________________
CHAPTERS I, 4-II, 2.
245
CHAPTER II. 1. For in the third fargard (chapter') of the Vendidad of Medôk-mâh' it is declared that when life is resigned without effort, at the time when the life departs, when a dog is tied to his foot, even then the Nasas 3 rushes upon it, and afterwards, when seen by it, the Nasus is destroyed by it. 2. This is where it is stated which is the dog which destroys the Nasas “, the shepherd's dog, the village-dog, the blood-hound, the slender hound, and the rûkaniko;
the Nîrangistân. It must, however, be observed that the reading of some of these names is very uncertain.
1 Alluding probably to Mêdôk-mâh's complete commentary on the Vendidad (now no longer extant), as the commentary on Pahl. Vend. III, 48, which treats of Sag-dîd or dog-gaze, does not mention Medôk-mâh or any of the details described here in the text; these details, however, are to be found in Pahl. Vend. VII, 4.
? Reading amat barâ zôr gân dâd. This phrase occurs only in M6 (as a marginal note) and in the text of its descendants. Assuming that barâ may be a miswriting of pavan (see p. 176, note 5), we might read amat pavan zôr shayâd, when he shall wash with holy-water.'
The corruption' which is supposed to enter a corpse shortly after death, whence it issues in the form of a fiend and seizes upon any one who touches the corpse, unless it has been destroyed, or driven away, by the gaze of a dog, as mentioned in the text (compare Vend. VIII, 38-48). The carcase of a dog is considered equally contagious with the corpse of a human being, and when the fiend of corruption (Nasûs or Nas of Bund. XXVIII, 29) has seized upon any one, it can be driven out only by a long and troublesome form of purification described in Vend. VIII, III228, IX, 4-117.
+ This statement is now to be found in Pahl. Vend. VII, 4.
o See Bund. XIV, 19. The Persian Rivâyats of Kâmah Bahrah and Kâds Kâmân (quoted in B29) describe these dogs as 'the shepherd's dog, the house-dog, the strange or tame (g harîb) dog, and the puppy'
• Probably the Av. sukuruna of Vend. V, 100, XIII, 48, which
Digitized by Google
