________________
CHAPTER X, 29-32.
331
fowl, so those of the primitive faith' have said that there may be mischief (vina stârih) from wizards in that dwelling, which the cock is incapable of keeping away, and the female fowl makes that noise for the assistance of the cock?, especially when the bringing of another cock into that dwelling is necessary.
31. The rule is this, that when one sees a hedgehog, then along with its a place in the plain, free from danger, is to be preserved; for in the Vendidad · the high-priests have taught that it is when the hedgehog every day voids urine into an ant's nest that a thousand ants will die. .
32. The rule is this, that in the Vendidad • seven kinds of things are mentioned, and when they are the cause of a man's death, until the forthcoming period of the day (gâs-i levin) comes on, contami
* See Chap. I, 3.
* The cock is considered to be an opponent of demons and wizards (see Bund. XIX, 33), and to warn men against the seductions of the demoness of lethargy (see Vend. XVIII, 33-42, 52).
Assuming that levatman val means levatman valman, but the reading "he takes it back to (lakh vâr val) the plain,' which occurs in the repetition of this section in Chap. XII, 20, seems preferable.
• The details which follow are to be found in Bund. XIX, 28, but they appear to be no longer extant in the Pahlavi Vendidad; though the hedgehog is called 'the slayer of the thousands of the evil spirit,' in Vend. XIII, 5, of which passage the statement in our text seems to be an illustration. The ant is considered noxious.
• Vend. VII, 5, 6, where, however, eight modes of death are mentioned, which delay the arrival of the Nasūs, or fiend of corruption, till the next period of the day; these are when the person has been killed by a dog, a wolf, a wizard, anxiety, falling into a pit, the hand of man as sentenced by law, illegal violence, or strangulation. In all other cases it is supposed that the fiend of corruption enters the corpse immediately after death (see Vend. VII, 2-4).
Digitized by Google
