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CHAPTER II, 3-7.
6. Vand-Aûharmazd said, where a pregnant woman is to be carried by two men1, both are to be cleansed by the Bareshnûm ceremony, and the head of the corpse, when they carry it away, is to be set towards the Dakhma3. 7. And on account of contamination
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vent any neglect of corpses found in wild places, where some of these birds would be sure to approach and let their shadows fall upon the dead, after which the finder of the corpse would suppose that the Nasus was destroyed or driven away, and the corpse safer to approach.
1 This is an exceptional case, when not more than two men are available; the usual custom (see Chap. X, 10) is to employ four men and two dogs (double the usual number) in disposing of the corpse of a pregnant woman, on account of the double risk of contamination, owing to the Nasûs, or fiend of corruption, having seized upon two corpses at once. In consequence of the exceptional nature of the case, the mode of purification is also exceptional.
A long purification ceremony lasting nine nights, and described in Vend. IX, 1-145. Its name, according to Dastur Hoshangji, is derived from the first word of the instructions for sprinkling the unclean person, which commence (Vend. IX, 48) as follows: Bareshnum hê vaghdhanem paourum paiti-hinkôis, 'sprinkle in front on the top of his head.' As it is usual to quote chapters by their initial words, the initial word of these instructions for the ceremony became a name for the ceremony itself.
The building in which the dead are finally deposited; here called by its Huzvâris name, khazân. The Dakhmas used by the Parsis in India are like low circular towers in external appearance, and consist of a high wall enclosing a larger or smaller circular space which is open to the sky. The only opening in the wall is a small doorway, closed with an iron door. In the centre of the circular area is a circular well a few feet in depth, and the space around it is paved so as to slope gently downwards from the enclosing wall to the brink of the well. This paved annular area is divided (by shallow gutters grooved into its surface) into spaces, each large enough for one corpse to be laid upon it, with the head towards the wall and the feet towards the well. These spaces are arranged in two or more concentric rings around the well, and the gutters (which isolate each space on all four sides) drain into the
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