Chapter LXVIII
CHAPTER LXVIII.
1. The sixty-eighth subject is this, that for a menstruous woman who casts an eye upon a fire it is a sin of twelve dirhams in weight 4; and if she goes within three steps of the fire it is a sin of a thousand and two hundred dirhams 5 in weight for her; and when she puts her hand to the fire it is a sin of fifteen Tanâvars for her.
2. In like manner, if she takes a look at running water it is a sin of twelve dirhams in weight for her 6; if she goes within fifteen steps of running water it is a sin of fifteen dirhams in weight for her; and when she sits down in running water it is a sin of fifteen Tanâvars for her. 3. And when she walks in the rain, through every drop that drops upon her limbs there arises a sin of one Tanâvar for her.
4. If she comes to a Khûrshêd Nyâyis 7, to observe it, it is not proper for her to speak a word with a
righteous man 1. 5. It is not proper for her to put a bare foot on the ground. 6. It is not proper for her to eat any food with a bare hand; it is not proper for her to eat bread when satisfied 2. 7. It is not proper for two menstruous women to eat together; it is not proper for them to sleep so 3.
8. And so long as three days have not elapsed it is not proper to wash the hands 4, and three days after that, if she has perceived herself clean, it is requisite to remain another day, and so until the lapse of nine days, when, if she has perceived herself clean, it is not necessary to remain to the end of 5 another interval of time. 9. If menstruation occurs for twenty-nine days, it is necessary 6 to consider that she is menstruous a second time, and during three other days it is not proper to wash again, and it is necessary to exercise care, just like that which 7 I first wrote about.
10. If she be doubtful whether menstruation is come to her, it is requisite for her to strip off her dress, and then to take notice if she has become menstruous, or if the dress that is stripped off be clean. 11. If she has an infant to feed with her milk,
one puts away the dress from the infant, and gives it to the mother till it has fed on the milk, and then it is proper to give it to other persons. 12. It is pure, but when the mother washes her head she also washes 1 the head of the infant.
13. And it is necessary for a menstruous woman that she should not pass by the end of 2 anything ceremonially washed, for, if it be a thousand cubits (gaz) in length, she makes the whole of it polluted, and it becomes unclean. 14. With any one who holds a sacred-twig stand 3 she should not speak a word; and if a priest holds the sacred twigs in his hand, and a menstruous woman speaks some (ba’hʓ̣ê) words 4 from afar, or he walks within three steps of a menstruous woman, she makes it 5 unclean.
Footnotes
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This consists of two metal tripods with crescent-shaped tops, to support the small faggot of sacred twigs or wires that are bound together by a girdle of narrow strips of a date-palm leaflet; the girdle being tied on the faggot in the same manner as that on the waist of a Parsi (see Sls. III, 32 n). The sacred twigs must always be present at ceremonies, sometimes held in the hand of the officiating priest, and sometimes lying on their stand.
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