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SHAYAST LÂ-SHAYAST.
wall is not to be cut. 39. Rôshan' said that an earthen one is to be cut into, but a mortar one is not to be cut; below and above no account is taken of damaging (bôdôzêdih) the walls. 40. To bring the fire within the three steps from the corpse is a Tanâpühar sin ; and when exudation happens to the corpse, it is worthy of death. 41. The prepared food in that house is all useless, and that which is not prepared is usable in the length of nine nights
17). But the spirit of the Mazdayasnian law is reasonable, and, although strict, it allows for practical difficulties and chooses the least of two evils in a more judicious manner than might be expected (a fact which it would be well for Parsis and others to observe in doubtful cases). Here, breaking through the wall of a house is considered a greater evil than the possible pollution of the fire by passing at a distance of three steps, or eight English feet, from a corpse.
1 The name of a commentator, or commentary, often quoted in Pahlavi translations (see the note on Chap. I, 4).
· Literally, 'destroying the consciousness,' or injuring the existence.' Bôdôzêd or bôdy ôzad is a particular kind of sin which appears to consist chiefly of the ill-treatment of anima injury of useful property. It is mentioned in Pahl. Yas. XXIX. Ib, Pahl. Vend. V, 107, XIII, 38, Farh. Okh. pp. 32, 33; and in some editions of the Khurdah Avesta it is defined as selling stolen men or animals into misery, or one's own domestic cattle to the butcher, also spoiling and tearing up good clothing, or wasting and spoiling good food.
: The meaning is, that if it became necessary to break through the wall in order to remove the fire unpolluted, the sin committed through damaging the wall will not be punished either in this world or the next.
• That is, nearer than three steps, which is considered to be the minimum distance at which any degree of purity can be maintained.
o A marg-argân sin, on committing which the sinner is required to place his life at the disposal of the high-priest (see Chap. VIII, 2, 5, 6, 21). It is usually considered equivalent to fifteen Tanapühars (see Chap. I, 1, 2).
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