BABYLON AND PERSIA

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 125the Hindus and so many Indo-European nations,would be the height of impiety, an inexpiable crime,involving no end of calamities to the whole country.Only one way is open : to let the bodies of the deadbe devoured by wild animals or birds. Such, in¬deed, is the law : the corpses shall be taken to adistance from human dwellings and holy things, ifpossible into the wilderness, where no men or cattlepass, and be exposed " on the highest summits,where they know there are always corpse-eating dogsand corpse-eating birds," and there be fastened bythe feet and by the hair with weights of brass, stone,or lead, lest the dogs and birds carry portions of theflesh or bones to the water and to the trees and thusdefile them. The worshippers of Mazda are enjoined," if they can afford it, to erect a building for thepurpose of exposing the dead, of stone and mortar,out of the reach of the dog, the wolf, the fox, andwherein rain-water cannot stay*; if they cannotafford it, they shall lay down the dead man on theground, on his carpet and his pillow, clothed withthe light of heaven {i. e., naked), and beholding thesun."-10. Such is the origin of the Dakhmas or Towersof Silence. We give the description of one ofthese unique cemeteries in the words of the dis-* This hast clause, like many other minute prescriptions, isfounded on the very correct conclusion that it is moisture which re¬tains and carries pollution infection, and must be considered as?sanitary provision. A corpse of a year's standing and dried up doe^,not pollute ; even the site of a Dakhma is pure once more, when thebones are reduced to dust ; for it is said ; " The dry minglesnot withthe dry."