Chapter IV

This was the meaning of the term khvêtûk-das when this work was written, but some centuries ago such marriages were discontinued, and the term was then confined to marriages between first cousins, as at present (see Sacred Books of the East, vol. xviii, app. III).

Of which there are six, each held for five days. These Gâsânbârs or Gâhambârs end, respectively, on the 45th, 105th, 180th, 210th, 290th, and 365th days of the Parsi year; and when that year was fixed to begin at the vernal equinox, they celebrated the periods of midspring, midsummer, the beginning of autumn, the beginning of winter, midwinter, and the beginning of spring (see Sls. XVIII, 3). In modern times they have been supposed to commemorate the several creations of the sky, water, earth, vegetation, animals, and man; but this idea must have been borrowed from a foreign source.

The periodical ceremonies which are obligatory for all Parsis (see Dd. XLIV, 2 n).

Literally, 'for the producers of business.'

That is, for the priests. The Parsi-Persian version divides these good works into nine items, by counting next-of-kin marriage' as the third, and providing of lodging' as the seventh. For a fuller detail of good works, see Chap. XXXVII.