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Pahlavi Texts, Part III (SBE24), E.W. West, tr. [1885], at sacred-texts.com
1. The forty-first subject is this, that it is greatly requisite to avoid a menstruous woman, while they give her bread and food moderately. 2. As soon as
she is not able to eat 1 they should not give her more, and in the same manner as regards water, on this account, that whatever remnant comes from that menstruous woman does not come to any use 2.
3. When they wish to provide 3 bread they put the hand into the sleeve, or they place something on the top of the sleeve, and it is necessary that her bare hand should not come forth again in any place. 4. Because every drop of water that trickles on to a limb of a menstruous woman becomes a sin of three hundred stîrs 4. 5. And it is requisite for a menstruous woman to avoid everything that is washed with ceremony by fifteen steps. 6. It is also necessary for her to be at least three steps distant from a righteous man, and on whatever her eye casts a look it diminishes the glory 5 of that thing.
7. And on every woman the twelve ceremonials 6, atoning for the offence of menstruation, are incumbent. 8. One on account of the offence that has occurred as regards the spiritual existence 7. 9. The second on account of the offence that has occurred
as regards the stars 1. 10. The third on account of that which 2 has occurred as regards the sun. 11. The fourth on account of that which has occurred as regards the moon. 12. The fifth on account of that which has occurred as regards the spirit of fire. 13. The sixth on account of that which has occurred as regards the spirit of water. 14. The seventh on account of that which has occurred as regards the spirit of earth. 15. The eighth on account of that which has occurred as regards the spirit of the wind. 16. The ninth on account of that which has occurred as regards Khurdâd 3. 17. The tenth on account of the offence that has occurred as regards Ameredâd 3. 18. The eleventh on account of the offence that has occurred as regards meal-time (‘hurdak gâh) 4. 19. The twelfth on account of the offence that has occurred as regards bodily refuse and dead matter. 20. Therefore it is incumbent on every one in this manner 5; if any one be more opulent eighteen ceremonials are indispensable, and if she has silver in excess (ba-ghâyat) there should be twenty-one, and in one place I have read that twenty-four are indispensable; but, for lesser people, this that I have noted is necessary.
21. That which they provide in their lifetime is better 6; and, just as would occur when any one
plants a tree anew, and is eating the fruit of it every year, even so much is that good work increasing every year. 22. If she shall live ten years, or if a hundred years, even so long it is becoming every year much more 1. 23. If they provide it after her lifetime, that which would be the increase departs; and in her lifetime, also, that occurs which every one, who has done a duty on his own account, has seen, that the thing itself which others accomplish after his lifetime is very different; so that she should provide it with her own hands, not after her decease (vafât).
303:1 That is, as soon as her hunger is satisfied.
303:2 Lp, B29 have 'it is not possible to make of any use.'
303:3 Lp, B29 have 'bring.'
303:4 The amount of a Tanâvar or Tanâpûhar sin (see Sls. I, 2).
303:5 Lp, B29 add 'and purity.'
303:6 These resemble the celebration of the Hômâst, but are shorter and less onerous. The Hômâst consists of a Yasna each day for 144 days in honour of twelve angels, each angel being reverenced for twelve successive days. The angels are nearly the same as stated in the text, but the celebration of the Hômâst is twelve tines as long. The cost of this latter is said to be 350 rupis (see Byt. II, 59 n). Occasionally a still more onerous celebration is said to be incumbent on such women as can afford it (see Chap. LXVI).
303:7 Lp has 'the spirits,' and B29 has 'mankind.'
304:1 B29 has 'the rain.'
304:2 Lp, B29 use the same form of words in §§ 10-16 as in §§ 8, 9.
304:3 See Mkh. II, 34.
304:4 Doubtful, and not understood by the Gugarâti translator.
304:5 Lp, B29 have 'thus much.'
304:6 The author evidently implies, by this paragraph, that the celebration of these ceremonials was only occasional, perhaps once in a lifetime, but the earlier the better, so as to admit of a larger growth of merit before death.
305:1 Lp, B29 have 'it is proceeding every year to a head.'