In the Vendîdâd (Fargard vii. _a_)[325] it is demanded, “If a worshipper of Mazda want to practise the art of healing, on whom shall he first prove his skill? On worshippers of Mazda or on worshippers of the Daêvas?”
Ahura Mazda answered: “On worshippers of the Daêvas shall he first prove himself, rather than on worshippers of Mazda. If he treat with the knife a worshipper of the Daêvas, and he die; if he treat with the knife a second worshipper of the Daêvas, and he die; if he treat with the knife for the third time a worshipper of the Daêvas, and he die, he is unfit to practise the art of healing for ever and ever. Let him therefore never attend any worshipper of Mazda; let him never treat with the knife any worshipper of Mazda, nor wound him with the knife. If he shall ever attend any worshipper of Mazda; if he shall ever treat with the knife any worshipper of Mazda, and wound him with the knife, he shall pay for it the same penalty as is paid for wilful murder. If he treat with the knife a worshipper of the Daêvas, and he recover; if he treat with the knife a second worshipper of the Daêvas, and he recover; if for the third time he treat with the knife a worshipper of the Daêvas, and he recover, then he is fit to practise the art of healing for ever and ever. He may henceforth at his will attend worshippers of Mazda; he may at his will treat with the knife worshippers of Mazda, and heal them with the knife.”
Naturally, the rising surgeons would seek their clinical material amongst the heretics.
We learn from the _Zend-Avesta_ that the doctrine of Zoroaster teaches that not only real death makes one unclean, but partial death also. The demon claims as his property everything which goes out of the body of man, and that because it is dead. The breath which leaves the mouth is unclean, so that fire, which is sacred, must not be blown with it. Nail parings and cuttings of the hair are unclean, and unless protected by spells are likely to become the weapons of the demons. Whatever altered the body in its nature was demon’s work. On this principle the menstruation of women causes their uncleanness. The menses are sent by Ahriman; the woman is possessed by a demon while they last; she has to be kept apart; she cannot even receive food from hand to hand; she may not eat much lest she feed the demon. So utterly unclean is a woman who has borne a dead child that she is not allowed to drink water unless in danger of death. Logic compelled that a sick man should be treated as one possessed. Sickness was sent by Ahriman, and is to be cured by washings and spells. The most powerful therefore of all medical treatment is magic. It was always more highly esteemed by the faithful than treatment by drugs and the lancet.[326] Hair and nails, which having been cut off have at once become the property of Ahriman, may be withdrawn from his power by prayer, and by being deposited in the earth in consecrated circles, which, being drawn round them, intrench them against the fiend.[327]