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270
SHAYAST LÂ-SHẤYAST.
thoroughly washed for the six-months' period. 96. That which a menstruous woman has in wear (mahmânih) is to be discarded in like fashion.
97. The clothing which is to be washed for the six-months' period is such as is declared in the Avesta 3. 98. If the clothing be leathern it is to be thoroughly washed three times with bull's urine (gômêm), every time to be made quite dry with dust, and to be thoroughly washed three times with water, and to be laid out three months in a place to be viewed by the sun *; and then it is proper for an unclean person (armêst) who has not performed
1 Khshvâs-mâûgôk is merely a corruption of the Av, khshvas maunghô, 'six months,' of Vend. VII, 36, where this form of cleansing is thus described : If (the clothing) be woven, they should wash it out six times with bull's urine, they should scour it six times with earth, they should wash it out six times with water, they should fumigate it six months at the window of the house.'
See Pahl. Vend. VII, 32.
That is, woven clothing, as declared in Vend. VII, 36 (quoted above in note 1). • See Vend. VII, 35.
A Persian gloss defines armést as 'a woman who has brought forth a dead child,' and this is the general opinion ; but that seems to be only a particular example of an unclean person who would be included under the general term armêst, for according to Pahl. Vend. IX, 133, 137, 141 a man when only partially purified must remain apart in the place for the armèst (Av. airima, compare Sans. il or rf) for a certain time. Nêryôsang, in his Sanskrit translation of Mkh. (XXXVII, 36, XXXIX, 40, LI, 7), explains armêst as . lame, crippled, immobility;' it also means 'stagnant,' when applied to water; and its primitive signification was, probably,
most stationary,' an appropriate term for such unclean persons as are required to remain in a particular place apart from all others, as well as for helpless cripples, and insane persons under restraint (see Chap. VI, 1). The meaning 'most polluted' would hardly apply to tank water.
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