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

238 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. V.

about this ceremony. It is intended for the purification of man’s body and soul. A great deal of importance is attached in the Avesta books to the purity of body as well as to the purity of mind. The candidate is required to undergo certain ablutions, wherein he has to apply to his body cow-urine and sand or clay, which seem to have been the most common and cheapest disinfectants known to the ancient Iranians, and then to wash his body with water. He afterwards goes to a fire-temple, where he has to pass his time in prayers and religious contemplation. During this time he is not to touch any man, water, fire, and vegetation. In this pious and secluded retreat he is to remain nine days and nights, washing his body twice during the interval, once on the fourth day and again on the seventh, On the tenth day the Bareshnum ceremony is over, when he is free to go about as he likes and mix with the people.

In order to attain to the priestly dignity of a Navar the candidate goes through two periods of retreat with Bareshnum, six days of retreat at his own house, and the final initiatory ceremony, which lasts for four days, in the fire-temple. Two priests

' For full details and for a plan of the Bareshnum gah (the place where the candidate undergoes this ceremony) the reader is referred to the Appendix to Dr. West’s translation of the Pehleyi texts, Part II. (vol. xviii.) of Max Miiller’s series of the Sacred Books of the East.