BABYLON AND PERSIA

134- MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.nates in strange anomalies, when applied with thetenacious but one-sided logic of the race :thus it isonly the corpses of Mazdayasnians and animals be¬longing to the good creation of Ahura which defilethe elements and endanger the living.The corpseof a Khrafstra is harmless :" as its life was incarnatedeath, the spring of life that was in it is dried upwith its last breath ; it killed while alive, it can doso no more when dead it becomes clean by dying."The same is said of an Ashemaogha or heretic.(Vendidad, V.)16. Very nearly one half of the Vendidad isfilled with prescriptions about purification andatonementfor every kind of uncleanness, involun¬tary or unavoidably incurred. Sickness of everykind is looked upon in the light of possession, andthe sick, accordingly, are treated more like criminalsthan suffering brethren :sequestered in rooms builtfor the purpose, away from the fire, from the lightof the sun, nourished sparingly, asthe food theytook would strengthen the fiend who has taken uphis abode in them, scarcely permitted to touchwater evento drink, for fear of defiling the pureclement, unapproached by the inmates save in case ofabsolute necessity and with humiliating precautions,-^such as having the food passed to them in ladleswith very long handles,and covered.- with coarseclothes thriftily kept on purpose for such occasions.17. Thriftiness, indeed, is enjoined on the faithfulas a matter of salvation :" Ahura-Mazda does not allow us to waste any thing of value thatwe may have, not even so much as. a small silver coin's weight of