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212
BAHMAN YAST.
praise; some say 'righteous creator'!'-'O creator ! in that perplexing time are they righteous ? and are there religious people who wear the sacred threadgirdle (kustik) on the waist, and celebrate religious rites (din): with the sacred twigs (baresôm)? and does the religious practice of next-of-kin marriage (khvêtak-das) continue in their families ?'
58. Adharmazd said to Zaratast thus: “Of the best men is he who, in that perplexing time, wears the sacred thread-girdle on the waist, and celebrates religious rites with the sacred twigs, though not as in the reign of King Vistâsp. 59. Whoever in that perplexing time recites Ita-ad-yazam (Av. ithâ âd yazamaide, Yas. Vand XXXVII) and one Ashemvohd", and has learned it by heart, is as though, in the reign of King Vistâsp, it were a Dvâzdahhômasto with holy-water (zôhar). 60. And by
This interpolated commentary is a pretty clear indication that the writer is translating from an Avesta text.
? Both Pâz, and Pers. have drôno, sacred cakes.'
3 The third ha or chapter of the Yasna of seven chapters. It worships Adharmazd as the creator of all good things.
* See Bund. XX, 2.
. For the following explanation of the various kinds of hômåst I am indebted to Dastûr Jâmâspji Minochiharji Jâmâsp-âsa-nâ of Bombay :
There are four kinds of hômâst recited by priests for the atonement of any sin that may have been committed by a woman during menstruation, after her purification :
1. Hômâst consists of prayers recited for 144 days, in honour of the twelve following angels : Adharmazd, Tistar, Khurshed, Mâh, Âbân, Âdar, Khurdâd, Amerdâd, Spendarmad, Bad, Srôsh, and Arda-fravash. Each angel, in turn, is reverenced for twelve days successively, with one Yasna each day.
2. Khadak-hômâst, one hômâst,' differs from the last merely in adding a Vendidad every twelfth day, to be recited in the Ush
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