omitted.* Sacrifices were of frequent occurrence. Without mentioning
the extraordinary occasions on which a king would have a thousand bulls
slain at one time,** the Achæmenian kings killed each day a thousand
bullocks, asses, and stags: sacrifice under such circumstances was
another name for butchery, the object of which was to furnish the court
with a sufficient supply of pure meat. The ceremonial bore resemblance
in many ways to that still employed by the modern Zoroastrians of Persia
and India.

* A relic of this custom may be discerned in the expiatory
sacrifice decreed in the _Vendidad_: "He shall sacrifice a
thousand head of small cattle, and he shall place their
entrails devoutly on the fire, with libations."

** The number 1000 seems to have had some ritualistic
significance, for it often recurs in the penances imposed on
the faithful as expiation for their sins: thus it was
enjoined to slay 1000 serpents, 1000 frogs, 1000 ants who
steal the grain, 1000 head of small cattle, 1000 swift
horses, 1000 camels, 1000 brown oxen.

The officiating priest covered his mouth with the bands which fell from
his mitre, to prevent the god from being polluted by his breath; he held
in his hand the baresman, or sacred bunch of tamarisk, and prepared the
mysterious liquor from the haoma plant.* He was accustomed each morning
to celebrate divine service before the sacred fire, not to speak of the
periodic festivals in which he shared the offices with all the members
of his tribe, such as the feast of Mithra, the feast of the Fravashis,**
the feast commemorating the rout of Angrô-mainyus,*** the feast of the
Saksea, during which the slaves were masters of the house.****