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VENDIDAD.
Ahura Mazda! who has touched a corpse in a distant place in the wilderness 1 ?
98 (272). Ahura Mazda answered: 'He can, O holy Zarathustra.'
How so?
'If the Nasu has already been expelled by the corpse-eating dogs or the corpse-eating birds, he shall wash his body with gômêz; he shall wash it thirty times, he shall rub it dry with the hand thirty times, beginning every time with the head.
99 (278). If the Nasu has not yet been expelled by the corpse-eating dogs or the corpse-eating birds, he shall wash his body with gômêz; he shall wash it fifteen times, he shall rub it dry with the hand fifteen times .
100 (280). "Then he shall run a distance of a Hathra. He shall run until he meets some man on his way, and he shall cry out aloud : “Here am I, one who has touched the corpse of a man, and who is powerless in mind, powerless in tongue, powerless in hand. Do make me clean." Thus shall he run until he overtakes the man. If the man
1 Where the regular process of purification cannot be performed. -The Pahlavi Commentary to this chapter will be found in West, Pahlavi Texts, II, p. 455.
* Perhaps better : this is as good as the chief purification' (that is to say as a regular Barashnům).-If the Sag-did has been performed, the Si-shū (thirtyfold washing) is enough. Cf. above, $$ 35, 36.
If the Sag-dîd has not been performed, he cleanses himself in a summary way till he comes to a place where the Barashnum can be performed.
• See p. 15, n. 6.
o On account of my uncleanness, I am armest, excluded from active life and unfit for any work.
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