“Ninety stripes with the Aspahe-astra, ninety stripes with the Sraosho-karana.”

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!  If a man shall throw on the ground a bone of a dead dog, or of a dead man, as large as two fingers or as two ribs, and if grease or marrow flow from it on to the ground, what penalty shall he pay?

Ahura Mazda answered:—­

“He is a Peshotanu:  two hundred stripes with the Aspahe-astra, two hundred stripes with the Sraosho-karana.”

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!  If a man shall throw on the ground a bone of a dead dog, or of a dead man, as large as an arm-bone or as a thigh-bone, and if grease or marrow flow from it on to the ground, what penalty shall he pay?

Ahura Mazda answered:—­

“Four hundred stripes with the Aspahe-astra, four hundred stripes with the Sraosho-karana.”

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!  If a man shall throw on the ground a bone of a dead dog, or of a dead man, as large as a man’s skull, and if grease or marrow flow from it on to the ground, what penalty shall he pay?

Ahura Mazda answered:—­

“Six hundred stripes with the Aspahe-astra, six hundred stripes with the Sraosho-karana.”

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!  If a man shall throw on the ground the whole body of a dead dog, or of a dead man, and if grease or marrow flow from it on to the ground, what penalty shall he pay?

Ahura Mazda answered:—­

“A thousand stripes with the Aspahe-astra, a thousand stripes with the Sraosho-karana.”

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!  If a worshipper of Mazda, walking, or running, or riding, or driving, come upon a corpse in a stream of running water, what shall he do?

Ahura Mazda answered:—­

“Taking off his shoes, putting off his clothes, while the others wait, O Zarathustra! he shall enter the river, and take the dead out of the water; he shall go down into the water ankle-deep, knee-deep, waist-deep, or a man’s full depth, till he can reach the dead body.”

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!  If, however, the body be already falling to pieces and rotting, what shall the worshipper of Mazda do?

Ahura Mazda answered:—­

“He shall draw out of the water as much of the corpse as he can grasp with both hands, and he shall lay it down on the dry ground; no sin attaches to him for any bone, hair, grease, dung, urine, or blood, that may drop back into the water.”

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!  What part of the water in a pond does the Drug Nasu defile with corruption, infection, and pollution?

Ahura Mazda answered:—­

“Six steps on each of the four sides.  As long as the corpse has not been taken out of the water, so long shall that water be unclean and unfit to drink.  They shall, therefore, take the corpse out of the pond, and lay it down on the dry ground.  And of the water they shall draw off the half, or the third, or the fourth, or the fifth part, according as they are able or not; and after the corpse has been taken out and the water has been drawn off, the rest of the water is clean, and both cattle and men may drink of it at their pleasure, as before.”