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Rh

The fiend of death. As indicated etymologically by the root of the Avestan words maretan and mashya, man is mortal. This mortality applies to his material frame only. At death he dies in the flesh, but he lives forever in the spirit. Astovidhotu, literally 'the bone-divider,' who impersonates death, awaits all. When a man is burnt by fire or drowned in water, it is Astovidhotu who binds his breath and hastens him to an unnatural death. Man trembles at Astovidhotu's sight. The demon prowls with padded feet and silently creeps to capture his victim, pouncing upon him so suddenly that the unfortunate one remains unaware of his doom. He cannot be won over by favour or by bribe. He respects not rank or position, but he mercilessly captures all. Every one eagerly wishes to put off the moment of this catastrophe. No one prays for death before its time, and no one likes to hasten to the jaws of this all-devouring demon. The philosopher may speak of death with sublime resignation, the theologian may console himself by depicting death as the birth into a higher life, the mystic may long for the dissolution of the body as a heaven-sent liberation of the spirit, but the majority of humanity thirst for life and thirst for a long life. The death-toll which Astovidhotu exacts from the world is appalling. On that account Mithra and Sraosha are invoked by the faithful to protect them from the assaults of Astovidhotu, and Ahura Mazda's divine aid protects the child in its mother's womb from the onslaughts of this demon. The man who marries and rears a family, is hard-working, and nourishes his body with meat, is able the better to withstand Astovidhotu than a celibate.

This demon's work. The demon Vizaresha, 'the dragger away,' lies in wait for the wicked souls at the gate of hell, when justice is administered to the souls on the third night after the bodily deaths of men. No sooner do the heavenly judges pass