becomes a class designation of minor female demons. These fiends are styled the Drujes, and Yt. 2. 11 speaks of vispe druj, 'all drujes,' in the same strain as vispe Yazata, 'all Yazatas,' and vispe daeva, 'all demons.' From the sacred texts we learn that there are drujes who come openly, and there are those that come in secret, and again there are those that defile by mere contact.[1] The term druj itself is loosely applied likewise to other demons and wicked persons. Angra Mainyu himself is called a druj.[2] The demon Buiti, for instance, is designated as a druj,[3] and the demoniacal Azhi Dahaka, who was sent to this world by the archfiend as a scourge to the world of Righteousness, is called a druj. The daevas, moreover, when baffled in their foul attempt to kill Zarathushtra, howl out that he is a veritable druj to every druj.[4] The conviction of the pious that Druj will perish at the hands of Asha Vahishta is for all time firm, because Sraosha appears on the field as the best smiter of Druj.[5] Manthra Spenta routs the Druj.[6] In a lengthy disputation, moreover, Sraosha extorts from the fiendish impersonation, Druj, the secret of how mankind by their various misdeeds impregnate her and her brood of fiends; that is, in simpler language, he learns from her by what particular works man increases the Druj's domain of wickedness.[7]
Druj as the personification of bodily impurity under the name Nasu. Purity of body, mind, and spirit go together to constitute a righteous man. The Gathas pre-eminently speak of the ethical virtues and purity of soul. Asha presides over Righteousness, and Druj acts as the evil genius of Wickedness. The greater portion of the Vendidad, however, contains priestly legislation for purity of body, as well as of the soul, and gives elaborate rules for the cleansing of those defiled by dead matter. The uncleanness embodied in the very term druj is now personified as Druj Nasu; her abode is in the burrow at the neck of the mountain Arezura in the northern region, but at the same time her presence is everywhere manifest on this earth.[8] Her chief function is to spread defilement and decay in the world. Immediately after the death of an individual, when the soul leaves the body and decomposition sets in, the Druj Nasu comes
