26. We worship the good, strong, beneficent Fra- vashis of the faithful, who are the mightiest of drivers, the lightest of those driving forwards, the slowest of the retiring ^ the safest ^ of all bridges, the least- erring^ of all weapons and armsS and who never turn their backs \
27. At once, wherever they come, we worship
them, the good ones, the excellent ones, the good,
the strong, the beneficent Fravashis of the faithful.
They are to be invoked when the bundles of
baresma are tied ; they are to be invoked in fights
against foes, in battles », and there where gallant
men strive to conquer foes.
^ Cf. § 40.
2 Fv6ritau: cf. frdreti=farnamijn, adej-a (Yasna VIII, 2 [4]).
' With alms (asho-dad). * Cf. § 36.
5 Doubtful. * Defensive arms.
' To flee. ' Cf. § 23.
FARVARDfN YAST. 187
28. Mazda invoked them for help, when he fixed
the sky and the waters and the earth and the plants ;
when Spe;^ta-Mainyu fixed the sky, when he fixed
the waters, when the earth, when the cattle, when
the plants, when the child conceived in the womb,
so that it should not die from the assaults of Vidotu,
and developed in it the bones, the hair, the . . . . , the
entrails, the feet, and the sexual organs \
29. Spe;^ta-Mainyu maintained the sky, and they
sustained it from below, they, the strong Fravashis,
who sit in silence, gazing with sharp looks ; whose
eyes and ears are powerful, who bring long joy, high
and high-girded ; well-moving and moving afar, loud-
snorting 2, possessing riches and a high renown.
30. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful ; whose friendship is good,
and who know how to benefit; whose friendship
lasts long ; who like to stay in the abode where they
are not harmed by its dwellers ; who are good,
beautiful afar ^, health-giving, of high renown, con-
quering in battle, and who never do harm first.
31. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful ; whose will is dreadful
unto those who vex them ; powerfully working and
most beneficent ; who in battle break the dread
arms of their foes and haters.
^ Cf. §§ II, 22.
"^ They arc compared to horses; cf. Yt. VIII, 2.
^ Their beauty is seen afar. One manuscript has ' known afar ; '
another, ' whose eyesight reaches far.'
1 88 YASTS AND SIROZAHS.
32. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful; Hberal, vaHant, and full
of strength, not to be seized by thought, welfare-
giving, kind, and health-giving, following with Ashi's
remedies, as far as the earth extends, as the rivers
stretch, as the sun rises ^
33. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful, who gallantly and bravely
fight, causing havoc, wounding^, breaking to pieces
all the malice of the malicious, Daevas and men,
and smiting powerfully in battle, at their wish and
will.
34. You kindly deliver the Victory made by
Ahura, and the crushing Ascendant, most bene-
ficently, to those countries where you, the good ones,
unharmed and rejoiced, unoppressed and unoffended,
have been held worthy of sacrifice and prayer, and
proceed the way of your wish.
35. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful, of high renown, smiting
in battle, most strong, shield-bearing and harmless
to those who are true, whom both the pursuing and
the fleeing invoke for help : the pursuer invokes
^ All the beneficent powers hidden in the earth, in the waters, and in the sun, and which Ashi Vanguhi (Yt. XVII) imparts to man.
^ Doubtful: urvaSnaitiJ".
Farvardin Yast, 189
them for a swift race, and for a swift race does the fleer invoke them ;
36. Who turn to that side where are faithful
men, most devoted to hoHness, and where is the
greatest piety, where the faithful man is rejoiced,
and where the faithful man is not ill-treated \
37. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful, who form many battalions,
girded with weapons ^, lifting up spears, and full of
sheen; who in fearful battles come rushing along
where the gallant heroes^ go and assail the Danus^.
38. There you destroy the victorious strength of
the Turanian Danus ; there you destroy the malice
of the Turanian Danus; through you the chiefs^ are
of high intellect ^ and most successful ; they, the
gallant heroes ^ the gallant Saoshya?^/s^ the gallant
conquerors of the offspring of the Danus chiefs of
myriads, who wound with stones ^
39. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful, who rout the two wings
of an army standing in battle array, who make the
centre swerve, and swiftly pursue onwards, to help
the faithful and to distress the doers of evil deeds.
40. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
1 Cf. § 25. 2 Yasto-zayau. ^ Doubtful.
* Yt. V, 72. ' Doubtful.
* Hvira; see iStudes Iraniennes, II, 183.
' Cf. p. 165, note I. * Doubtful (a sab an a).
I90 YA^TS AND SIROZAHS.
Fravashis of the faithful ; awful, overpowering, and
victorious, smiting in battle, sorely wounding, blow-
ing away (the foes), moving along to and fro, of
good renown, fair of body, godly of soul, and holy ;
who give victory to their invoker, who give boons to
their lover, who give health to the sick man ^ ;
41. Who give good glory to him who worships
them with a sacrifice, as that man did worship them,
the holy Zarathui'tra, the chief of the material world,
the head of the two-footed race, in whatever struggle
he had to enter, in whatever distress he did fear ;
42. Who, when well invoked, enjoy bliss in the
heavens ; who, when well invoked, come forward
from the heavens, who are the heads ^ of that sky
above, possessing the well-shapen Strength, the Vic-
tory made by Ahura, the crushing Ascendant, and
Welfare ^, the wealth-bringing, boon-bringing, holy,
well fed, worthy of sacrifice and prayer in the per-
fection of holiness.
43. They shed Satavaesa* between the earth and
the sky, him to whom the waters belong ^ who listens
to appeals and makes the waters flow and the plants
grow up, to nourish animals and men, to nourish the
Aryan nations, to nourish the five kinds of animals",
and to help the faithful '^.
44. Satavaesa comes down and flows between
the earth and the sky, he to whom the waters be-
long, who listens to appeals and makes the waters
and the plants grow up, fair, radiant, and full of
' Cf. § 24.
^ 'The chief creatures;' cf. Gah II, 8,
* Saoka; cf. Sirozah I, 3, note.
* Cf. Yt. VIII, 9, and 34, note. " Ta/-apem. " See above, p. 182, note 2. ' Cf. 'f 10.
Farvardin Ya^T. I9i
light, to nourish animals and men, to nourish the
Aryan nations, to nourish the five kinds of animals,
and to help the faithful.
45. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful ; with helms of brass, with
weapons of brass, with armour ^ of brass ; who
struggle in the fights for victory in garments of
light, arraying the battles and bringing them for-
wards, to kill thousands of Daevas.
When the wind blows from behind them ^ and brings their breath unto men,
46. Then men know where blows the breath of
victory : and they pay pious homage unto the good,
strong, beneficent Fravashis of the faithful, with
their hearts prepared and their arms uplifted.
47. Whichever side they have been first wor-
shipped in the fulness of faith of a devoted heart ^
to that side turn the awful Fravashis of the faithful,
along with Mithra and Rashnu and the awful cursing
thought ^ of the wise and the victorious wind.
48. And those nations are smitten at one stroke
by their fifties and their hundreds, by their hundreds
and their thousands, by their thousands and their
tens of thousands, by their tens of thousands and
their myriads of myriads, against which turn the
awful Fravashis of the faithful, along with Mithra
and Rashnu, and the awful cursing thought of the
wise and the victorious wind.
^ Doubtful. 2 Literally, blows- them within.
^ Cf. Yt. X, 9. * See above, p. 12, note 12.
192 YA^'TS AND SIROZAHS.
49. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful, who come and go through
the borough at the time of the Hamaspathmaedha^;
they go along there for ten nights, asking thus ^ :
50. ' Who will praise us ? Who will offer us a
sacrifice ? Who will meditate upon us ? Who will
bless us^? Who will receive us with meat and
clothes in his hand * and with a prayer worthy of
bliss ^ ? Of which of us will the name be taken for
invocation*'? Of which of you will the soul be wor-
shipped by you with a sacrifice"^? To whom will
this gift of ours be given, that he may have never-
failinof food for ever and ever ?'
51. And the man who offers them up a sacrifice,
1 The sixth and last Gahambar (see Afrigan Gahambar), or the last ten days of the year (ioth-20th March), including the last five days of the last month, Sapendarmad, and the five complementary days. These last ten days should be spent in deeds of charity, religious banquets (gasan), and ceremonies in memory of the dead. It was also at the approach of the spring that the Romans and the Athenians used to offer annual sacrifices to the dead; the Romans in February 'qui tunc extremus anni mensis erat' (Cicero, De Legibus, II, 21), the Athenians on the third day of the Anthesterion feast (in the same month). The souls of the dead were supposed to partake of the new life then beginning to circulate through nature, that had also been dead during the long months of winter.
'^ Perhaps : asking for help, thus.
^ Frina/: who will pronounce the Afrin?
* To be given in alms to poor Mazdayasnians (asho-dad).
^ Asha-nasa: that makes him reach the condition of one of the blessed (ahlayih arzanik, "Vend. XVIII, 6 [17]): the Sanskrit translation has, ' that is to say, that makes him worthy of a great reward.'
* As in the invocations from § 87 to the end.
' An allusion to the formula: 'I sacrifice to the Fravashi of my own soul,' Yasna XXIII, 4 [6].
FARVARDiN VAST. 1 93
with meat and clothes in his hand, with a prayer
worthy of bliss, the awful Fravashis of the faithful,
satisfied, unharmed, and unoffended, bless thus :
52. 'May there be in this house flocks of animals
and men ! May there be a swift horse and a solid
chariot ! May there be a man who knows how to
praise God ^ and rule in an assembly, who will offer
us sacrifices with meat and clothes in his hand, and
with a prayer worthy of bliss ^.'
53. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful, who show beautiful paths
to the waters, made by Mazda, which had stood
before for a long time in the same place without
flowing^:
54. And now they flow along the path made by
Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery
way appointed to them, at the wish of Ahura Mazda,
at the wish of the Amesha-Spe/ztas.
55. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful, who show a beautiful
growth to the fertile* plants, which had stood before
for a long time in the same place without growing :
56. And now they grow up along the path made
^ Stahyo: stutikaro (Sansk. tr. ; cf. Atash Nyayij, 10).
2 §§ 49-52 are a part of the so-called Afrigan Dahman (a prayer recited in honour of the dead); a Sanskrit translation of that Afrigan has been published by Burnouf in his Etudes zendes.
^ In winter.
* Doubtful. The word is /iz^awrira, which Aspendiarji makes synonymous with /k- a par a, kind, merciful (Visperad XXI [XXIV], i).
194 YA^TS AND SIROZAHS.
by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, in the
time appointed to them, at the wish of Ahura
Mazda, at the wish of the Amesha-Spe;^tas.
57. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful, who showed their paths to
the stars, the moon, the sun, and the endless lights,
that had stood before for a long time in the same
place, without moving forwards, through the oppres-
sion of the Daevas and the assaults of the Daevas\
58. And now they move around in their far-
revolving circle for ever, till they come to the time
of the good restoration of the world.
59. We worship the good, strong, beneficent
Fravashis of the faithful, who watch over the bright
sea Vouru-Kasha^, to the number of ninety thou-
sand, and nine thousand, and nine hundred, and