woe, the world of hell, down into the deep abyss."

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If a man shall bury in the
earth either the corpse of a dog or the corpse of a man, and if he shall
not disinter it within half a year, what is the penalty that he shall
pay?

Ahura Mazda answered:--

"Five hundred stripes with the Aspahe-astra, five hundred stripes with
the Sraosho-karana."

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If a man shall bury in the
earth either the corpse of a dog or the corpse of a man, and if he shall
not disinter it within a year, what is the penalty that he shall pay?

Ahura Mazda answered:--

"A thousand stripes with the Aspahe-astra, a thousand stripes with the
Sraosho-karana."

O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! If a man shall bury in the
earth either the corpse of a dog or the corpse of a man, and if he shall
not disinter it within the second year, what is the penalty for it? What
is the atonement for it? What is the cleansing from it?

Ahura Mazda answered:--

"For that deed there is nothing that can pay, nothing that can atone,
nothing that can cleanse from it; it is a trespass for which there is no
atonement, forever and ever."

When is it so?

"It is so, if the sinner be a professor of the Religion of Mazda, or one
who has been taught in it. But if he be not a professor of the Religion
of Mazda, nor one who has been taught in it, then his sin is taken from
him, if he makes confession of the Religion of Mazda and resolves never
to commit again such forbidden deeds.

"The Religion of Mazda indeed, O Spitama Zarathustra! takes away from
him who makes confession of it the bonds of his sin; it takes away the
sin of breach of trust; it takes away the sin of murdering one of the
faithful; it takes away the sin of burying a corpse; it takes away the
sin of deeds for which there is no atonement; it takes away the worst
sin of usury; it takes away any sin that may be sinned. In the same way
the Religion of Mazda, O Spitama Zarathustra! cleanses the faithful from
every evil thought, word, and deed, as a swift-rushing mighty wind
cleanses the plain. So let all the deeds he doeth be henceforth good, O
Zarathustra! a full atonement for his sin is effected by means of the
Religion of Mazda."

CONTRACTS AND OUTRAGES[11]

"He that does not restore a loan to the man who lent it, steals the
thing and robs the man. This he doeth every day, every night, as long as