History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

cHar.uL] ZHE DAYS OF THE MONTH. 135

taries (ministers), and other functionaries of the state, and to award them their salaries; to call into his presence venial but loyal offenders, and to lighten in due measure the weight of their penalties, and to pardon those who are deserving of clemency. ‘This day would be also propitious for great men to be generous towards their inferiors, or to entrust to them vocations according to their choice; to add to the almshouses for darvishes; to alleviate the misery and check the oppression and injustice practised against the needy ; and it is desirable to take measures for their assistance and to look after them, and to keep them in a decent condition by giving them adequate recompense for their labours.

“5. On the day of Spendarmad it is good to solicit the hand of a woman, to take her as a bride to one’s own house, to remove into a new house or residence, to repair an old mansion, to carry on agriculture and to render the soil thereby fertile. The work that is begun on this day requires a long time for its completion. Those who are born on this day are very appropriately characterised by patience, mental skill, contentment, grandeur, and liberality.

“6 The day of Khordad is good for purifying and adorning the body, for raising a new fountain, for digging a fresh well, for laying open a new road, for the gratuitous distribution of water, and for storing water and crops, which bring prosperity. In all