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33. And during her menstruation she is to be so seated that, from her body, there are fifteen steps of three feet to water, fifteen steps to fire, fifteen steps to the sacred twigs, and three steps to a righteous man 1. 34. And her food is to be carried forth in iron or leaden vessels; and the person (valman) who shall carry forth the food stands at three steps away from her 2. 35. When worship is celebrated, every time at the dedication (shnumanê) of the consecration of sacred cakes (drôn yast) it is to be uttered aloud by her; some say the Ithâ and Ashem-vohû *.
CHAPTER III, 33-IV, I.
CHAPTER IV.
1. A sacred thread-girdle (kustik), should it be made of silk (parvand), is not proper; the hair (pashm) of a hairy goat and a hairy camel is
passed twice round the twigs, is secured with a right-handed and left-handed knot on one side, and is then passed round a third time and secured with a similar double knot on the other side, exactly as the kûstîk or sacred thread-girdle is secured round the waist of a Parsi man or woman (see Haug's Essays, pp. 396-399).
1 See Vend. XVI, 9, 10. All the ceremonial apparatus must be kept as far removed as the sacred twigs.
2 See Vend. XVI, 11-14, which states that the food is to be carried forth on iron, lead, or the basest metal.
This is the time when the name of the angel or spirit is mentioned, in whose honour the cakes are consecrated (see § 32, note on drôn, and Chap. VII, 8).
The Ithâ is Yas. V (so called from its first word), which forms a part of the drôn yast or formula of consecration (see § 32, note on drôn). The Ashem-vohû is probably that in Yas. VIII, 9, which concludes the consecration. The same details are given in Pahl. Vend. XVI, 17. These prayers also form a portion of all ceremonial worship, including the Yazisn.
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