Dogs  in  early  days  were  specially  sacred,  as  the  guardians  of
homes  and  flocks,  for  they  were  public  scavengers  who  kept  off  disease
and  death,  and  thus  aided  in  the  purifications  these  Easterns  so
intently  sought  after ;  and  therefore  do  dogs  usually  take  precedence
of  mankind  in  these  early  laws.  Cf.  Fargs.  xiii.  and  xiv.,  devoted  to
dog  legislation.  "  Without  dogs/9  says  the  Preacher,  "  no  house  could
exist  on  earth  .  .  .  they  are  the  good  spirits  which  kill  the  evil  ones
which  surround  us  especially  from  midnight  to  sunrise"  (xiii.  49).
The  lives  of  dogs  and  in  some  cases  of  hedgehogs  were  protected  by

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226  ZOROASTER  AND  MAZDA-ISM.  III.
penalties  five  times  as  severe  as  those  exacted  for  homicide ;  while  the
death  of  a  tortoise  or  serpent — ancient  religious  symbols— expiated
all  the  sins  of  the  killer,  "  for  these  creatures  had  become  emissaries
of  Satan."     "  E'en  gods  must  yield,  religions  take  their  turn/'

Disease  was  thought  due  to  the  6erpent  as  a  poisoner,  whom
"  Thrita  the  first  healer  invented  medicine  to  overcome  M  (Farg.  xx.).
From  him  Greeks  have  evidently  borrowed  their  mythological  Aisklepios
and  his  serpents,  which  became  with  Indo- Aryans  the  celestial  symbols
of  storm  and  destruction,  this  under  the  names  of  Thraetaona,  Thrita,
and  Aptya — "Son  of  the  waters  who  destroys  the  evil  powers  and
storms"  (Rig  Veda,  viii.  47,  13  seq.).
The  above  foolish  penalties  for  injury  to  these  creatures  and  for
other  ceremonial  faults,  are  classed  by  the  Zoroastrian  as  of  equal  or
even  greater  importance  than  moral  turpitude,  and  probably  these  very
ancient  rulings  are  to  blame  for  the  absurd  and  severe  treatment  of
like  frailties  and  faults  in  Hebrew  and  other  legislations.
