" He
fights against falsehood by always being truthful. "The Persians,"
says Herodotus,[33] "consider nothing so shameful as lying, and after
falsehood nothing so shameful as contracting debts, for he who has
debts necessarily lies." He wars against death by marrying and having
many children. "Terrible," says the Zend-Avesta, "are the houses void
of posterity."
=Funerals.=--As soon as a man is dead his body belongs to the evil
spirit. It is necessary, then, to remove it from the house. But it
ought not to be burned, for in this way the fire would be polluted; it
should not be buried, for so is the soil defiled; nor is it to be
drowned, and thus contaminate the water. These dispositions of the
corpse would bring permanent pollution. The Persians resorted to a
different method. The body with face toward the sun was exposed in an
elevated place and left uncovered, securely fixed with stones; the
bearers then withdrew to escape the demons, for they assemble "in the
places of sepulture, where reside sickness, fever, filth, cold, and
gray hairs." Dogs and birds, pure animals, then come to purify the
body by devouring it.
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