Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/65

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NEXT-OF-KIN MARRIAGES.

fore, been our object to examine the evidence put forward in favour of the European stand-point of Ys. XII. 9, (Spiegel's edition, Ys. XIII. 28), which, it is assumed, contain under the word Qaêtvadatha an allusion to next-of-kin marriages in question.

In the Avestâ the term Qaêtvadatha occurs in five passages only, each of which belongs to five different parts of the text, excepting the Gâthâs, namely, Yasna XII. 9; Visperad III. 3; Vendidâd VIII. 13; Yasht. XXIV. 17; and Gâh IV. 8 (Westergaard's edition). Of these, the idea expressed in Gâh IV. is repeated or almost quoted in Visperad III. 3, and in Yasht XXIV. So we have only to consider three references in the Yasna, the Gâh and the Vendidâd respectively, and to see to what extent they can be used to throw light on the meaning of Qaêtvadatha. The word as it stands in the Avestâ is employed as an epithet or a qualifying word. In one place it forms an epithet of the Avestâ religion, in the second an attribute of a pious youth, in the third a qualification for a pious male or female.

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