious creatures, for the spirit of the body is troubled when it observes the alarmed (vaztd) spirituality which was in the body of those destroyed, the noxious creatures upon the goodly forms, and the mode and strangeness of ¢heir disintegration and spoliation. 17. And so it then becomes the more remedial way! when, as it is ordered in revelation®, the body fraught with corruption is placed on the ground of a clear mountainspur (k6f vakhsh); avd, in order not to convey z¢ to the water, plants, and men of the plain, it is fastened® in the customary manner, so that the corpse-eating dogs and corpse-eating birds, which are not subject to the hand (dasté6-4mk3) of men, and are likewise not entertained as food, shall yet not drag any of it away for man’s eating of dead matter. 18. For streams and waters go themselves‘ and ' That is, it is better to adopt the customary mode of removing the corpse. 3 See Vend. VI, 93-97. * This is ordered only when the corpse is not placed in any enclosure. * Or, as Vend. V, 49-62 describes it, the water is rained down by 42 DADISTAN-f DINik. consume that fat, and are digested by the vital fire? which is in the life of the creatures of Athaymazd; and from fat the corpses and dead matter are reduced unto dregs of clay* and permanent matter, even with the dust they are mingled axd become scattered about. 19. Likewise to those dogs, flying creatures, avd birds they themselves (the waters) have given the corpse-eating quality avd habit, and on account of dull intellect they (the creatures) are not overwhelmed even by that sin. 20. From that fat which is mingled with the living body of a creature of Afharymazd then arises also the assault 4 of the demons, as is shown in the chapter ® on the reason for showing a dog to a dead person, so that the body of those passed away, when the gnawers away are mingled with the living body of a creature of Afhaymazd, exhibits a partial resurrection and the tokens of z¢, and thereby the demons keep in it (the living body), and give pain® by the will of the sacred beings.
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.
1thus: ‘Why do the dogs and birds gnaw this organised body, when still at last the body and life unite together at the raising of the dead?’ 8. And this is the reminding of the resurrection azd liberation, and it becomes the happiness and hope of the spirit of the body azd the other good spirits, and the fear aud vexation of the demons and fiends. CuaptTer XVII. 1. The sixteenth question is that which you ask thus: What is the purpose! of giving up a corpse to the birds? 2. The reply is this, that the construction of the body of those passed away is so wonderful that two co-existences have come together for z¢, one which is to occasion endurance (dér pad4yinidand) and one which is to cause conflict (nipé6rdinidand), and their natures are these, for watching the angels and averting the demons. 3. After appertaining ¢o z¢ the life—so long as z¢ zs in the locality of the place of the body—and the demons of dull intellects, who are frightened by the body, are just like a sheep startled by wolves when they shall further frighten zt by a wolf%. 4. The spirit of the body, on account of being the spiritual life (hdk5) for the heart in the body, is indestructible; so is the will which resided therein, even when they shall release it from z¢s abode. 5. In the same way the body of those who are 1 Assuming that 4han stands for 4hang. ? This last clause is a quotation, slightly altered, from Pahl. Vend. XIX, 108, 109. CHAPTER XVI, 8—xvil, 8, 39 passed away is so much the more innocently worthy of the rights (sind) of ome properly passed away, and what zt is therein provided with, as it has uttered thanksgivings, 6. For those guardian spirits who keep watch over the body of Keresdsp! the SAman are also such praises from the life and body, for that reason, moreover, when they unite. 7. The injury of the destroyer to the body of those passed away is contaminating; the Nasts (‘ corruption’)? rushes on it and, owing to its violence when it becomes triumphant over the life of the righteous man, and frightens it from the place of the catastrophe (hankar@ikth), and puts itself into the place of the body, that body is then, for that reason, called Nasat (‘dead matter’). 8. And, on account of the co-existence of rapid changing and the mode of attacking of the same Nasi, even when it is necessary for the disintegration of the body, this is also then to lie and change sanatorily. 1 An ancient hero, mentioned both in the Avesta and Shahnamah, who, owing to his disregard of religion, is said to be lying asleep on the plain of Pésy4nsai (probably the Pisin valley near Qandahér), watched by a myriad guardian spirits of the righteous, until he shall be hereafter aroused by the angels to kill the revived usurper Az-i Dahak (see Bd. XXIX, 7, 8, Byt. III, 59-61). Regarding his soul a legend is related in the Pahlavi tracts which precede Dd. in some MSS,., of which a translation will be found in Appendix I.
2XXIX, 7, 8, Byt. III, 59-61). Regarding his soul a legend is related in the Pahlavi tracts which precede Dd. in some MSS,., of which a translation will be found in Appendix I. ? Supposed to be a fiend who enters and pervades every corpse immediately after death, except in certain cases of violent death, when its arrival is delayed till the next period of the day (see Sls. X, 32). This exception is made in Vend. VII, 5, 6, and was probably intended, in most cases, to prevent a person who had met with a serious accident being left to perish, through fear of his death contaminating any one coming to his relief; not from any idea of the fiend being taken unawares by the suddenness of the death. This fiend is the Av. nasu (nom. nasus). 40 DADISTAN-f DfNiK. 9. Hence, as the body of men is formed out of hard bone and soft fat, that whzch is established is the expulsion of the bone from the fat. 10. For the bone through its hardness, when no damp fat is with it, and it does not become a holder of its damp, is itself essentially dry; and it becomes unconsumable and attaining durability, through dryness, out of the dead matter even for perpetuity. 311. And the sun is provided to make rotten, dispersed, and useless the fat that is around the bone, which on the decay of the animating life is to become increasingly damp, and, after the departure of life through terror and disgust (adéstth), it comes to rottenness and stench; and the noxious creatures in z¢ alike afflict it and the hard fart such as bone. 12. As regards the shrinking away of those who are sinners, the nearer way to a remedy is the gnawer away from men!'; the fat becomes separate from the bone, and is seized and digested, as by the separation of the fat from the dead matter for digestion, moreover, the permanent matter (asarth) and bone attain more fully unto their own nature (s4n6), and the body (k4lpid6) to emptiness. 13. Because there is no o¢ker way to consume that fat of men, since z¢ is most grievous to them (the sinners), and the pollution and contamination are made a blessing unto it (the gnawer). 14. The dispersers (astard6gar4n) completely disperse from it?; they are ap- ? That is, in the case of those who neglect the proper exposure of corpses, there is a natural remedy in the worms produced for consuming them. Perhaps the word khastar, ‘cutter or gnawer,’ stands for khastar, ‘ noxious creature.’ * The consumers of the corpse disperse when their work is done, and carry contamination with them unless purified by the sun’s heat, as described in § 15. CHAPTER XVII, 9—18. 41
3Perhaps the word khastar, ‘cutter or gnawer,’ stands for khastar, ‘ noxious creature.’ * The consumers of the corpse disperse when their work is done, and carry contamination with them unless purified by the sun’s heat, as described in § 15. CHAPTER XVII, 9—18. 41 pointed and produced, a production not worthy, for its defilement of those purified azd animals is contaminating, through contact again with men. 15. The crow (gal4g) and such-like, through scorching away by the fire of the luminaries, become worthy ; moreover, the affliction of that which is completely pure fire arises therefrom, as it is not able itself to come unto the scorched one, for then the defilement (darvakh) of the scorcher by the most grievous gnawer would be possible. ‘ 16. But it is not proper to recount (ang4stan6) the devouring of the noxious creatures, for the spirit of the body is troubled when it observes the alarmed (vaztd) spirituality which was in the body of those destroyed, the noxious creatures upon the goodly forms, and the mode and strangeness of ¢heir disintegration and spoliation. 17. And so it then becomes the more remedial way! when, as it is ordered in revelation®, the body fraught with corruption is placed on the ground of a clear mountainspur (k6f vakhsh); avd, in order not to convey z¢ to the water, plants, and men of the plain, it is fastened® in the customary manner, so that the corpse-eating dogs and corpse-eating birds, which are not subject to the hand (dasté6-4mk3) of men, and are likewise not entertained as food, shall yet not drag any of it away for man’s eating of dead matter. 18. For streams and waters go themselves‘ and ' That is, it is better to adopt the customary mode of removing the corpse. 3 See Vend. VI, 93-97. * This is ordered only when the corpse is not placed in any enclosure. * Or, as Vend. V, 49-62 describes it, the water is rained down by 42 DADISTAN-f DINik. consume that fat, and are digested by the vital fire? which is in the life of the creatures of Athaymazd; and from fat the corpses and dead matter are reduced unto dregs of clay* and permanent matter, even with the dust they are mingled axd become scattered about. 19. Likewise to those dogs, flying creatures, avd birds they themselves (the waters) have given the corpse-eating quality avd habit, and on account of dull intellect they (the creatures) are not overwhelmed even by that sin. 20. From that fat which is mingled with the living body of a creature of Afharymazd then arises also the assault 4 of the demons, as is shown in the chapter ® on the reason for showing a dog to a dead person, so that the body of those passed away, when the gnawers away are mingled with the living body of a creature of Afhaymazd, exhibits a partial resurrection and the tokens of z¢, and thereby the demons keep in it (the living body), and give pain® by the will of the sacred beings.
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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