Pahlavi Texts, Part II — SBE Vol. 18 (trans. E. W. West, 1882)

11. Then, to give ou¢ properly to the country that the purification is according to my order, I always

1 That is, even when not performing the ceremony himself, his presence would be desirable, for the sake of securing due attention to all the details, with which his superior knowledge must make him better acquainted than his subordinates.

9 See § 1.

* Reading bikhtand; the MSS. divide the word, so as to convert it into bar 4 tan,‘ without a body.’ The meaning is that by his presence he is, at all events, able to secure some efficiency in the ceremony, when he is compelled to intrust its performance to subordinates who are not fully competent.

* In the prayers and exorcisms. ® See § 4.

* That is, one thoroughly qualified (the priest mentioned in § 4) who requires no special supervision.

Z2

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perform z¢ more acceptably than that of other purifiers. 12. For the water avd bull’s urine are all consecrated by me, and the three hundred pebbles (sang?) are cast into them (adbas) by me, just as it is directed; the operation is also directed by me in the three days? when it is performed, and all the customary farts are washed three times by me’; the ablution seats (mak6) are also arranged by me anew for every single person, and the use of washed seats is not ordered by me therein‘; every rite of the washing by the purifier is also so performed by me as all three teachings have mentioned as perfection. 13. You become the best of the district, as regards the minutiae (bartkidd4n) of the purification that is within your duty, so long as they excite the sight 5, dz¢ which are curtailed (kazd) by you in the way of washing disclosed to me®, while, when it should be performed by you in this manner, your performance would be equally constantly extolled ad your writing praised.

14. When, then, you write of it that they should always perform it just as now, the falsity therein is

1 See Ep. I, vii, 16.

* The ‘three washings’ mentioned in Pahl. Vend. IX, 132, o (see App. IV); referring probably to those after the third, sixth, and ninth nights (see Vend. 1X, 136, 140, 144), that is, on the fourth, seventh, and tenth days of the Bareshnim ceremony. Most of this clause is omitted in J.

® As said to have been directed by M&édy6k-mah (see Chap. II, 6, Ep. I, vi, 7), though the extant Pahlavi Vendid4d (IX, 132, 7) attributes the order to Afarg.

* Compare Ep. I, ix, 7, Pahl. Vend. IX, 1332, ¢, s.

5 J has ‘so long as they advance the purification as much as possible by a resemblance so approved.’

® In the heretical decree under consideration.

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* Compare Ep. I, ix, 7, Pahl. Vend. IX, 1332, ¢, s.

5 J has ‘so long as they advance the purification as much as possible by a resemblance so approved.’

® In the heretical decree under consideration.

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grievous (yagar), and I know none worse; for this washing and professional purification which one is to keep in operation—as is declared by revelation, the teaching of high-priests, and those of the primitive faith who are esteemable'—you withdraw (madam daréd5) from the midst of ws. 15. That which you understand yourself is that unto Adhavmazd the confederate good creatures are as z¢ were defiled, and in the eyes of the good and wise they are as tt were propitiatory towards the mischievous Vaé*. 16. And your words about it are just as they say concerning a beggar*, where a garment is given to him, thus: ‘ Wash the dirt (414g) on him thoroughly clean ;’ and that garment they shall take is put upon the fire avd burnt; and he spoke thus: ‘My dirt was a comfort.’

Cuaprter IV.

1. /¢* is both explained again and summarized thus :—If the decree be from a law of Zaratist, is it so decreed as he spoke it ? and if they should never perform by that, do not bring the Avesta and zts exposition into the midst of z¢. 2. For the fifteen times of which you have written, if from the revelation of Zaratist, are his mode of washing fifteen times upwards and fifteen times downwards 5, a rulep. 342 which is fulfilled. 3. /¢ is said, if one’s deftlement be owing to depositing any bodily refuse (higar-1), then nothing of this is ever necessary for him, for one reckoning (mar-1)! will smite that which he takes hold of with a finger and 2¢ is clean, or it will smite a golden yellow clean, or whatever? it shall smite is clean; but nothing merely clean is purified, unless a demon be clean °.

1 That is, by the Avesta and Zand.

* Reading anâké V4é; he is the demon that carries off the soul (see Dd. XXX, 4). Even the best creatures are imperfect in the eyes of Adharmasd and the righteous.

* Reading niy4skar, instead of the niyâsar of the MSS.

* His own line of argument. 5 See Chap. III, 2.

4. And this, too, is very amazing to me, that when this is not taken into account by you, that when there should be, and one should obtain, no purifier* it would then be necessary for him to operate himself>, how then is this knowledge obtained ty you, on which information (4gahth) das reached you, that the purifying of all the purifiers of the country of Irdn is just as they should always perform z¢. 5. When, as I consider, there is then no complete acquaintance wth the management of a house in you, its own master, in what manner then is your account of the gossip*, and your information, about all the purifiers of the country of Iran

1 That is, a single washing, which is sufficient for ordinary defilements unconnected with the dead.

2 This is doubtful; the word seems to be &1ké in Pâzand, but, as the Av. f and @ are much alike in Iranian MSS., it may be read AQk-& and the phrase would then be ‘or it will smite a penis clean.’

* That is, cleanliness can no more be considered purification than a demon, who is supposed to be an embodiment of impurity, can be considered clean.

* J has ‘ when there should be no purifier it would be necessary to beg the help of a chief of the religion, and when one should not obtain shat.’

® As directed in Vend. VIII, 299 (see App. V).

* Reading vaé sakhfn, but this is uncertain.

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obtained? 6, If your Zeople should abandon that which ts most indispensable, and your account of the gossip, as regards that which the whole realm has done, de not according to the commands of religion and to sound wisdom ; and if it has not come completely to your knowledge as the washing of the purifiers of the country of Iran—because, when you do not fix the number even of their footsteps’, z¢ is certain that your understanding of their disposition and virtuous practice is even less—then it was necessary for you to determine the reason that all the purifiers in the country of Iran always wash that way that is declared as improper, with whatever certainty z¢ de uttered ov written.

Cyarter V.

1. If this which is said by you be a knowledge that is replete (avk4r) with advantage, why was it then necessary for you to keep z¢ as zf were concealed? from me, when I thus consider that, if a knowledge should be rightly obtained by you, it should then have been needful for you to report unto me on the first rumour? from every one who is well-enlightened (hQ-b4am)? 2. If this decreep. 344 seemed so to you before, between when you have been in Pars and this é2me when in StrkAn, z¢ was not well considered with those acquainted with the religion, the wise and the high-priests, azd not even reported. 3. If not conceived by you before, then what learned acquaintance with the religion was acquired by you in Sarakhs! and Shirdz, about which you are enlightened? 4. And before it was to be well considered amid observation and meditation? what high-priest was obtained by you in Shiraz, who, when it was well considered with him, in completely securing himself, kept you away from deliberation to be decided with me and other priestly men and high-priests ?

1 Referring probably either to the distance of the Bareshnfim place from pure objects, or to the distances between the holes or ablution seats, and from them to the furrows, mentioned in Vend. - IX, 12, 14, 18, 22 (see App. IV).

* Reading nthând, as in J, but K35 and BK omit the first letter.

* Assuming that may4g is a pseudo-Huzvéris equivalent of fivag (Pers. 4v4); may4 being the true Huzvaris of 42, ‘water.’