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348
SHẤYAST LÂ-SHẤYAST.
with regard to the good disposition and truthful speaking of the man, and to the particular work ; and on account of his being in innocence he is to be considered more righteous. 23. As in the Vendidad" it says, about the two shares of righteousness, how one should tell that he is 'a righteous man, O Zaratûst the Spitâmân! who is a purifier, who should be a speaker that speaks truly, an enquirer of the sacred texts—that is, he has performed his ritual (yast)a righteous one who specially understands purification from the religion of the Mazdayasnians, that is, he understands its religious formulas (nirang).' 24. When it is so that the control of their ablution is connected with him, so that they consider what pertains to the purifying bowl (zak-i tâstik) as his, and ever abstain from it, though the angels hear and consider them as clean, and they select for him those who consecrate the water and bull's urine (gômêz) on account of their control of purification (yôsdasarkarih), and it is to be performed very observantly by the consecrators at the place which is to be measured with a measure and very exactly (khôptar)? 25. And the purifier is so much the better when washed again, and when it is by some one through whose periodic (za mânik)
· The passage here quoted is from Pahl. Vend. IX, 4-6.
* Referring to the Bareshnüm-gâh, or place prepared for the Bareshnům ceremony of purification with bull's urine and water, which are handed to the person undergoing purification by an officiating priest (see Chap. II, 6). The place is marked out with furrows in the ground, and furnished with stones (magh) to squat upon during the ablutions (see B. Yt. II, 36). The construction of this paragraph is very obscure in many places, and its proper division into sentences is, therefore, uncertain.
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