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CHAPTER XII, 18-22.
347
(myazd) unto the end, more especially at the feast of the season-festivals; as it says in the Hâdôkht Naskı, that of the sayings which are spoken out the Ahunavar is that which is most triumphant.
20. The rule is this, that when one sees a hedgehog he takes it back to the plain, and its own place is to be preserved free from danger; for in the Vendidad the high-priests have taught, that every day, when the hedgehog voids urine into an ant's nest, a thousand ants will die.
21. The rule is this, that some who are of the good religion say, where one is washing his face, one Ashem-vohas is always to be uttered, and that Ashem-vohù is to be uttered before the washing ; for when he utters it while washing his face, he is doubtful (var-hômand) about the water coming to his mouth.
22. The rule is this, that they select from the purifiers when their business (mindavam) is as important (raba) as purity and impurity_him with whom the control of ablution (pâdiyâvih)6 and non-ablution is connected; they select him especially
See B. Yt. III, 25. The passage here quoted must have been in the first division of the Nask. * This section is a repetition of Chap. X, 31.
See Bund. XX, 2. • The yôsdåsarân, 'purifiers' (Av. yaord&thrya), are those priests who retain so much of the purifying effect of the Bareshnům ceremony (see Chap. II, 6) as to be able to assist in purifying others by means of the same ceremony. When that effect has passed away a priest can no longer perform the sacred rites, until he has again undergone the nine nights' purification of the Bareshnům. • Reading band, but it may be bôd, vitality, essence.'
See Chap. II, 52.
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