BABYLON AND PERSIA

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 139treatments in use in ancient Chaldea and later Baby¬lon.*The fees are all valued in kind : oxen, asses, mares,camels, sheep,and graded according to the rank an'dwealth of the patient, so that while " he shall healthe lord of aprovince (a king) for the value of achariot and four," "he shall heal a sheep for thevalue of a meal of meat,"for the duties of a physi¬cian were not separated from those of a veterinarysurgeon.The only fee required of a priest was " aholy blessing."21. Not the least peculiar feature of the Vendidadlegislation is the exceeding honor paid to the dog.We have repeatedly seen the dog associated withman, asequally sacred, possessing equal rights torespect, in such phrases as :" The corpse of a dog ora man " ; " the murder of a dog or a man." But thatis not enough ; we find several chapters devoted tothe treatment of the animal in health or sickness,and the explanation of this extreme solicitude isplaced in the mouth of Ahura-Mazda himself:" The dog, O Spitama Zarathushtra ! I, Ahura-Mazda have madeself-clothed and self-shod, watchful, wakeful, and sharp-toothed,born lo take his food from man and to watch over man's goods. Ihave made the dog strong of body against the evil-doer and watch¬ful over your goods, when he is of sound mind. And whosoever shallawake at his voice, neither shall the thief nor the wolf steal any thingfrom his house wilhout being warned ; the wolf shall be smitten andtorn to pieces ; he is driven away, he flees away. . . .If those two dogs of mine, the shepherd's dog and thehouse-dog pass by the house of any of my faithful people, let themnever be kept away from it.For no house could subsist on the earth* See " Story of Chaldea," p 163.