Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 4.djvu/266

168 49 (163). 'If those two dogs of mine, the shepherd's dog and the house-dog, pass by any of my houses, let them never be kept away from it.

'For no house could subsist on the earth made by Ahura, but for those two dogs of mine, the shepherd's dog and the house-dog '

50(166). O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! When a dog dies, with marrow and seed* dried up, whereto does his ghost go?

51 (167). Ahura Mazda answered: 'It passes to the spring of the waters ^ O Spitama Zarathunra ! and there out of them two water-dogs are formed : out of every thousand dogs and every thousand she- dogs, a couple is formed, a water-dog and a water she-dog.

52 (170). 'He who kills a water-dog brings about a drought that dries up pastures.

Until then, O Spitama Zarathurtra! sweetness and

'But for the dog not a single head of cattle would remain in existence ' (Saddar 31).

Marrow is the seat of life, the spine is 'the column and the spring of life' (Yt. X, 71); the sperm comes from it (Bundahis XVI). The same theory prevailed in India, where the sperm is called, 'what is born from marrow;' it was followed by Plato (Timaeus 74, 91; cf. Censorinus, De die natali, 5), and disproved by Aristotle (De Part. Anim. III, 7).

To the spring of Ardvt S^ra, the goddess of waters.

There is therefore in a single water-dog as much life and holiness as in a thousand dogs. This accounts for the following. — The water-dog (udra up4pa; Persian sag-tibt) is the otter.