50. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! When a dog dies, with marrow and seed dried up, whereto does his ghost go?
51. Ahura Mazda answered: 'It passes to the spring of the waters, O Spitama Zarathushtra! and there out of them two water-dogs (Otters) are formed: out of every thousand dogs and every thousand she-dogs, a couple is formed, one water-dog and one water she-dog.
52. 'He who kills a water-dog brings about a drought that dries up pastures.
'Until then, O Spitama Zarathushtra! sweetness and fatness would flow out from that land and from those fields, with health and healing, with fulness and increase and growth, and a growing of corn and grass.'
53. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! When are sweetness and fatness to come back again to that land and to those fields, with health and healing, with fulness and increase and growth, and a growing of corn and grass?
54, 55. Ahura Mazda answered: 'Sweetness and fatness will never come back again to that land and to those fields, with health and healing, with fulness and increase and growth, and a growing of corn and grass, until the murderer of the water-dog has been smitten to death on the spot, and the holy soul of the dog has been offered up a sacrifice, for three days and three nights, with fire blazing, with Baresma tied up, and with Haoma prepared47.
