190 BULLETIN 148, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the fire. Height, 13% inches; diameters, IIK and 7}^ inches. Bom- 

 bay, India. (Plate 71 (upper center), Cat. No. 216051, U.S.N.M.)" 



2. Fire ladle. — Brass, nickel plated. The sacred fire and all that is 

 connected with it must not come into contact with anything that may 

 defile it. A ladle is therefore used for putting wood chips into the 

 fire urn. Length, 13)^ inches. Bombay, India. (Plate 71 (upper 

 left). Cat. No. 216053, U.S.N.M.) 



3. Fire tongs. — Brass, nickel plated. Used for picking up the 

 wood chips of the sacred fire which would be defiled if touched with 

 the hands. Length, 13K inches. Bombay, India. (Plate 71 (upper 

 right), Cat. No. 216052, U.S.N.M. 



4. Sprigs of the Haoma plant. — The haoma (Sanskrit, soma, 

 Pahlavi and Persian, Jiom), also called moon-plant and swallow- 

 wood, of the milkweed family, Sacrostemma brevistigma {Asclepias 

 acida). To the juice expressed from its stems were attributed inspir- 

 ing and healing properties, and it played an important part in the 

 ritual and sacrifices of ancient India. It was personified and deified 

 and worshiped as a god by the Hindus. In the Parsee ritual the 

 haoma is one of the offerings made in the service of the Yasna, the 

 principal of Zoroastrian liturgy, which is recited or chanted by two 

 priests, known as the Zaoti and Rathvi, before the sacred fire. The 

 twigs of the sacred plant are washed and purified while reciting a 

 prayei, then laid aside in a metal box for at least 13 months and 

 13 days before using in the ceremony. Under elaborate ceremonies 

 the twigs are pounded in mortar, the expressed juice is mixed with 

 milk and holy water and strained. The draft thus obtained concen- 

 trates in itself all the virtues of plants, animals, and the waters. 

 It is drunk sacramentally by the priests in the course of the service, 

 and is administered to the dying as a "draft of immortality." The 

 "green haoma" of this world is a type of the "white haoma" Qiaoma- 

 i-sapTiid) of the gaokorena-tree, the emblem of immortality. In 

 addition to the haoma the pomegranate and the barsom (Avesta, 

 baresman) are used in the ceremony. The barsom consists of twigs 

 or sprays of a certain plant or, where these are not obtainable, as in 

 winter, of brass rods, from 5 to 35, tied in a bundle and held by the 

 priest at a certain point of the sacrifice. Besides the sacred plants 

 the offering comprises small cakes (drana), peculiarly marked, goats' 

 milk {shir), an egg and melted butter (ghee). These are also eaten by 

 the officiating priests in the course of the service. 



The true Zoroastrian sacrifice, the Parsees say, is the offering of 

 good thoughts, good words, and good deeds. Yezd, Persia. (Cat. 

 No. 231789, U.S.N.M.) Gift of A. V. Williams Jackson. 



M Fire altars, not necessarily in temples, were erected all over ancient Iran. Early reliefs and coins show 

 the king standing before a fire altar under the open sky. But from the Achaemenian times on there were 

 shrines in which the sacred fire was kept burning as at present. 



