He will give a garment to the naked, and by so doing will wound Zemaka,
the demon of winter. He will never refuse food to the hungry labourer,
under pain of eternal torments, and his charity will extend even to
the brute beasts, provided that they belong to the species created by
Ahura-mazdâ: he has duties towards them, and their complaints, heard
in heaven, shall be fatal to him later on if he has provoked them.
Asha-vahista will condemn to hell the cruel man who has ill-treated the
ox, or allowed his flocks to suffer; and the killing of a hedgehog is
no less severely punished--for does not a hedgehog devour the ants
who steal the grain? The dog is in every case an especially sacred
animal--the shepherd's dog, the watchdog, the hunting-dog, even the
prowling dog. It is not lawful to give any dog a blow which renders him
impotent, or to slit his ears, or to cut his foot, without incurring
grave responsibilities in this world and in the next; it is necessary to
feed the dog well, and not to throw bones to him which are too hard, nor
have his food served hot enough to burn his tongue or his throat. For
the rest, the faithful Zoroastrian was bound to believe in his god, to
offer to him the orthodox prayers and sacrifices, to be simple in heart,
truthful, the slave of his pledged word, loyal in his very smallest
acts. If he had once departed from the right way, he could only return
to it by repentance and by purification, accompanied by pious deeds:
to exterminate noxious animals, the creatures of Angrô-mainyus and the
abode of his demons, such as the frog, the scorpion, the serpent or
the ant, to clear the sterile tracts, to restore impoverished land,
to construct bridges over running water, to distribute implements of
husbandry to pions men, or to build them a house, to give a pure and
healthy maiden in marriage to a just man,--these were so many means of
expiation appointed by the prophet.* Marriage was strictly obligatory,**
and seemed more praiseworthy in proportion as the kinship existing