* Differently from others.
* The dead must be deposited upon some dry and barren spot, remote from habitations and water, and, if possible, upon the summit of a hill (see Chap. XVII, 17, and Vend.VI, 93). From the mention of dogs gnawing the corpse it would appear that the depositories for the dead were less enclosed when this work was written than they are at present; and in ancient times both enclosed and unenclosed depositories seem to have been used (see Vend. VI, g2~106). For a description of the present form of such depositories see Sls. II, 6, note.
* Fear of pollution from the dead.
36 DApISTAN-? DINIK.
a we Ea ae an i a ae
desire 7¢ 1s accepted strenuously for the wicked him-
self, his own recompense is therein, and it happens
to him in that way for the removal (narafsisn6)
of sin and for the gratification of zs soul.
CHAPTER XVI.
1. The fifteenth question is that which you ask
thus: When the dogs and birds tear it (the corpse)
does the soul know z¢, and does it occur unccm-
fortably for it, or how is it?
2. The reply is this, that the pain occaszoned by
the tearing and gnawing so galls (maléd6) the body
of men that, though the soul weve abiding with the
body, such soul, which oxe knows is happy and
immortal, woud then depart from the body, along
with the animating life, the informing (sinadyinak6)
consciousness, azd the remaining resources of life.
3. The body is inert, unmoving, and not to be
galled; and at last no pain whatever galls z¢, nor
is it perceived; and the soul, with the life, is outside
of the body, and is not unsafe as regards its gnaw-
ing, but through the spiritual perception! it sees avd
knows 27.
4. That which is wicked is then again desirous
of its bodily existence’, when it sees them thus:
the wonderfully-constructed body which was its
* Supposing that sinasno stands for sinayisn6d; otherwise we must read ‘in the spiritual places (divag4n6),’
* This section is made still more complicated in the Pahlavi text by the division of this first phrase; half of it being placed
at the beginning, and the other half at the extreme end of the sentence.
Chapter Xvi, I—7. 37
vesture, avd is dispersed, and that spiritual life
(hOk6) which was with its heart, and is even on
account of this—that is: ‘Because in my bodily
existence and worldly progress ¢here was no atone-
ment for sin and no accumulation of righteousness’ —
also in mourning about it thus: ‘In the prosperity
which this body of mine had, it would have been
possible for me to atone for sin aud to save the
soul, du¢ now I am separated from every one and
Jrom the joy of the world, which is great hope of
spiritual “fe; and I have attained to the perplexing |
account and more serious danger.’ 5. And the
gnawing becomes as grievous to it, on account of
that body, as a closely-shut arsenal (afzar béta-i
badtfiim) and a concealed innermost garment are
useless among those with limbs Arovzded with weapons
and accoutrements, and are destroyed.
7. And the consciousness of men, as it sits three
nights outside of the body, in the vicinity of the
body, 4as to remember and expect that w/zch is
truly fear and trouble (kh4r) unto the demons, aud
reward, peace, and glad tidings (névik) unto the
spirits of the good ; and, on account of the dispersion
and injuring of the body, it utters a cry spiritually,
38 DADISTAN-? DiNiK.
thus: ‘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 avd libera-
tion, and it becomes the happiness and hope of the
spirit of the body azd the other good spirits, and
the fear azd vexation of the demons and fiends.
CHAPTER XVII.
1. The sixteenth question is that which you ask
thus: What is the purpose! of giving up 2 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 padayinidan6d) and
one which is to cause conflict (nipérdinidand), 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 (hdk6) 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
’ Assuming that 2han stands for Ahang.
* This last clause is a quotation, slightly altered, from Pahl. Vend. XIX, 108, 10g.
CHAPTER XVI, 8—XVU, 8. 39
passed away is so much the more innocently worthy
of the rights (sAn6d) of ove properly passed away,
and what z¢ is therein provided with, as it has
uttered thanksgivings. 6. /or 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 owav is contaminating; the Nasis (‘ corrup-
tion’)? 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 cata-
strophe (hankardikih), and puts itself into the place
of the body, that body is then, for that reason, called
Nasai (‘dead matter’). 8. And, on account of the
co-existence of rapid changing and the mode of
attacking of the same Nastis, even when it is neces-
sary 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 Pésyansai (probably the Pisin valley near Qandahar), 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.
? 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 DApISTAN-I DINIK.
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 unconsum-
able and attaining durability, through dryness, out
of the dead matter even for perpetuity. 11. And
the sun is provided to make rotten, dispersed, axd
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 (adéstih), it comes to rottenness and
stench; and the noxious creatures in z¢ alike afflict
it and the hard Zar?¢ such as bone.
‘ 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 khast4r, ‘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. Ai
pointed and produced, a production not worthy, for
its defilement of those purified azd animals is con-
taminating, through contact again with men. I5.
The crow (galag) 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 (angastan®)
the devouring of the noxious creatures, for the spirit
of the body is troubled when it observes the alarmed
(vazid@) spirituality which was in the body of those
destroyed, the noxious creatures upon the goodly
forms, and the mode and strangeness of ¢hezr dis-
integration and spoliation. 17. And so it then
becomes the more remedial way! when, as it is
ordered in revelation’, the body fraught with cor-
ruption is placed on the ground of a clear mountain-
spur (kéf 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 (dast6-4mtk6) 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.
2 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 pDADISTAN-I DINIK.
consume that fat, and are digested by the vital fire?
which is in the life of the creatures of Adhaymazd;
and from fat the corpses and dead matter are re-
duced 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 Adhavmazd then avzses
also the assault * 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 Atthaymazd, exhibits a partial resur-
rection 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.
Atharmagzd, purified in the Pfatik sea, and conveyed through the wide-formed ocean to the well-watered tree of all seeds, whence the falling seeds are brought back, with the misty clouds, and rained upon the earth, to grow there and yield food for cattle and men.
1 The vital heat, or Vohu-fryan fire (see Bd. XVII, 1, 2).
® Reading gil-valigih (compare Pers. kalif, ‘sediment,’ or galiz, ‘saliva’).
* Which they have imbibed by contact with dead matter.
* Or ‘ weapon.’
* No such chapter is now extant in Dd., and, therefore, this remark favours the supposition that some chapters are lost between Chaps. XCIII and XCIV. A corpse must be shown to a dog in order that the demon, Nasfis, may be driven out of it by the look, or touch, of the dog (see Sls. II, 1-4, X, 33).
° A recognition of the fact that the drinking of impure water, or eating of tainted food, is apt to produce disease.
Chapter Xvii, I9—Xviii, 4. 43
CuHapTer XVIII.
1. The seventeenth question is that you ask thus:
Is it better when they give z¢ to the birds, or what
mode is better ?
2. The reply is this, that after showing the dog—
the reason of which is as declared! in its own chapter
—tley shall carry the corpse at once to the hills and
rising giouna(vakhsh bim); and, for the reason that
the dogs and birds should not bring that dead matter
away to a watered, cultivated, ov inhabited place, oe
is to fasten z¢ zz the manner of athief®. 3. When the
corpse-eating birds have eaten the fat, that fat
which, when it is not possible to eat z¢, becomes
rotten, offensive, and fraught with noxious creatures,
then men shall properly convey the bones away to
the bone-receptacle (ast6d4n6), which® oe is to
elevate so from the ground, azd over which * a roof
(Askfipd) so stands, that in no way does the rain fall
upon the dead matter, nor the water reach up to it
therein, nor the damp make up to it therein, nor are
the dog and fox able to go to it, and for the sake of
light coming to it a hole is made therein.
