"If then this man says, 'Try to make friends with an old woman and inquire of her; if then this girl does not make friends with an old woman, and inquire of her, and this old woman brings Baga, or Shaêta, or Ghnâna, or Fracpâta, or any of the vegetable purgatives, saying, 'Try to kill this child;' if then the girl does try to kill the child, then the girl, the man, and the old woman are equally criminal."
Neither the sixteenth nor the seventeenth Fargard need detain
us. They relate, the one to the above-mentioned rules to
be observed towards women, the other to the disposal of the
hair and nails, which are held to pollute the earth. The eighteenth
Fargard begins, as if in the middle of a conversation, with
an address by Ahura-Mazda, on the characteristics of true and
false priests, some, it appears, having improperly pretended to
the priesthood. After some questions on other points of doctrine
put by Zarathustra, we are suddenly introduced to a conversation
between the angel Çraosha and the Drukhs, or evil
spirit, in which the latter describes the several offenses that
cause her to become pregnant, or, in other words, increase her
influence in the world. After this interlude, we return to Ahura-Mazda
and Zarathustra. The prophet, having been exhorted to
put questions, inquires of his god who causes him the greatest
annoyance. Ahura-Mazda replies that it is "he who mingles
the seed of the pious and the impious, of Daeva-worshipers
and of those who do not worship the Daevas, of sinners and
non-sinners." Such persons are "rather to be killed than poisonous
snakes." Hereupon Zarathustra proceeds to ascertain
what are the penalties for those who cohabit with women at
seasons when the law requires them to be separate. At the
beginning of the nineteenth Fargard, we have an account of
the temptation of the prophet by the evil one, to which allusion
has been made in another place. Zarathustra seeks for information
as to the means of getting rid of impurities, and is
taught by Ahura-Mazda to praise the objects he has created. In
the latter part of the chapter we have a remarkable account of
the judgment of departed souls. In conclusion, we have a
psalm of praise recited by the prophet in honor of God, the
earth, the stars, the Gâthâs, and numerous other portions of
the good creation. There is little in the twentieth Fargard be-
