The Battle with Death

Death is the enemy's weapon, and a corpse is occupied ground: the moment a person dies, the corpse-demon rushes in as a fly from the north. The Vendidad's law of purity is a war manual — why the dead are laid on high places for the birds, never buried in the holy earth nor burned in the holy fire; the gaze of the dog that drives the demon back; the nine nights' cleansing of the defiled; and the ancient spells recited to scour the Lie from the world.