"
[Footnote 12: This chapter deals chiefly with uncleanness arising from
the dead, and with the means of removing it from men and things.]
FUNERALS AND PURIFICATION
If a dog or a man die under a hut of wood or a hut of felt, what shall
the worshippers of Mazda do?
Ahura Mazda answered:--
"They shall search for a Dakhma, they shall look for a Dakhma all
around. If they find it easier to remove the dead, they shall take out
the dead, they shall let the house stand, and shall perfume it with
Urvasna or Vohu-gaona, or Vohu-kereti, or Hadha-naepata, or any other
sweet-smelling plant. If they find it easier to remove the house, they
shall take away the house, they shall let the dead lie on the spot, and
shall perfume the house with Urvasna, or Vohu-gaona, or Vohu-kereti, or
Hadha-naepata, or any other sweet-smelling plant."
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If in the house of a
worshipper of Mazda a dog or a man happens to die, and it is raining, or
snowing, or blowing, or it is dark, or the day is at its end, when
flocks and men lose their way, what shall the worshippers of Mazda do?
Ahura Mazda answered:--
"The place in that house whereof the ground is the cleanest and the
driest, and the least passed through by flocks and herds, by the fire of
Ahura Mazda, by the consecrated bundles of Baresma, and by the
faithful."
O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! How far from the fire? How
far from the water? How far from the consecrated bundles of Baresma? How
far from the faithful?
Ahura Mazda answered:--
"Thirty paces from the fire; thirty paces from the water; thirty paces
from the consecrated bundles of Baresma; three paces from the
faithful;--on that place they shall dig a grave, half a foot deep if the
earth be hard, half the height of a man if it be soft; they shall cover
the surface of the grave with ashes or cow-dung; they shall cover the
surface of it with dust of bricks, of stones, or of dry earth.
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