Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/107

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NEXT-OF-KIN MARRIAGES.

piety and participation in private and public ceremonials a blessing. Moreover, the prayer of an Irânian maiden imploring the yazata Vayu for a husband, does not at all allude to any desire for marrying a next-of-kin relation, but simply an Irânian youth who may be valiant, wise and learned:—

"Grant us this grace, that we may obtain a husband, a youthful one, one of surpassing beauty, who may procure us sustenance as long as we have to live with each other; and who will beget of us offspring; a wise, learned, ready-tongued husband" (vide my C. E. Ir. p. 61; Yt. XV. 40.)

Further, there is no trace to next-of-kinship in Vendidâd, Chap. XIV., where one of the meritorious acts of a Zoroastrian priest or layman, is to give his daughter in marriage to any pious Mazdayasna. It is characteristic that wherever the subject of marriage is alluded to in the Avesta, the word Qaêtvadatha is never mentioned. It is also to be remembered that Zarathushtra having six childern born to him, three sons and three

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