A red cow that has never been put to work is killed outside the camp and burned whole, with cedar, hyssop and scarlet thrown on the fire. Her ashes are gathered and stored, and mixed with spring water they make the liquid that cleans anyone who has touched a corpse: sprinkled on the third day and the seventh, and clean by evening. Everyone who handles the ashes is made unclean by them. The chapter calls itself a statute and never explains any of it.