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274
SHAYAST LA-SHAYAST.
ruby (yâkand) gem, the turquoise1, the agate (shapak), coral-stone (vasadin sag), bone, and other substances (gôhar) which are not particularly mentioned, are to be washed just like wood; and when they are taken into use there is no washing, and when they are not taken their washing is once. 117. Of earthen and horny articles there is no washing; and of other substances which are not taken for use the washing is once, and they are declared out of use.
118. Firewood, when green, is to be cut off the length of a span (vitast), one by one, as many sticks as there are-and when dry one span and two finger-breadths and is to be deposited in some place the length of a year, and water is not to be dropped upon it; and it is drawn out after the length of a year; Sôshyans' said that it is proper as firewood for ordinary fires, and Kushtano-bûgêd® said that it is just as declared in the Avesta: 'The
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1 This is doubtful; the word can be read pirînak, and has the Pers. gloss pîrâzah, 'turquoise,' in some MSS. If read pilînak it might perhaps be taken for 'ivory.' But in Pahl. Vend. VII, 188 it is vafarînô, 'snowy,' and the reading there seems to be 'jetblack and snow-white stone-coral;' so here the original meaning may have been 'snow-white and jet-black coral-stone.'
2 Vend. VII, 188 says that 'earthen or wooden or porcelain vessels are impure for everlasting.'
' Meaning, apparently, that they cannot be purified for immediate use.
That is, one-sixth longer than when green, the vitast being twelve finger-breadths, or nine inches (see Bund. XXVI, 3, note). The purification of firewood, here prescribed, is simply drying it for a year in short lengths; but Vend. VII, 72-82 requires it also to be sprinkled once with water, and to be cut into longer pieces. See Chap. I, 3. See Chap. I, 4, note.
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