Shayast La-Shayast

Translation of a manuscript of Holy Scriptures of the Avestans. In the name of God and the good creation may there be the good health, long life, and abundant wealth of all the good and the right. doers specially for him whose writing I am.

Print size, 12 point font

**************

EXCERPT

As revealed by the Avesta, it is said in the Vendidad that these seven degrees of sin are mentioned in revelation, which are Farman, Agerept, Avoirisht, Aredush, Khor, Bazhai, Yat, and tanapuhr.

2. A Farman is the weight of four stirs, and each stir is four dirhams ; of Agerept and Avoirisht that which is least is a scourging , and the amount of them which was specially that which is most is said to be one dirham; an Aredush is thirty stirs; a Khor is sixty stirs; a Bazhai is ninety stirs; a Yat is a hundred and eighty stirs; and a Tanapuhr is three hundred stirs.

3. In the administration of the primitive faith there are some who have been of different opinions about it, for Gogoshasp spoke otherwise than the teaching of Ataro-Ohrmazd, and Soshyans otherwise than the teaching of Ataro-frobag Nosai, and Medok-mah otherwise than the teaching of Gogoshasp, and Afarg otherwise than the teaching of Soshyans. 4. And all those of the primitive faith rely upon these six teachings, and there are some who rely more weakly and some more strongly upon some of them.

Chapter 2

1. For in the third fargard chapter of the Vendidad of Medok-mah it is declared that when life is resigned without effort, at the time when the life departs, when a dog is tied to his foot, even then the nasa rushes upon it, and afterwards, when seen by it, the nasa is destroyed by it.

2. This is where it is stated which is the dog which destroys the nasa, the shepherd's dog, the village-dog, the blood-hound, the slender hound, and the rukunik; and as to the rukunik there have been divers opinions, as Vand-Ohrmazd asserted, from the teaching of Afarg, that it does not destroy it.

3. The dog destroys the Nasa at the time when it sees the flesh, and when it sees the hair or nails it does not destroy it.

4. A blind dog also destroys if at the time when it places a paw on the corpse; and when it places it upon the hair or nails it does not destroy it.

5. The birds which destroy the Nasa are three: the mountain kite, the black crow, and the vulture; the bird, moreover, destroys it at the time when its shadow falls upon it; when it sees it in the water, a mirror, or a looking-glass, it does not destroy it.

6. Vand-Ohrmazd said, where a pregnant woman is to be carried by two men, both are to be cleansed by the barashnom ceremony, and the head of the corpse, when they carry it away, is to be set towards the dakhma.