And whosoever bears any part of the carcass of them shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening.
Read Chapter 11
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Necessary. To prevent the obstruction of the road, or the infection of the air. (Menochius)
When any person touched these carcasses, he was obliged to wash his clothes immediately, and still to refrain from touching any thing sacred till sun-set. (Estius)
If a dog chanced to die in the house of an Egyptian, all the family shaved their hair and began to mourn. The food and wine in the house could no longer be used. (Eusebius, præp. ii. 1.) They adored the dog. But other nations, which did not adore animals, esteemed those unworthy of sacred things who had touched a carcass, though they invoked their gods by slaying beasts, as Porphyrius remarks. (Eusebius, præp. v. 10.) They put off their shoes when they enter certain temples, for the same reason. Scortea non ulli fas est inferre sacello
ne violent puros exanimata Deos.