All the aforementioned animals do not only impart ritual defilement to you: if any of these dead creatures falls upon anything, it will also become ritually defiled, i.e., prohibited from being brought into precincts that are off-limits to ritually defiled people, and disqualified for holding consecrated food. This rule applies whether the object be any wooden vessel, garment, hide, or sack—in fact, any implement with which work is done. In order to purge it of its ritual defilement, it must be immersed in the water of a mikveh, but even after that, it will remain ritually defiled until evening, after which it will be rid of this defilement.
In contrast, no earthenware vessel becomes ritually defiled unless any of these animals fall into its interior, but not if they merely touch its external surface. If they do fall into it or are suspended inside it, however, whatever food or drink (as will be specified presently) is inside it will become ritually defiled, even if the defiling creature did not touch the vessel or the entity inside it. Moreover, you must shatter the vessel itself, for earthenware vessels are not freed of ritual defilement any other way; immersing them in a mikveh does not purge them of ritual defilement.
