Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/76

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IN OLD IRÂN.
61

on the term Khvêtûk-das. This learned scholar couches the result of his patient useful research in the following words:—

"Unless the Parsis determine to reject the evidence of such Pahlavi works as the Pahlavi Yasna, the book of Ardâ-Virâf, the Dinkard, and the Dâdistân-î-Dînîk, or to attribute those books to heretical writers, they must admit that their priests in the later years of the Sâsânian dynasty, and for some centuries subsequently, strongly advocated such next-of-kin marriages, though probably with little succes." (Vide S. B. E. Vol. XVIII., p. 428).

Thus, while Dr. West serves us as a useful champion to guard from any adverse stigma the sublime tenets of the Avesta regarding marriage, while he seems to doubt the authenticity of Greek historians as regards Persian matters (p. 389), we are deprived of his powerful support the moment we enter the field to defend ourselves against the obscure and detached evidences brought from Pahlavi tomes. Here I refer to the proofs which

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