in this world and in the next; it is necessary to feed the dog well, and not to throw bones to him which are too hard, nor have his food served hot enough to burn his tongue or his throat.  For the rest, the faithful Zoroastrian was bound to believe in his god, to offer to him the orthodox prayers and sacrifices, to be simple in heart, truthful, the slave of his pledged word, loyal in his very smallest acts.  If he had once departed from the right way, he could only return to it by repentance and by purification, accompanied by pious deeds:  to exterminate noxious animals, the creatures of Angro-mainyus and the abode of his demons, such as the frog, the scorpion, the serpent or the ant, to clear the sterile tracts, to restore impoverished land, to construct bridges over running water, to distribute implements of husbandry to pions men, or to build them a house, to give a pure and healthy maiden in marriage to a just man,—­these were so many means of expiation appointed by the prophet.* Marriage was strictly obligatory,** and seemed more praiseworthy in proportion as the kinship existing between the married pair was the closer:  not only was the sister united in marriage to her brother, as in Egypt, but the father to his daughter, and the mother to her son, at least among the Magi.

* A passage in the Vendidad even enumerates how many noisome beasts must be slain to accomplish one full work of expiation—­“to kill 1000 serpents of those who drag themselves upon the belly, and 2000 of the other species, 1000 land frogs or 2000 water frogs, 1000 ants who steal the grain,” and so on.

** The Vendidad says, “And I tell thee, O Spitama Zarathustra, the man who has a wife is above him who lives in continency;” and, as we have seen in the text, one of these forms of expiation consisted in “marrying to a worthy man a young girl who has never known a man” (Vendidad, 14, Sec. 15).  Herodotus of old remarked that one of the chief merits in an Iranian was to have many children:  the King of Persia encouraged fecundity in his realm, and awarded a prize each year to that one of his subjects who could boast the most numerous progeny.

Polygamy was also encouraged and widely practised:  the code imposed no limit on the number of wives and concubines, and custom was in favour of a man’s having as many wives as his fortune permitted him to maintain.  On the occasion of a death, it was forbidden to burn the corpse, to bury it, or to cast it into a river, as it would have polluted the fire, the earth, or the water—­an unpardonable offence.  The corpse could be disposed of in different ways.  The Persians were accustomed to cover it with a thick layer of wax, and then to bury it in the ground:  the wax coating obviated the pollution which direct contact would have brought upon the soil.  The Magi, and probably also strict devotees, following their example, exposed the corpse in the open air,