Gate the twelfth. Let not the shroud of the deceased be new, but let it be clean and old.
Gate the thirteenth. The good man gives joy to the spirits of his father and mother, by celebrating the Darun miezd[477] and the Afernigán,[478] or “funereal “repasts.” The Darun is a prayer recited in praise of the Almighty and of Azar: when they breathe out prayers in a murmuring tone over viands, they are said to be Yeshtah. Afrinigan also means one of the twenty Nosks of the Zand.
Gate the fourteenth. Let them repeat the Ita Ahu three times over the collected nail-parings, and having each time drawn a circular line around them, let earth be poured on them with the shears, or let them be taken to some mountain.[479]
Gate the fifteenth. Whatever pleasing object meets the true believer’s sight, he repeats over it the name of God.
Gate the sixteenth. In the house of a pregnant woman keep the fire in without ceasing; and when the child is born, let not the lamp be extinguished during three days and nights.
They say that, on the birth of the prophet Zardusht, there came fifty demons with the design of slaying him; but they were unable to do him any injury as there was a fire kept up in the house.
Gate the seventeenth. On arising from sleep, bind the Kashti, without doing which enter upon no pursuit whatever.
Gate the eighteenth. Let the tooth-pick, after having been used, be concealed in a wall.
Gate the nineteenth. They give their son and daughter in marriage at an early period; as the person who has no son cannot pass over the bridge of Chinavad; let whoever is in that state adopts some one; if he should not find it feasible, it will then be incumbent on his relations and the Dustúr to fix on a son for him.
Gate the twentieth. They esteem husbandry the best of all professions, and regard the husbandman with respect and honor.