Ahura Mazda, created, was Urva of the rich pastures.19 Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the sin of pride.20 12. The ninth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Khnenta which the Vehrkanas 21 inhabit. Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created a sin for which there is no atonement, the unnatural sin.22 13. The tenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful Harahvaiti.23 Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created a sin for which there is no atonement, the burying of the dead. 24 14. The eleventh of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the bright, glorious Haetumant.25 Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the evil work of witchcraft. 15. And this is the sign by which it is known, this is that by which it is seen at once: wheresoever they may go and raise a cry of sorcery, there 26 the worst works of witchcraft 19 Urva, according to Gr. Bund. Meshan, that is to say, Mesene, the region of lower Euphrates, famous for its fertility: it was for four centuries (from about 150 B.C. to A.D. 225), the seat of a flourishing commercial State. 20" The people of Meshan are proud: there are no people worse than they."- Gr. Bund. 21 "Khnenta is a river in Vehrkana (Hyrcania)."- Commentary. Consequently the river Gorgan. 22 See Fargard VIII, 31-32. 28 Harauvati; corrupted into Ar-rokhag (name of the country in the Arabic literature) and Arghand (in the modern name of the river Arghand-ab). 24 See Fargard П, 36 seq. 25 The basin of the Erymanthus, now Hermend, Helmend, that is to say, the region of Saistan. 26 In Haetumant.—“ The plague created against Saistan is abundance of witchcraft: and that character appears from this, that all people from that place practise astrology; those wizards produce. . . snow, hail, spiders, and locusts.”—Gr. Bund. Saistan, like Kabul, was half Indian, and Brahmans and Buddhists have the credit of being proficient in the darker sciences. go forth. From there they come to kill and strike at heart, and they bring locusts as many as they want. 16. The twelfth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Ragha 27 of the three races.28 Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the sin of utter unbelief. 29 17. The thirteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy Kakhra.30 Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created a sin for which there is no atonement, the cooking of corpses.31 32 18. The fourteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the four-cornered Varena,3 for which was born Thraetaona, who smote Azi Dahaka. Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created abnormal issues in women 33 and barbarian oppression.34 19. The fifteenth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Seven Rivers.35 Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created abnormal issues in women and excessive heat. 20. The sixteenth of the good lands and countries which 27 Ragha, transcribed Rak and identified by the Commentary with Adarbaigan and “ according to some "with Rai. There were apparently two Raghas, one in Atropatene, another in Media. 28" That means that the three classes, priests, warriors, and husbandmen, were well organized there."- Commentary and Gr. Bund. 29" They doubt themselves and cause other people to doubt."Commentary. 30 There were two towns of that name (Karkh), one in Khorasan, and the other in Ghaznin. 31" Cooking a corpse and eating it. They cook foxes and weasels and eat them."- Gr. Bund. See Fargard vIII, 73–74. 82 Varn, identified by the Commentary, either with Tabaristan or Gilan. "Four-cornered." Tabaristan has rudely the shape of a quadrilateral. 33 Fargard XVI, 11 seq. 34 The aborigines of the Caspian littoral were Anarian savages, the so-called "Demons of Mazana." 35 Hapta hindava, the basin of the affluents of the Indus, formerly called Hind, by contradistinction to Sindh, the basin of the lower river. I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the land by the sources of the Rangha,36 where people live who have no chiefs.3 37 Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created Winter,88 a work of the Daevas.39 21. There are still other lands and countries, 40 beautiful and deep, longing and asking for the good, and bright. FARGARD II. (THE FLOOD)1 The Legend of Yima or Gamshed. I 1. Zarathushtra asked Ahura Mazda: O Ahura Mazda, most beneficent Spirit, Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! 36 The basin of the upper Tigris (Rangha or Arvand, the Tigris). 87 "People who do not hold the chief for a chief."- Commentary. 38 The severe winters in the upper valleys of the Tigris. 39 The Vendidad Sada has here: taozyaka danheus aiwistara, which the Gr. Bund. understands as: "and the Tajik (the Arabs) are oppressive there." 40" Some say: Persis."- Commentary. 1 This Fargard may be divided into two parts. First part (1–20). Ahura Mazda proposes to Yima, the son of Vivanghat, to receive the law from him and to bring it to men. On his refusal, he bids him keep his creatures and make them prosper. Yima accordingly makes them thrive and increase, keeps death and disease away from them, and three times enlarges the earth, which had become too narrow for its inhabitants. Second part (21 to the end). On the approach of a dire winter, which is to destroy every living creature, Yima, being advised by Ahura, builds a Vara to keep there the finest representatives of every kind of animals and plants, and they live there a life of perfect happiness. It is difficult not to acknowledge in the latter legend a Zoroastrian adaptation of the deluge, whether it was borrowed from the Bible or from the Chaldean mythology. The similitude is so striking that it did not escape the Mussulmans, and Macoudi states that certain authors place the date of the deluge in the time of Gamshed. There are essential and necessary differences between the two legends, the chief one being that in the monotheistic narration the deluge is sent as a punishment from God, whereas in the dualistic version it is a plague from the Daevas: but the core of the two legends is the same: the hero in both is a righteous man who, forewarned by God, builds a refuge to receive choice specimens of mankind, intended some day to replace an imperfect humanity, destroyed by a universal calamity. |