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Pahlavi Texts, Part IV (SBE37), E.W. West, tr. [1892], at sacred-texts.com
1. One section of the first thirty of the Sakâdûm 1 contains particulars about reward by command of the religion, the bridge judgment of the destroyers of the well-commanding, and the provision for their destruction. 2. About the importance of a man, after fifteen years of age and when he has heard that there is a law 2 which is good, having sought that law 2 by having enquired about it. 3. About a man's scrutinizing an action before doing it, when he does not know whether it be a sin or a good work,
and when it is possible for him to set it aside and not to do it.
4. About advice as to having entered into a house in the night by the light of a fire, or when one has noticed it in this place, though he goes elsewhere; also the watchful destruction of an injured person, or animal, or garment, and the retribution for the injury. 5. About the extent of any glitter of the sparks (zakhsh-1-î parkân), and the width and height of the doors of the constructed work of that appointed place of the fire.
6. About a new-born child, as to how one has to provide its place, connected lawfully with illumination 1, more particularly for the first three nights. 7. About bringing a fire to drive away the overpowering fiend, and making the child taste first the Hôm-juice, so far as collected within its precincts (varân), and, secondly, the butter of Maîdôk-zarem 2 which is to be brought forward for it; also the watchfulness of the father and mother over the child, and the extent of their retiring (navistanŏ) from the two sides of the new-born. 8. About lawfully-made places of several kinds for the child, the limits and manner of the mother's giving milk to the child, and whatever is on the same subject.
9. About carrying forth holy-water, or even a cooking-pot, to a fire, where the hands are purified and thoroughly washed; and the sin owing to an unpurified
hand, not thoroughly washed, carrying them forth. 10. About the preservation of the cooking-pot, and the rest of one's operations with the fire, from defilement; but when, through want of care, defilement occurs, by the inexperience of any one bringing it to the fire, he who is careless is thereby contaminated, and the cooking-pot is properly placed in its position.
11. Arranging about properly-made bed-places (gâsvârakŏ) in a house, those for children and those for adults; also a decision about a case when a carpenter (dûrgar) shall make a bed-place properly which one's own judgment considers improperly made, and when both consider it improperly, or when both consider it properly made; and more of whatever is on the same subject.
12. About what is the mode of producing seeing properly; and, when not seeing properly, the oculist (dîdpân) to intrust with it is he who informs people, who wish for it, how to extract the defect of sight; if not, the people go on and hurt; also the penalty for hurting, and whatever is on the same subject.
13. About the insubordination of those accustomed to work (kâr-khûgarân) to women and children; also that of a grown-up man who has been giving no food 1 three times in succession; he, too, it is who advanced the fourth time 2, because, owing to giving no food a fourth time, the man is he who has to accomplish work unrestrictedly; and whatever is on the same subject.
14. About the care of a pointed thing, that is, how it is to be carried to a dwelling in the world, how it is to be deposited, and the sin owing to keeping and depositing it otherwise. 15. And about every garment 1 and utensil, even including such as a scum-pot, an hour-glass, and a dining-tray; that is, how they are to be deposited in the dwelling, and the sin owing to variously 2 placing and taking care of them. 16. About a door which is properly made; how it is when it falls down, and a wound arises from it, the carpenter being innocent regarding it; and how it is when he is guilty.
17. About washing the head, the care of the water and the religious ritual therein, and whatever is on the same subject. 18. About the period for arranging the hair, in which they shave the hair. 19. About the shaving of a child the first time, and the ritual which is taught for it; the performance of shaving by an instructed barber and with a sharp razor, which is the appointed practice as regards the razor of adults, and that also for children with the children's razor, because it is settled healthfulness; his whetstone (sôn), and also the care of the razor. 20. About the number of the positions of a man, in which a barber can perform shaving, and that of the positions of the barber; and whatever is on the same subject.
21. About each one of those who are custodians (kîrûk-kârânŏ), and the rules of the market; also their abstaining from wounding each other with a pike (têkh), or other implement, with which they
shall perform their duty; likewise the sin owing to heedlessness. 22. About giving forth a pointed thing lawfully, and a wound owing to not giving it forth lawfully; lawfully taking and giving away a plate of broken victuals (padkhûr), and a wound owing to doing it unlawfully; and whatever is on the same subject. 23. About the appointed place (dâd-gâh) of a horse-course and its distance from the middle of a town, the nature of the horse-course, the training (farhâng) and masters of manœuvres (padân-î farhângânŏ) when in it, the shooting of arrows on the horse-course, and the wound which occurs to man or animal, how it is when culpable, and how it is when not culpable. 24. About admitting a listener; where, why, and how he is to be admitted; and the guilt or innocence as regards a wound owing to him.
25. About the mode of making a sacred thread-girdle 1, and the harm from an unusual formation of it. 26. About lawfully tying it, without the culpability (vazagîh) of unauthorised action; also when they do not tie it lawfully, but the girdling is knotted (viragî-aîtŏ) and twisted owing to culpability (vazagânîh); and whatever is on the same subject.
27. About lawfully scratching with the nails, and the harm from unlawfully scratching. 28. About lawfully attending to a fire on the road; and, when one arrives at a ford through water, the sin which arises, as to fire, from not lawfully caring about the fire.
29. About warriors who mingle together in panic (mazangîh) and darkness; injury happens to one
from the other, and the statement of the account published is that there was a state of terror; also whatever is on the same subject. 30. About the march of an army which is in fear, and that which is in a state of fearlessness which is the distinction of the army of Irân from those of foreigners. 31. About lawfully and habitually requiring a share, and the harm from unlawfully and unhabitually requiring it.
32. About carrying firewood, brought away from the hills, into the house; depositing it at first by the tongs (dast-pânakŏ); watching, turning, and inspecting it, and carrying it away to the fire; that is, how to do it lawfully, the sin owing to unlawfully performing it, and whatever is on the same subject. 33. About lawfully warming bull's urine 1 by the fire, and the sin when it is not lawfully done.
34. About selecting a pasture, one ranked above the others; that is, how to do it lawfully, the sin when one shall do it otherwise, and, owing to that, he is really injured, or occasions injury. 35. About what is the mode of construction of a lawfully-formed farm-house (dast-kadakŏ), the dwelling of the people, and the place of the beasts of burden and cattle; also the sin when one shall construct it otherwise, and, owing to that, he is really injured, or occasions injury.
36. A decision about a case when one person has lawfully to force away a beast of burden from a control unlawfully exercised, and another person intrudes unauthorisedly, and vexes the district authorities (pad-dihânân). 37. Also when being done unlawfully,
and the beast being away from its control unlawfully exercised, the other person intrudes lawfully; and when both persons act unlawfully, or when both act lawfully. 38. About lawfully tying, whereby things are hung up; and the sin when, through an unlawfully-tied fastening, anything is injured, or occasions injury. 39. About unlawfully keeping horses in a stable (âkhûr), and the sin owing to the unlawfulness. 40. And, as regards the cutting of trees and shrubs, where and how it is lawfully done, and the harm and sin owing to not lawfully cutting. 41. About the mode of washing clothing, and the sin owing to different modes. 42. About the mode of walking in, and the sin owing to unusual walking in. 43. About the custom of a man of the sagacious (dânâkvarân) on passing through water, and the harm and sin owing to acting otherwise.
44. About the kinds of canals (nâî) 1 and fords, from those for two men passing, up to those for many; the dimensions of those which are large, and how much they are each separately sunk into the ground, without collecting water, when the ground is hard, and how much when it is soft. 45. The extent of their outer 2 banks, and the inspection as to the banks when the water is brackish, warm, and flowing; how far when outside of the water, and how far when in the water. 46. When it is brackish, cold, and flowing; or brackish, warm, and stagnant; or sweet, warm, and flowing; how far when in the water, and how far when outside. 47. And, when
brackish, cold, and stagnant; or sweet, cold, and flowing; or sweet, warm, and stagnant; how far when in the water, and how far when outside of the water. 48. What is the customary operation as regards the inspection of the banks; how is the stagnation (astînîdanŏ) within a pool dammed up (zarêh-stânŏ-aê), and the stone-work inside, from the canal which is for ten men passing, up to that for many; and how is the damming up inside of the canal, the stagnation within the pool dammed up, or the reedy jungle (vêsakŏ) when distributed and it becomes tall.
49. What are the mode and means of maintaining the supervision of a canal; which is that which one should maintain over the water of the canal when half is distributed, or, when not, one-third; and which is that when one-third is distributed, or, when not, one-fourth; a supervision which is animate or inanimate, and after those which are inanimate means are provided 1, the former animate ones are then at rest; and the harm and sin when they shall act otherwise. 50. And, as regards the same, what is the mode of passage of animals of various species, by swimming across the water; and the sin, owing to acting otherwise, when harm occurs. 51. About the trampling down at a ford through water, when one is newly completing it, and when the water is brackish and flowing, when it is brackish and stagnant, when it is sweet and flowing, and when it is sweet and stagnant; the reason of passing through on it, and such and such ways for proceeding at
will thereon; so, also, observation as to the water which has remained behind for flowing, and the harm and sin when one does not properly observe it, but walks on.
52. About two of the warriors who meet together on the road, which of them was busy about the protection of his horse, and which about the preparation of food; also the usage and other things in similar matters. 53. The sin of having eaten food for refreshment on the road, that is, how the custom is a sin when they can act otherwise.
54. About the remedies for sheep and beasts of burden which reinfuse fresh life; and the extent of keeping the sheep, goat, cow, mare, ass, pig 1, and woman with the male. 55. About beasts of burden, sheep (anûmâânŏ), and women, for whom, on account of contraction of orifice, there is a use of means for making it not painful (atûtakŏ). 56. About the extent of the distance of a male beast from the female when it is necessary to be watchful. 57. About the distance that a man has to remove an ox that has destroyed some concealed hay (barkasag giyah) which is the hay of others, when they quarrel with him; how it is when it is allowable to bring the ox back to his home; and whatever is on the same subject.
58. About the security of a man from the death (aôsh) of his fathers, and danger having arisen for him from a mouth of bad omen. 59. About the sin of a father owing to a child, when, being given by him to an ill-behaved person 2, he calls it and, when
it comes, there may occur the sin of unlawfully terrifying sheep, and the beast of burden is beaten; and whatever is on the same subject. 60. About bringing 1 a plant which is a medicinal herb, and whatever is on the same subject.
61. About a sociable feast (ham-myâzdîh) with idolators, that is, how it is when held authorisedly, and how it is when it is not; and, when one gives the sociable feast, how it is when they are to be considered unhonoured, and how it is when they are to be considered more honoured even than the Irânians. 62. And about the broken victuals which the idolators have eaten and drunk therein.
63. About the proportion of meat with the bread in atonement for deprival of food 2. 64. About an ordeal which is severe, and one which is not severe; and the evidence of acquittal from the achievement thereof. 65. About the secrets of the religion, and the sin owing to their being disclosed (gushûftŏ). 66. About the sin of speaking evil words to the wives of others. 67. About the extent of the most inferior house, village, community, and province; and that of the most superior. 68. And about what was the mode of residence of Frashôstar and Gâmâsp 3 in a plundering (lâîskar) army, and their habits.
121:1 Corresponding to the eighteenth word, yim, in the Ahunavair, according to E. P. Riv.; but it is the nineteenth Nask in other Rivâyats. This name, which is here written like Zakî-hat-min, should probably be Zîk-aît-tûm, meaning 'the most intimate concerns,' as the Nask refers chiefly to personal and family law; but it is called Askâram, or Sakadâm, in the Rivâyats, which also state that it contained fifty-two kardah, fargards, or vêdast; thus agreeing with the total of the sections mentioned in Chaps. XXXVIII, XLI.
121:2 It is possible to read yêdatô, 'sacred being,' instead of dâdŏ, 'law.'
122:1 To protect it from the demons who are supposed to be specially dangerous during the first three nights.
122:2 Equivalent to 'mid-spring butter,' the Av. maidhyô-zaremaya, 'mid-verdure,' being the season corresponding to the middle of the second Parsi month, which was early in May when the year commenced at the vernal equinox (see Bd. XXV, 6, 21).
123:1 See Chap. XVII, 6.
123:2 This passage appears to refer to that quoted in Farh. Oîm, p. 38, ll. 8, 9; though the latter part of Chap. XLI, 19 is more applicable to ll. 4-8 of the same page.
124:1 Or gâmak may mean 'a cup.'
124:2 Reading min gûnagîhâ.
125:1 See Dd. XXXIX, 1 n.
126:1 Intended for ceremonial purification.
127:1 For irrigation.
127:2 Reading virûnag, but the word is miswritten nîrang-î.
128:1 In the shape of sluices for regulating the supply of water for irrigation.
129:1 Instead of khar va-khazûrâ, the MS. has khôr va-zak-î ras.
129:2 Assuming that minênamakŏ-1 stands for apênamakŏ-1; p. 130 the copyist having mistaken ap for az, and substituted the Zvâris equivalent min for the latter which he supposed was a separate word.
130:1 Or 'abstracting.'
130:2 See Chaps. XVII, 6, XXXVII, II.
130:3 Two brothers who were contemporaries of Zaratûst. Frashôstar was his father-in-law, and Gâmâsp was prime minister of king Vistâsp.