Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/81

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NEXT-OF-KIN MARRIAGES.

"The greatest meritorious action is liberality, the second is truth and Khvêtûk-dasih, the third is the Gahânbâr, the fourth all the religious ritual, the fifth is the worship of the sacred beings." Here Khvêtûk-dasih, in connection with liberality and truth, might imply some moral habit almost equal to them in degree of excellence.

The Shâyast-La-Shâyast, Ch. VIII. 18, says: "Khvêtûk-dâd extirpates sins which deserve capital punishments." Also it is said by Ahura Mazda elsewhere:—"O Zaratosht! of all those thoughts, words and deeds, which I would proclaim, the practice of Khrêtûk-dasih is the best to be thought, to be performed, and uttered."

The Bahman Yasht, which may be regarded as one of the oldest Pahlavi works written on the exegesis of the Avestâ, gives us an idea of the term which best harmonizes with our notion regarding the meaning of Ys. XII. 9. It says in Chap. II. 57:—"O Creator! in that time of confusion" (i. e. after the conquest of Persia by the Arabs), "will there remain any people righteous?

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