________________
lxxviii
VENDIDAD.
were erected for this purpose. There far from the world the dead were left to lie, beholding the sun.
$ 11. Not every corpse defiles man, but only those of such beings as belong to the world of Ahura. They are the only ones in whose death the demon triumphs. The corpse of an Ahrimanian creature does not defile; as its life was incarnate death, the spring of death that was in it is dried up with its last breath: it killed while alive, it can do so no more when dead; it becomes clean by dyings. None of the faithful are defiled by the corpse of an Ashemaogha or of a Khrafstra. Nay, killing them is a pious work, as it is killing Ahriman himself.
$ 12. Not only real death makes one unclean, but partial death too. Everything that goes out of the body of man is dead, and becomes the property of the demon. The going breath is unclean, it is forbidden to blow the fire with it', and even to approach the fire without screening it from the contagion with a Penôm. Parings of nails and cuttings or shavings of hair are unclean, and become weapons in the hands of the demons unless they have been protected by certain rites and spells. Any phenomenon by which the bodily nature is altered, whether accompanied with danger to health or not, was viewed as a work of the demon, and made the person unclean in whom it took place. One of these phenomena, which is a special object of attention
The Dakhma is a round building, and is designated by some writers, “The Tower of Silence.” A round pit, about six feet deep, is surrounded by an annular stone pavement, about seven feet wide, on which the dead bodies are placed. This place is enclosed all round by a stone wall some twenty feet high, with a small door on one side for taking the body in. The whole is built ap of and paved with stone. The pit has communication with three or more closed pits, at some distance, into which the rain washes out the liquids and the remains of the dead bodies' (Dadabhai Naoroji, The Manners and Customs of the Parsees, Bombay, 1864, p. 16). Cf. Farg. VI, 50. A Dakhma is the first building the Parsis erect when settling in a new place (Dosabhoy Framji).
* The Avesta and the Commentator attach great importance to that point: it is as if the dead man's life were thus prolonged, since he can still behold the sun. Grant us that we may long behold the sun,' said the Indian Rishi. * Farg. V, 35 sey.
+ See above, p. lxxvi. See Farg. XIV, 8, 8. 10. • Farg. XVII.
Digitized by
Digitized by Google
