Pahlavi Texts, Part III (SBE 24) · 146 of 187

Chapter LIX

1.The fifty-ninth subject is this, that, in the good and pure religion of the Mazda-worshippers, they have not commanded the women to perform the Nyâyises. 2. And their Nyâyises are these, that three times every day, at dawn, mid-day prayer, and evening prayer, they stand back in the presence of their own husbands, and fold their arms and speak thus: ‘What are thy thoughts, so that I may think them; what is necessary for thee, so that I may speak it; and what is necessary for thee, so that I may do it?’

3.For, any command, and whatever the husband orders, it is requisite to go about that day. 4. And, certainly, without the leave (riʓ̣â) of the husband she is to do no work, so that the Lord may be pleased with that wife. 5. For the satisfaction of the sacred being is in a reverence (yast) for the satisfaction of the husband; so that every time that they perform work by command of the husband they call them righteous in the religion; and if not, what do they call them?

320:2 Periodical salutations of the sun and moon (see Chap. VI, 2), fire and water.

320:3 Lp, B29 have ‘for.’

320:4 Literally ‘former, early.’

321:1 Lp has merely ‘is in,’ and B29 has ‘is connected with.’