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CHAPTER XVII, 19-XVIII, 4.
43
CHAPTER XVIII. 1. The seventeenth question is that you ask thus: Is it better when they give it to the birds, or what mode is better?
2. The reply is this, that after showing the dogthe reason of which is as declared in its own chapter -they shall carry the corpse at once to the hills and rising ground (vakhsh bûm); and, for the reason that the dogs and birds should not bring that dead matter away to a watered, cultivated, or inhabited place, one is to fasten it in the manner of a thief?. 3. When the corpse-eating birds have eaten the fat, that fat which, when it is not possible to eat it, becomes rotten, offensive, and fraught with noxious creatures, then men shall properly convey the bones away to the bone-receptacle (astôdânð), which s one is to elevate so from the ground, and over which * a roof (åskūpo) 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.
4. More authoritatively (dastóbariha) it is said that bone-receptacle is a vault (kadako) of solid stone', and its covering (nih û mbako) one is to
Literally as the reason of it is declared. This is another allusion to the missing chapter mentioned in Chap. XVII, 20.
? Reading a hûn k had dino, but this is very likely a corruption of khaddinð khaddino, 'in various modes.'
• The MSS. have mů nam, which by me.' • The MSS. have min madam, 'from above.'
o Whether khadako-sa gako means 'solid rock' or 'solid ashlar' is doubtful.
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| SR No. | 007676 |
| Book Title | Text of Confucianism Part 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | James Legge |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1882 |
| Total Pages | 2405 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 43 MB |