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INTRODUCTION, X.
1xxxvii
it is not expressly declared that these sins were punished with death, yet we know it of several of them, either from Greek accounts or from Parsi tradition. There are also whole classes of sinners whose life, it would seem, can be taken by any one who detects them in the act, such as the courtezan, the highwayman, the Sodomite, and the corpseburner 1
$ 24. Such are the most important principles of the Mazdean law that can be gathered from the Vendidad. These details, incomplete as they are, may give us an idea, if not of the Sassanian practice, at least of the Sassanian ideal. That it was an ideal which intended to pass into practice, we know from the religious wars against Armenia, and from the fact that very often the superintendence of justice and the highest offices of the state were committed to Mobeds.
We must now add a few words on the plan of the following translation. As to our method we beg to refer to the second chapter above. It rests on the Parsi tradition, corrected or confirmed by the comparative method. The Parsi tradition is found in the Pahlavi Commentary, the understanding of which was facilitated to us first by the Gujarati translation and paraphrase of Aspendiärji S, and by a Persian transliteration and translation belonging to the Haug Collection in Munich“, for the use of which we were indebted to the obliging kindness of the Director of the State Library in Munich, Professor von Halm. The
" See p. 113, D. 4; Farg. XVIII, 65.
• Our quotations refer to the text given in Spiegel's edition, but corrected after the London manuscript.
• Bombay, 1842, 3 vols. in 8vo.
• Unfortunately the copy is incomplete : there are two lacunae, one from I, 11 to the end of the chapter; the other, more extensive, from VI, 26 10 IX. The perfect accordance of this Persian translation with the Gujarati of Aspendiárji shows that both are derived from one and the same source. Their accordance is striking even in mistakes; for instance, the Pahlavi avâstar Jurer, a transliteration of the Zend a-vâstra, without pastures' (VII, 26), is misread by the Persian translator kvåstår, S'he who wishes,' owing to the ambiguity of the Pahlavi letter you (av or hv), and it is translated by Aspendiarji kâhânår, the wisher.'
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