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LAW OF CONTRACTS AND ASSAULTS.
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being brought near and made to look at the dead. In practice this is interpreted as a dog with two spots above the eyes. This may be compared with the four-eyed dogs of the Vedic god Yama, and the three-headed Čerberus, watching at the doors of hell. Wherever the corpse passed, death walked with it, threatening the living; consequently no man or animal might pass that way till the deadly breath had been blown away by the four-eyed dog, the priest aiding with his spells.
of dead.
Fire, earth, and water being all holy to Zoroastrians, corpses must be kept as far as possible away from them and placed on the highest summits, where there Exposure are always corpse-eating dogs and birds, and fastened by the feet and hair lest the bones should be carried away. The bones must afterwards be laid in a building known as the Dokma, or tower of silence. This principle was carried out very thoroughly, partial death and sickness being equally unclean. Everything proceeding from the human body was impure, even parings of nails and cut hair. Sickness was sent by Ahriman, and must be cured by washings and spells. If several healers offered themselves together, one healing with the knife, one with herbs, and one with the holy word or by spells, the latter was to be preferred. Hence the class of priests included the chief doctors.
assaults.
The fourth section of the Vendidad is occupied with laws about contracts and assaults; the latter are of seven degrees, and guilt is estimated as very greatly increased by each repetition of the offence. Crimes are Law of conpunished not only by stripes, but in addition tracts and by penalties after death. Offences against the gods were punished more heavily than offences against man; and death is the punishment of the man who falsely pretends to cleanse the unclean, and the man who carries a corpse alone, these being special offences against the gods. Repentance only saves the sinner from penalties after death. The burning or burial of the dead, the eating dead matter, and unnatural crimes were inexpiable, apparently punished by death as well as future
torments.
