Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/99

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NEXT-OF-KIN MARRIAGES.

question, I believe, expressly points to an instance of the dependent condition of women not unknown to the Zoroastrian community, of unmarried sisters or daughters being wholly supported in life by parents, a brother or even a brotherin-law, as well as to an extreme case of rigid seclusion on the part of Virâf, and of his austere exercise of acts of piety, devotion, and self-denial.

The other passage which is assumed by the English translator to be a reference to the marriage of father and daughter, and "too clear," according to him, "to admit of mistake, though the term Khvêtûk-das is not mentioned," is cited from the middle of the Veheshtûk-Yasht Fargard of the Bagân Nask. The contents of this Fargard are summarized in a Pahlavi version of it, and found about the end of the Dinkard. Regarding this ambiguous citation, it may be observed that it admits of more than two significations, the choice between which is made to suit the particular construction and interpretation

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