Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/28

 reptiles in general, and certain birds. In some cases it was permitted to the subject to take the law into his own hands and to slay the guilty person on the spot. Such culprits were the highwayman, the sodomite, the prostitute, and anyone caught in the act of burning a corpse. On the whole, however, capital punishment was infrequent, and almost any trespass, even murder, could be atoned for by making a money payment to the Magi.

In the sociology of Mazdeism the strangest phenomenon that developed itself was the tenet that affinity by blood was the highest requisite in a marriage contract. This principle was inculcated by the priests to an extreme degree, so that the closer the relationship the more acceptable was the union affirmed to be in the eyes of the Deity. Not only could brother and sister marry under religious sanction, but