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chapter of the Vedidad, and modern scholarship had accepted that view; but in their polemics with the missionaries the Parsi scholars explained the opening of the chapter by asserting that the act of Ormazd in creating Iran Vej, the first region of the world, was to be interpreted as a mere figurative expression for religious faith, and Ahriman's counter creation of winter was emblematic of infidelity. Similarly, the various places said to have been created by Ormazd indicated man's body, and the obnoxious creatures of Ahriman signified man's evil passions.^[1] Another instance of the same kind of interpretation may be cited. Druj Nasu, or the Demon of Defilement is spoken of in the Vendidad as taking possession of a man who has touched the corpse of a dog or a man,^[2] and a minute description is given as to how the demon is successively driven out from the top of the head of the defiled person to the tips of his toes, as the ablution ceremony is being performed. This rite was criticized as being revolting to common sense.^[3] Instead of defending it on hygienic principles, the learned controversialists again expatiated upon the mystic significance of the text, and alleged that the whole ceremony referred to the internal purification of man, and that Nasu represented his evil nature, while the successive expulsion of the fiend from one part of the body to the other, until finally eradicated, meant the gradual improvement of a man's character.^[4] Zoroastrianism teaches that the sin of burying corpses is inexpiable.^[5] The pulling down of the dakhmas, wherein lie interred the dead bodies of such men, is a means of the expiation of one's sins in thought, word, and deed; and is equivalent to the recital of a Patit.^[6] Responding to a criticism on this passage, recourse was again taken to declare it as couched in mysterious language. It was curiously explained to mean that the dakhma referred to the body of man, the corpse stood for his evil passions, its disinterment meant the expulsion of the evil propensities, and the final exposure to the light of the sun signified the enlightenment of the inner man by the divine wisdom.^[7]