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CHAPTER XVI, 3-6.
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worship of the sacred beings (yazisn-i yazdan):Consecrating a sacred cake (drôn)' is a good work of one Tanapahar 2; a form of worship (ya st)' is a hundred Tanâpühars; a Visparadt is a thousand Tanâpühars; a Dô-hômâsto is ten thousand; a Dvâzdah-hômâst is a hundred thousand, and the merit (kirfak) of every one which is performed with holy-water is said to be a hundred to one; a HâdOkht 6 is two thousand Tanåpühars, and with holywater it becomes a hundred to one?
1 See Chap. III, 32. The Persian Rivâyats explain that this is when the proper ritual is merely recited, without using the sacred twigs and other ceremonial apparatus; when the twigs are used the merit is ten times as great.
That is, sufficient to counterbalance a Tanapühar sin (see Chap. I, 1, 2).
S A Yast is a formula of praise in honour of some particular angel; when recited with all the accessories of sacred twigs and other ceremonial apparatus, the merit is ten times as great as is mentioned in the text.
• The Visparad service includes the Yasna, and when performed with the use of the sacred twigs, holy-water, and other ceremonial apparatus the merit is ten times as great as here stated; some authorities say it is a hundred times as great.
o This kind of Hômást is not mentioned in Dastůr Jâmâspji's explanation of this species of religious service (see B. Yt. II, 59, note); it occurs, however, in the Ntrangistân as a distinct kind, though called merely Hômâst in the Persian Rivâyats.
• See B. Yt. III, 25.
* The merits of other prayers and ceremonies are detailed in the Persian Rivayats; thus, that of the ordinary recital of a Vendidad (which includes both Yasna and Visparad) is sixty thousand Tanapühars, and when with sacred twigs and holy-water it is a hundred thousand ; that of the recital of any Nyayis (see Chap. VII, 4), or of taking and retaining a prayer (vâg, see Chap. III, 6) inwardly, is one Tanâpühar.
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