Pahlavi Texts, Part III (SBE 24) · 134 of 187

Chapter XLVII

1.The forty-seventh subject is this, that, when a child of seven years shall die, an order is necessary that it is requisite to perform a ceremony (yast) for Srôsh on account of it, and to consecrate the sacred cake of the fourth night.

2.For it says in revelation that the souls of children go with the souls of their fathers and mothers; if the father is fit for heaven the child goes to heaven with him, if he be fit for hell it arrives in hell; if the mother be fit for heaven it reaches heaven with her, if she be fit for hell it reaches hell with her.

3.Therefore, every time that they accomplish the ceremony for Srôsh, the soul of that child becomes separated from the souls of its father and mother, and goes to heaven, and is imploring intercession (sifâ’hat) for its father and mother in the presence of the sacred beings in that other world.

310:1 See Mkh. II, 115 n.

310:2 That is, most of the ceremonies requisite after the death of an adult, as detailed in Chap. LXXXVII, are also to be performed in this case, for the reason here given.

310:3 Lp omits these twenty-three words.