considered to be the greatest of calamities, and hence a corpse became possessed of the Druj, and the most active of all sources of contamination. That so foul an object should be placed in intimate contact with the holy elements of fire, earth, or water, was sacrilege in the highest degree. Cremation and burial were, therefore, held in abhorrence, and a deceased person had to be borne to some isolated spot, far from fire and water, there to be exposed on an elevated bier with the intention that the flesh should be devoured by wild dogs, birds, etc.[1] Disease was, of course, a grade of demoniacal obsession, so that sympathy for the sick was almost alienated by superstition. If an ordinary soldier were taken ill on the march he was abandoned by the wayside, some provisions being left with him, and also a stick, with which to beat off any carnivorous animals. Should he recover, on his reappearance all fled from him as from an apparition risen out of the infernal regions; nor could he resume intercourse with his relations until he had undergone a rigorous purification by the Magi.[2] Owing to the holiness of water great reverence was felt for rivers, which were protected by law from all defilement; and no good Zoroastrian would travel by ship lest he should pollute the sea with his normal excrement.[3] For purposes of cleansing
- [Footnote: contains all the legislation respecting rites and ceremonies, offences,
crimes, etc., punishments to be inflicted, means of expiation, etc. Like parts of the Pentateuch, it is all in the form of a dialogue between the prophet and the Deity.]*
- ↑ These Dakhmas, or "Towers of Silence," for the disposal of the dead are well-known to the Anglo-Indians who have resided at Bombay, which almost all Parsees, the present-day Zoroastrians, have adopted as their native city. They number about 60,000.
- ↑ This account is due to Agathias, ii, 23; cf. Herodotus, i, 138.
- ↑ Agathias, ii, 24; Herodotus, loc. cit. Contrary to former belief
