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SHAYAST LA-SHAYAST.
3. In the administration of the primitive faith1 there are some who have been of different opinions
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third night after death (see Mkh. II, 114-122). Its sins are supposed to be then weighed against its good works, which are estimated by the same scale of degrees (see the passage already quoted from Farh. Okh. in p. 240, note 2), and it is sent direct to heaven, or hell, or an intermediate place, according as the good works or sins preponderate, or are both equal. In the Avesta of the Vendidad, however, whence these degrees are derived, we find them forming merely a graduated scale of assaults, extending from first lifting the hand to smite even unto manslaughter; and for each of these seven degrees of assault a scale of temporal punishments is prescribed, according to the number of times the offence has been committed. These punishments consist of a uniform series of lashes with a horse-whip or scourge, extending from a minimum of five lashes to a maximum of two hundred (see Vend. IV, 58-114); each degree of assault commencing at a different point on the scale of punishments for the first offence, and gradually rising through the scale with each repetition of the offence, so that the more aggravated assaults attain the maximum punishment by means of a smaller number of repetitions. Thus, the punishments prescribed for Âgerepta, from the first to the eighth offence, are 5, 10, 15, 30, 50, 70, 90, and 200 lashes respectively; those for Avaoirista, from the first to the seventh offence, extend on the same scale from 10 to 200 lashes; those for Aredus, from the first to the sixth offence, are from 15 to 200 lashes; those for a bruised hurt (hvara), from the first to the fifth offence, are from 30 to 200 lashes; those for a bleeding hurt, from the first to the fourth offence, are from 50 to 200 lashes; those for a bone-breaking hurt, from the first to the third offence, are from 70 to 200 lashes; and those for a hurt depriving of consciousness or life, for the first and second offences, are 90 and 200 lashes. The maximum punishment of 200 lashes is prescribed only when the previous offences have not been atoned for, and it is to be inflicted in all such cases, however few or trifling the previous assaults have been.
1 In M6 pôryôdkêshîh, but pôryôdkêshân, ' of those of the primitive faith,' in K20; from the Av. paoiryôdkaêsha of Yas. I, 47, III, 65, IV, 53, XXII, 33, Fravardîn Yt. o, 90, 156, Âf. Rapithwin, 2. It is a term applied to what is considered as the
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