________________
CHAPTER XXXV, 1-XXXVI, 9.
297
is not proper that they put a hand on a sacred cake or any thing washed with ceremony.
4. In revelation it says, if any one who has not performed the Bareshnûm shall die, the demons make him as though he were a corpse kept one month in the hot season. 5. And, when the soul arrives at the head of the Kinvad bridge, the archangels and angels complain of the stench of that soul, and are not able to make up its account and reckoning. 6. It remains at the Kinvad bridge and is not able to pass; it experiences much repentance and has no advantage from it.
7. If it be necessary for any one to perform the Bareshnûm of the head, and he be able to do it, but does not do it, if he performs the ceremonial ablution of the head a thousand times, it does not become pure from that pollution, and that is the pollution of Nasrusts, which is amid the veins and sinews, and the flesh and bones; it does not become pure through any other thing except through the liquid consecrated by the religious formula“.
8. And as to that person, also, who performs the Bareshnùm for mankind, it is necessary that he be a man, a friend of the soul, a truthful speaker, and an abstainer, because through chastity and modesty (mastûri) he becomes employed. 9. If complaint of any perfidy in him is publicly diffused, in that disgrace (malamat) it is necessary that the high-priests
* B29 has it makes his soul. Lp omits 'pollution.'
* See Chap. XXXV, 2. B29 has that is bodily refuse (hîhar) and pollution.'
• That is, bull's urine, the liquid that is first used, in a consecrated state, for sprinkling the body in the Bareshnům purification. Compare Chap. LXXVII, 9, 10.
• That is, the purifying priest. B29 has publicly comes on.'
Digitized by
Digitized by Google