at feast of the dead amongst the
Eskimo on Bering Straits the feast makers make wiping motions,
stamp, and slap the thighs, in order to "cast off all uncleanness
that might be offensive to the shades," and thus to render their
sacrifices acceptable.[1780] The spirits amongst the Kwakiutl,
Chinooks, and their neighbors kill an unclean man. These people
have fastings and washings for purification.[1781]

+561. Uncleanness in higher religions.+ In the higher religions
the same notions of ritual cleanness were retained and developed.
Pious Zoroastrians could not travel by sea without great
inconvenience, because they could not help defiling the natural
element water, which they were forbidden to do.[1782] They were
forbidden to blow a fire with the breath, lest they should
defile the element fire, and they wore a covering over the mouth
when they approached the fire for any purpose. Parings of the
nails and cuttings of the hair were unclean. They would be
weapons for demons if they were not covered by rites and spells.
The menses of women were caused by the evil god Ahriman. A woman,
during the period, was "unclean and possessed by the demon. She
must be kept confined and apart from the faithful, whom her touch
would defile, and from the fire, which her very look would
injure. She was not allowed to eat as much as she wanted, as the
strength which she might acquire would accrue to the fiends. Her
food was not given to her from hand to hand, but passed to her
from a distance in a long leaden spoon." At childbirth, the
mother was unclean, in spite of the logic of the religion,
according to which she should be pure because she has increased
life. "The strength of old instincts overcame the drift of new
principles." [The old mores were too strong for the new
religion.] A woman who bears a dead child is a grave, and must be
ritually purified as such. Only to save her from death can she
drink water, which she would defile, and if it is given to her
she must undergo a penalty. These views go back to the notion
that she has been near death and has had the death fiend in her.
A great fire is lighted to drive off the demons.[1783] At this
day there is in the house of a Parsee a room for the monthly
seclusion of women. It is bare of all comforts and from it
neither sun, moon, stars, fire, water, or sacred implements, nor