# Vendidad — Chapter 17

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Avesta.org. The Vendidad, Chapter 17, translation: L.H. Mills / J. Darmesteter (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887), Avesta.org. License: Public domain (translation predates 1928).
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> AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 17.
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> AVESTA: VENDIDAD (English): Fargard 17. Hair and nails.
> 
> This digital edition prepared by Joseph H. Peterson, 1995; updated Jul 4, 2001.
> 
> Translated by James Darmesteter, from Sacred Books of the
> East, American edition, volume 3, New York, 1898.
> 
> Anything that has been separated from the body of man is considered
> dead matter (nasu), and is accordingly unclean. As soon as hair
> and nails are cut off, the demon takes hold of them and has to
> he driven away from them by spells, in the same way as he is from
> the bodies of the dead.
> 
> On similar views and customs in different countries, see Notes
> and Queries, 3rd series, X, 146; Aulus Gellius, X, 15, 15;
> Méusine, 1878, pp.79, 549, 583; L. de Rosny, Histoire des
> dynasties divines, 308.
> 
> FARGARD 17. Hair and nails.
> 
> I.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> 1. Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda: 'O Ahura Mazda, most beneficent
> Spirit, Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Which is the
> most deadly deed whereby a man offers up a sacrifice to the Daevas1?'
> 
> 1. Any offense to religion is considered an offering to the Daevas,
> whose strength is thereby increased. See Yt5.95.
> 
> 2. Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is when a man here below, combing
> his hair or shaving it off, or paring off his nails, drops them2
> in a hole or in a crack3.
> 
> 2. Without performing the requisite ceremonies.
> 
> 3. Doubtful.
> 
> 3. 'Then by this transgression of the rites, Daevas are produced
> in the earth; by this transgression of the rites, those Khrafstras
> are produced in the earth which men call lice, and which eat up
> the corn in the corn-field and the clothes in the wardrobe.
> 
> 4. 'Therefore, thou, O Zarathushtra! whenever here below thou
> shalt comb thy hair or shave it off, or pare off thy nails, thou
> shalt take them away ten paces from the faithful, twenty paces
> from the fire, thirty paces from the water, fifty paces from the
> consecrated bundles of Baresma.
> 
> 5. 'Then thou shalt dig a hole, a disti4 deep if the earth be
> hard, a vitasti deep if it be soft; thou shalt take the hair down
> there and thou shalt say aloud these victorious words:
> 
> "For him, as a reward, Mazda made the plants grow up5."
> 
> 4. A dishti = ten fingers. A vitasti = twelve fingers.
> 
> 5. [at ah'yâi ashâ mazdå urvarå vaxshat.]
> 
> See above, Vd11.6; the choice of this line
> was determined by the presence of the word plants in it: man
> was considered a microcosm, and every element in him had its
> counterpart in nature; the skin is like the sky, the flesh is
> like the earth, the bones are like the mountains, the veins are
> like the rivers, the blood in the body is like the water in the
> sea, the hair is like the plants, the more hairy parts are like
> the forests (Gr. Bund.) Cf. Rig-veda X, 16,3;
> Ilias VII, 99; Empedocles, fr. 378; Epicharmus
> ap. Plut. Consol. ad Apoll. 15; Edda, Grimnismal; 40.
> 
> 6. 'Thereupon thou shalt draw three furrows with a knife of metal
> around the hole, or six furrows or nine, and thou shall chant
> the Ahuna-Vairya three times, or six, or nine.
> 
> II.
> 
> 7. 'For the nails, thou shalt dig a hole, out of the house, as
> deep as the top joint of the little finger; thou shalt take the
> nails down there and thou shalt say aloud these victorious words:
> 
> "The things that the pure proclaim through Asha and Vohu-mano6."
> 
> 6. [ashâ vohû mananghâ ýâ
> sruyê parê magaonô.]
> 
> Yasna 33.7; understood (with
> a play upon the word sruyê 'is heard,' and 'nails of both hands')
> as: 'O Asha, with Vohu-mano, the nails of the pure [are for you].'
> 
> 8. 'Then thou shalt draw three furrows with a knife of metal
> around the hole, or six furrows or nine, and thou shalt chant
> the Ahuna-Vairya three times, or six, or nine.
> 
> 9. 'And then:
> 
> "O Asho-zushta bird7! these nails I announce
> and consecrate unto thee. May they be for thee so many spears
> and knives, so many bows and falcon-winged arrows and so many
> sling-stones against the Mazainya Daevas8!"
> 
> 7. [paiti: tê merekha ashô-zushta imå srvå
> vaêdhayemi imå srvå âvaêdhayemi
> imåse-tê srvå merekha ashô-zushta hyâre
> arshtayasca karetayasca thanvareca ishavasca erezifyô-parena
> asanasca fradaxshanya paiti daêvô mâzanyãn.]
> 
> 'The owl,' according to modern tradition. The word literally means
> 'friend of holiness.' 'For the bird Asho-zushta they recite the
> Avesta formula; if they recite it, the fiends tremble and do not
> take up the nails; but if the nails have had no spell uttered
> over them, the fiends and wizards use them as arrows against the
> bird Asho-zusta and kill him. Therefore, when the nails have had
> a spell uttered over them, the bird takes and eats them up, that
> the fiends may not do any harm by their means'
> (Bundahishn XIX).
> The bird Asho-zusta is also called Bird of Vohuman
> (Saddar 14), both names
> being taken from the first words of the line quoted above.
> 
> 8. See above, Vd10.14, note 13;
> Vd10.16, note 14.
> The nails are cut in two and the fragments are put in the hole
> with the point directed towards the north, that is to say,
> against the breasts of the Devs
> (see above, Vd7.2, note 1).
> See Anquetil, Zend-Avesta II, 117; India Office Library, VIII, 80.
> 
> 10. 'If those nails have not been consecrated (to the bird), they
> shall be in the hands of the Mazainya Daevas so many spears and
> knives so many bows and falcon-winged arrows, and so many sling-stones
> (against the Mazainya Daevas)8.
> 
> 8. Repeated by mistake from § 10.
> 
> 11. 'All wicked, embodiments of the Druj, are scorners of the
> judge: all scorners of the judge are rebels against the Sovereign:
> all rebels against the Sovereign are ungodly men; and all ungodly
> men are worthy of death9.'
> 
> 9. See preceding Fargard, § 18.
> 
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> — *Vendidad — Chapter 17 — L.H. Mills / James Darmesteter (1880-1887) (Public domain (Sacred Books of the East, 1880-1887))*