Chapter IX
CHAPTER IX.
1. The greater Hâsar is one part in twelve parts of the day and night, and the lesser Hâsar is one part in eighteen parts 3.
2. The priest (âsrûk) who passes away in idolatry 1 (aûzdâyakîh) thou hast considered as desolate (vîrân) 2; and there is a high-priest (dastôbar) who is of a different opinion, there is one who says he is as a non-Iranian (anâîrân) country 3. 3. It is declared that, when a supreme high-priest (zaratûstrotûm) passes away in idolatry, an apostate (aharmôk) will be born in that dwelling, and a rumour of this calamity is uttered 4 by that supreme high-priest.
4. In order to be steadfast in the good religion it is to be discussed with priests and high-priests, and when one does not discuss it is proper that he do not teach it.
5. The ceremonial worship (yazisn) which they perform in a fire-temple 1, when not done aright, does not reach unto the demons; but that which they perform in other places, when they do not perform it aright, does reach unto the demons; for there is no medium in worship, it reaches either unto the angels or unto the demons. 6. Of a man who has relinquished a bad habit, and through his good capabilities engages in renunciation of sin 2, the good work advances unto the future existence.
7. Any one who shall die in a vessel (kastîk) it is allowable, for fear of contamination (padvîshak), to throw into the water; some say that the water itself is the receptacle for the dead (khazânîh).
8. This, too, is declared: 'When in the dark it is not allowable to eat food; for the demons and fiends seize upon one-third of the wisdom and glory of him who eats food in the dark;' and it is declared by that passage (gînâk) which Aûharmazd spoke to Zaratûst, thus: 'After the departure of the light let him not devour, with unwashed hands, the water and vegetables of Horvadad and Amerôdad 3; for if after the departure of the light thou devourest, with unwashed hands, the water and vegetables of Horvadad and Amerôdad, the fiend seizes away from thee two-thirds of the existing original wisdom
which, when he seizes it away, is the glory and religion which are auspicious. for thee that day, so that diligence becomes a vexation this day 1.'
9. In a passage of the fifth fargard of the Pâzôn Nask 2 it is declared that one mentions these characteristics
of four kinds of worship of the celestial beings (yazdân):—one is that whose Avesta is correct, but the man is bad; the second is that whose Avesta is faulty (zîfânŏ) 1, but the man is good; the third is that whose Avesta is correct, and the man is good; and the fourth is that whose Avesta is faulty and the man is bad. 10. That whose Avesta is correct, but the man bad, the archangels will approach and will listen to, but do not accept; that whose Avesta is faulty, but the man good, the archangels and angels 2 will approach, but do not listen to, and will accept; that whose Avesta is correct, and the man good, the archangels and angels will approach, will come to, will listen to, and will accept; that whose Avesta is faulty, and the man bad, they do not approach, do not listen to, and do not accept.
11. In every ceremonial (yazisnŏ), at the beginning of the ceremony 3, and the beginning of the sacred-cake consecration (drôn) 4, the angels and guardian spirits of the righteous are to be invited to the ceremony. 12. When they invoke the angels they will accept the ceremony, and when they do
not invoke them, all the guardian spirits of the righteous are to be invoked at the beginning of 'staomi 1;' and when not, they watch until the words 'frashô-karethrãm saoshyantãm 2,' and when they shall invoke them there they will accept the ceremony; and when not, they will watch until the words 'vîspau fravashayô ashaonãm yazamaidê 3,' and when they shall invoke them there they will accept 4 the ceremony; and when not, they will watch until the words 'tauskâ yazamaidê 5;' and when they invoke them 6 at the threefold 'ashem vohû' and the word 'dâmanãm 7,' at the twice-told 'aokhtô-nâmanô 8,' the 'ashâd hakâ 9', or the 'yâtumanahê gasaiti 10,'
they will accept 1; and when not, they go up the height of a spear (nîzak) and will remain. 13. And they speak thus: 'This man does not understand that it will be necessary even for him 2 to go from the world, and our prayer (apistân) is for reminding men; it is not that our uneasiness arises from this, that we are in want of their ceremony, but our uneasiness arises from this, that when, they do not reverence and do not invoke us, when evil comes upon them it is not possible for us to keep it away.'
14. ''O creator! how much is the duration in life of him who is dead?' And Aûharmazd spoke thus:, As much as the wing of a fly, O Zaratûst the Spîtâmân! or as much as the hearing a wing unto a sightless one 3.'
Footnotes
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The Hâsar is not only a measure of distance (see Bund. XXVI, 1), but also a measure of time (see Bund. XXV, 5). According to the text here the greater Hâsar must be two hours, and the lesser Hâsar (which is not mentioned in M6) must be one hour and twenty minutes. But Farh. Okh. (P. 43) says, 'dvada-sang-hâthrem asti aghrem ayare, "of twelve Hâsars is the p. 309 longest day;" the day and night in which is the longest day are twelve of the greatest Hâsars, eighteen of the medium, and twenty-four of the least;' according to which statement there are three kinds of Hâsar, that are respectively equivalent to two hours, one hour and twenty minutes, and one hour. As the longest day is said (Bund. XXV, 4) to be twice the length of the shortest day, and the greatest Hâsar is twice the length of the least one, it may be conjectured that the Hâsar varied with the length of the day, being a subdivision (one-eighth) of the time the sun was above, the horizon; this would account for the greatest and least Hâsars, which are one-eighth of the longest and shortest days, respectively; but it does not account for the medium Hâsar, which is not a mean between the two extremes, but one-ninth (instead of one-eighth) of the mean day of twelve hours. If the Hâsar of distance were really a Parasang, as is sometimes stated, the connection between it and the Hâsar of time would be obvious, as the average Hâsar of one hour and twenty minutes is just the time requisite for walking a Parasang, which seems indeed to be stated in Farh. Okh. p. 42.
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This was the sixth nask or 'book' of the complete Mazdayasnian literature, according to the Dînkard, which calls it Pâzî or Pâzag; but according to the Dînî-vagarkard and the Rivâyats it was the seventh nask, called Pâgam. For its contents, as given by the Dînî-vagarkard, see Haug's Essays, pp. 128, 129. The following is a short summary of the account of it given in the eighth book of the Dînkard (that published in the Pahl.-Pâz. Glossary, pp. 18 4, 185, being taken from the fifteenth nask, whose contents were mixed up with those of the seventh through the abstraction of several folios from the Iranian MS. of the Dînkard before M13, or any other copy, was written in India):—
The Pâzî (or Pâzag) is about the lawful slaughtering of animals in the ceremonial rites of fire and water at the season-festivals; also where, when, and how the festivals are to be celebrated, their advantages, and the duties of the officiating priests. The rotation of days, months, and years, summer and winter, the ten days at the end of the winter, when the guardian spirits visit the world, and the ceremonies to be then performed. The time for gathering medicinal plants. The retribution necessary for the various sins affecting the soul, the advantage of providing for such retribution, and the harm from not providing it. The thirty-three principal chiefs of the spiritual and worldly existences. The miracles of great good works, and the heinous sinfulness of apostasy. How far a wife can give away her husband's property, and when it is lawful for him to recover it. Whither winter flees when summer comes on, and where summer goes when winter comes on. The amount of disaster (vôighn) in one century, and the duration of everything connected with such disaster. The summer and winter months, the names of the twelve months, their meaning, and the angels they are devoted to; also the thirty days of the month, and the five Gâtha days at the end of the year, when the guardian spirits are to be reverenced.
The fifth fargard, quoted in the text, was probably that portion of the Nask which described the duties of the officiating priests.
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This appears to be the complete translation of the Avesta sentence partially quoted in Pahl. Vend. VIII, 64: 'yatha makhshyau perenem, yatha vâ perenahê,' &c. The last clause is doubtful; the reading adopted here is kand zak-i shinavâk-i par andarg avênâk, as nothing more satisfactory suggests itself; it might also be translated by 'as much as the sound of a wing in the invisible.'