BABYLON AND PERSIA

132 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA." Urge every one in the material worid, O Spitama Zarathush¬tra ! " Ahura-Mazda is made to say, " to pull down D.akhmas, Hewho should pull down thereof, even so much as the size of his ownbody, his sins in thought, word, and deed are atoned for. Not forhis soul shall the two spirits wage war with one another, and whenhe enters the blissful world, the stars, the moon, and the sun shallrejoice in him, and I, Ahura-Mazda, shall rejoice in him, saying:' Hail, O man ! thou who hast just passed from the decaying worldinto the undecaying one ! ' " (Vendidad, VII.)13. And yetsuch is the tyranny of circum¬stances only must the earth endure the pollu¬tion of Dakhmas, and men go on building them,but there may arise even worse complications, whichhave to be met in some way. There is no desecra¬tion, no calamity equal to the presence or vicinity ofa corpse ; but men die at all seasons, and what is tobe done in winterthose terribly severe winters ofCentral Asiawhen the Dakhma, built at a more orless considerable distance from the villages, cannotbe reached ? Zarathushtra places the case beforeAhura-Mazda, (Vendidad, Fargards V. and VIII.):" O maker of the material worid, thou Holy One ! If in thehouse of a Mazdayasnian a dog or a man happens to die, and it israining or snowing, or blowing, or the darkness is coming on, whenflocks and men lose their way, what shall the Mazdayasnians do?"Ahura-Mazda's instruction is, to choose the mostsequestered and driest spot near the house, at leastthirty paces from the water, the fire, and the inhabitedparts of the dwelling, and there temporarily to placethe body in a grave dug half a foot in the groundif it be frozen hard, or half the height of a man if itbe soft, covering the grave with dust of bricks, stones,dry earth :