Pahlavi Texts, Part III (SBE 24) · 120 of 187

Chapter XXXIII

1. The thirty-third subject is this, that, when there is a place and any risk or fear exists that a corpse is concealed beneath the ground, one is to make it apparent and visible, because it is a great good work.

2. For it is declared in the good religion, that, when they conceal a corpse beneath the ground, Spendârmad, the archangel, shudders; it is just as severe as a serpent or scorpion would be to any one in private sleep, and is also just like that to the ground. 3. When thou makest a corpse beneath the ground as it were apparent, thou makest the ground liberated from that affliction.

294:2 Or 'dead matter.'

294:3 B29 has 'it is necessary to make it apparent.'

294:4 Av. spenta ârmaiti, 'bountiful devotion,' the female archangel who is supposed to have special charge of the earth (see Sls. XV, 20-24).

294:5 B29 has 'in a sleeping garment.'