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

CHAP. IV.] CONSECRATING A DOKHMA. 203

is in honour of Ardafrosh, @.e. the departed souls ; and the fifth is in honour of the seven Ameshaspends, ie. the archangels. These five “baj” ceremonies and prayers are supplications to the Almighty to the following effect:—“O Almighty (Ahura Mazda), though it is wrong to contaminate the ground with the bodies of the dead, we beseech Thee to permit us to occupy this enclosed piece of ground (Spendarmad), and no more, for laying the bodies of departed souls who, in obedience to Thy order, leave this world for the next.” It is with this object that the “tana” ceremony is performed. In carrying the thread round the nails care is taken that it does not touch the ground, which is intended to show that the bodies of the dead should not be placed directly on the earth, but on some superstructure. Then, again, iron nails are used, and not wooden pegs as in ordinary buildings, because of the religious prohibition against wood in anything connected with the dead, it bemg more porous than metal, and more likely to carry contagion from their bodies.

The ceremonies and prayers in connection with the consecration of the “dokhma” occupy four days. First of all, the structure is separated from the adjoining ground by digging all round it a “pavi” (a kind of trench) about half a foot deep and the same in width. Then in the centre of the “dokhma,”

that is, in the “bhandar,’ two priests perform the