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CHAPTER II, 58–62.
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whomever prayer is offered up, and the Gathahymns are chanted, it is as though the whole ritual had been recited, and the Gâtha-hymns consecrated by him in the reign of King Vistâsp. 61. The most perfectly righteous of the righteous is he who remains in the good religion of the Mazda yasnians, and continues the religious practice of next-of-kin marriage in his family.'
62. Adharmazd said to the righteous Zaratust: 'In these nine thousand years which I, Adharmazd, created, mankind become most perplexed in that perplexing time; for in the evil reigns of Az-i Dahâk and Frâsiyâv of Tär mankind, in those perplexing times, were living better and living more ahin Gâh (12 P. M. to 6 A. m.) in honour of the angel whose propitiation ends that day.
3. Dah-hômâst,'ten hômâsts,' differs from the preceding merely in having a Vendidad, in addition to the Yasna, every day.
4. Dvâzdah-hômåst,'twelve hômâsts,' are prayers recited for 264 days in honour of twenty-two angels, namely, the twelve aforesaid and the following ten : Bahman, Ardibahist, Shahrivar, Mihir, Bahrâm, Râm, Dîn, Rashna, Gôs, and Âståd. Each angel, in turn, is reverenced as in the last.
The celebration of hômâst costs 350 růpis, that of khadûkhômást 422 rûpis, that of dah-hômåst 1000 rupis, and that of dvâzdah-hômâst 2000 rûpis ; but the first and third are now no longer used. The merit obtained by having such recitations performed is equivalent to 1000 tanâpühars for each Yasna, 10,000 for each Visparad, and 70,000 for each Vendidad recited. A tanapühar is now considered as a weight of 1200 dirhams, with which serious sins and works of considerable merit are estimated; originally it must have meant a sin which was 'inexpiable' by ordinary good works, and, conversely, any extraordinary good work which was just sufficient to efface such a sin.
The amount of merit attaching to such recitations is variously stated in different books, and when recited with holy-water (that is, with all their ceremonial rites) they are said to be usually a hundred times as meritorious as when recited without it.
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