Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/102

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
IN OLD IRÂN.
87

prove that next-of-kin marriages were actually practised in Irân even "in the later years of the Sâsânian monarchy." His statement only indicates that incestuous marriages were merely advocated[1] by one or more Pahlavi writers on account of their misapprehension of the Avestâ tenets, and also "with very little success."

Finally, in support of the view that even the genuine Pahlavi writings do not proclaim as meritorious a practice which in the eye of reason and culture is highly discreditable, I may be allowed to adduce a passage from the Seventh Book of the Dinkard, on the supernatural manifestations of Zoroaster's spiritual powers. This passage expressly ascribes to the Mazdakian followers the vicious practice of promiscuous intercourse between the sexes, denouncing those who indulged in it as of the nature of wolves or obnoxious creatures. Among the different divine revelations communicated to Zarathushtra by

  1. ↑ This may well be ascribed to the ignorance or erroneous notious of the subsequent Pahlavi copyists.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.