‘ The argument, both in this case and the preceding one, is that even when two combatants are equal in power and resources the hasty aggressor is likely to be beaten in the end, and, therefore,
102 DADISTAN-! DINIK.
72. One is this, that owing to the previous non
appearance of the fiend, the coming forward of sick-
ness and death unto the creatures of the sacred beings
occurred when the fiend rushed zz, and he rendered
the existence of men sickly; he also destroyed and
put to death the progeny of animals. 73. After-
wards, through lawfully driving 42m away, sickness
and death come.in turn (barikiha) unto the demons,
and the healthiness! of the righteous azd perfect
life unto the creatures of the sacred beings, as its
counterpart is the great healthiness whzch comes,
more rightly rising, unto the creatures advised by
the sacred beings, through united arrangement”.
74. And, in the end, a worldly similitude of the
sickness and grievous, complete death for the
fiends’, and of the healthiness azd intrinsic (benaf-
sman-Aigtinth) life for the creatures of the sacred
beings, is that which occurs when one of two liti-
gants (ham-patk4r), prematurely revengeful, gives
to Azs fellow-litigant an irritating poison, azd himself
eats wholesome flour before the later litigant gives
a poison, as an antidote, to the earlier litigant, azd
himself eats the poison-subduing flour; after which
he is cured éy the poison, and his enemy is dead
through the poison of the later flour +.
the inferiority of the fiend is still more likely to lead to his final defeat.
+ Mrq begins a fresh argument here, owing to some misunder- standing of the meaning of the sentence.
* That is, the advantage of driving away the fiend in this life is a counterpart of the blessings attained at the resurrection.
* The word drign6, ‘fiends,’ is omitted in K35, but is evi- dently necessary to complete the sentence.
* This appears to be a description of ordeal by poison and the two usual modes of evading its operation. The hasty evader relies upon deceitfully substituting a wholesome powder for the
Chapter Xxxvii, 72-78. 103
75. One is this, that Athazvmazd, the creator, is
a manager with omniscient wisdom, azd the conten-
tion of the fiend of scornful looks (tar nigirisn) is
through lust of defilement; of united power is the
management of that creator, as existing with (ham-
zik)? all the vigilance in the wisdom which is in
everything; and that united power is the strength
of the management of heaven. 76. And of much
power is the contention of the fiend, as zs manifold
changing of will—which is hostile to the will of even
his own creatures, and is through the weakness
and exhausted? strength of an evil nature—is the -
contending power which forms his visible strength’.
77. One is this, that is, on account of the fiend’s
contending ill-advisedly, however strongly the contest
is adapted for the damage of his own fiendishness,
and regret and bad consequences therefrom are
perceptible. 78. Such as the very paralyzing *
affliction which was appointed (nihad6) by him
poison he has to take; while the more cautious evader trusts to recognising his adversary’s poison by its taste, and selecting another poison as an antidote for both to take, so that the hasty evader suffers through his own deceit in not taking the first poison. Similarly, the fiend is supposed to suffer in the end from the death and destruction which he was the first to introduce into the world.
* By omitting a phrase Mr4 and J have: ‘and the management of the fiend of scornful looks is as ¢/ were existing with,’ &c.
* This is little more than a guess at the meaning of a word which can be read vashakid6é (compare Pers. gas and kasidan). The whole sentence is rather uncertain.
* The argument is that this unstable power of the fiend cannot permanently stand against the consolidated strength of the creator.
* Adopting J’s reading samakgfintar, but K35 has vasmak-
gfintar, which may be ‘very troublesome,’ and Mr4 has sam-
kintar, probably for sahmgintar, ‘ very terrible.’
104 DADISTAN-{ DINIK.
for the creatures of the world in putting the living
to death, which he ordered with violence and the
hope that it woud be his greatest triumph. 79.
Even that is what is so self-damaging to the same
fiend that, when he puts to death him who is wicked,
and he who is wicked, who is performing what is
desirable for him (the fiend)—that performance of
what is desirable dezzg the practice of sin—is useless
and goes thither where he is penitent of that seduc-
tion, the spirit! of the owner (shah) of the sin, whose
soul is wicked 2, is righteous, in whose worldly body
exist the fetters of pain and darkness; and owing to
the unfettering of z¢s hands from that pain it (the
spirit) is far away, and goes to heaven, which is the
most fortified of fortresses. 80. Fearlessly it fights
for it, even as the guardian spirit of Yim the splen-
did® kept away all trouble (vésam), the guardian
spirit of Frédtin kept away even those active in
vexing‘, azd other guardian spirits of those passed
away are enumerated as engaged in the defeat of
many fiends.
‘ That is, the guardian spirit (see Chap. II, 5) which is not rendered wicked by the sin of the soul.
® The phrase min rfiban-?f zak darvand is ambiguous, as it might mean ‘which is the soul of that wicked one,’ but this is not reconcileable with the context.
* See Chap. II, 10. Yim-f shéd6 is the Yimé khshaété of Vend. II, 43, 45, the Jamshéd of the Shahnamah. The legends here referred to are mentioned in Travardin Yt. 130-138, where the guardian spirit of Yima is said to withstand the misfortune brought on by the demons, while that of Thraétaona (Frédin) withstands various diseases, and those of other heroes withstand various other evils and demons,
* Reading pavan bésh-i# kardaran, but for if we ought
probably to read az, so as to make the phrase correspond to the
Ay. agi-karstahé dbaéshangh6o of Fravardin Yt. 131.
Chapter Xxxvii, 79-83. 105
81. One is this, that the most grievous severance
that is owing to him (the fiend)! is the production of
the mortality of the creatures; in which the afflicting
(nizgtin) demon Asté-vidaa? is the head of the many
Mazinikan demons*, 82. And the propitious crea-
tors developers were thus unprovoked (andrgénd)
when the only person, who is called Gayémara’, was
destroyed by him, and came back to the world as
a man and a woman whose names were Marhaya
and Marhiyoih®; and the propagation axzd connec-
tion of races were through their next-of-kin mar-
riage of a sister®. 83. The unlucky’ fiend, while he
1 Instead of zis madam, ‘that is owing to him,’ we ought probably to read zis bar, ‘that is his production;’ the Huz. madam, which is the proper equivalent of the preposition bar, ‘on, according to,’ being wrongly used for the noun bar, ‘produce.’
2 See § 44.
* The Mazainya daéva of the Avesta (see § 44, note).
* The sole-created, or. primeval, man from whom the whole human race is said to have sprung (see Chap. II, 10, Bd. III, 14, 17, 19-23, XV, I, 31).
® M14 has ‘of brother and sister,’ but the insertion of the extra
word is unnecessary. Regarding khvétudad, or next-of-kin
marriage, see Chap. LXV.
* Reading la-khagast6; the fiend is certainly ‘unlucky’ here,
106 DADISTAN-! DINIK.
increased offspring and fortune for them through
death, so uplifted 4zs voice in cher presence, about
the death of the living oes of their offspring and
lineage, that ¢ogether with the unmeasured destruc-
tiveness of the deadly. evil spirit, and the unjust
contention of his through death and the conveyer
of death!, the sting also of birth was owing to
death. 84. The repetitions of the cry weve many,
so that the issue (bar) of thousands and thousands
of myriads from those two persons, and the multi-
tude passed away, from a number whzch is limited
and a counterpart (aédtindth) of the living people
in the world, are apparent; and for the annihilation
of many fiends, through death, the propitiousness
of the contending power of the creator is clear and
manifest.
85. One is this, that the most steadfast quality
of the demon himself is darkness, the evil of which
is so complete that they shall call the demons also
those of a gloomy race. 86. But such is the power
in the arms azd resources of the angels, that even
the first gloomy darkness in the world is perpetually
subdued by the one power really originating with
the sun and suitable thereto, and the world is illu-
minated?.
87. One is this, that the most mischievous weapon of the demons is the habit of self-deception which,
as by introducing death into the world he merely increases the number of beings who pass into the other world to join his opponents in the end; but the text probably means that he is ‘inauspicious’ and wishes to bring misfortune on mankind.
* Ast6-vidad (see § 81).
” The argument is that, as the sun is able to subdue darkness, the most constant quality of the fiend, every day, it is probable that the fiend himself will be entirely subdued in the end.
Chapter Xxxvii, 84-90. 107
or. account of rendering the soul wicked thereby,
seemed to them as the greatest triumph for them-
selves, and a complete disaster for the angels.
88. In the great glory of the pure, true religion
of the sacred beings is as much strength as is
adapted to the full power of the lawlessness and
much opposition of falsehood, azd also to the fully
accurate (arsidd) speaking which is in itself an
evidence of the true speaking of every proper
truth; and no truth whatever is perverted by it.
89. And the false sayings are many, and good say-
ings—/hetr »pponents through good statement—
do not escape from their imperfect truth!; since a
similitude of them is that which occurs when, con-
cerning that which is white-coloured, the whole of
the truthful speak about z¢s white colour, dt as to
the liars there are some who speak of its black
colour, some of z4s mud colour, some of z¢s blue
colour, some of z/s. bran? colour, some of z¢s red
colour, and some of z¢s yellow colour. 90. And
every single statement of each of the truthful is as
much evidence, about those several colours of those
who are liars, as even the compiled sayings of the
Abraham of the Christians’, which are the word
of Aim who is also called their Messiah+, about the
1 Assuming that apfirastih stands for apfir rastih; it may, however, be intended for avi-rastih, ‘want of truth.” The meaning is that even true statements become perverted by inaccurate speakers.
2 Perhaps sapfisag, ‘bran, may have originally been sapzag, ‘ green,’
* Written Abréhim-i Tarsakig4n.
* The letter s in Masikha is here written like 41, but the word is correctly written in § 91.
108 DADISTAN-1 DINIK.
‘ The phrase is barmano-i dad, literally ‘son of the created one, unless we assume that dad is taken as a name of God. It is, however, quite conceivable that a priest would be reluctant to admit that a strange god could be anything better than a created being. That ddd is here used as a noun, and not with the meaning of ‘gift’ or ‘law,’ appears from the subsequent phrase dado-t amirako yakhsenund, ‘the created ove whom they consider undying.’
* Owing to the frequent repetitions of the same words in these phrases they are specially liable to corruption by copyists, but as they stand in K35 they can hardly be translated otherwise than as questions. M14 and J have an altered text which may be translated as follows :—‘ for whomever he did not die, when dead, he ts as dead; for whomever it is said he died, fe zs so when he is mentioned as dead;’ but this seems no improvement of the text.
* Referring to those who compile commentaries and mutilate texts to suit their own views.
CHAPTER XXXVII, 91-95. sTele)
the fiend; and, as he is seen Zo de victorious who
overturns reliance on changeableness and similar
powers, the final disruption of forces is a disruption
of peculiarities (khtidith vishépisnd)’.
94. One is this, that is, even that prodigious
devastation of which it is declared that it happens
through the rain of Malkés?, when, through snow,
immoderate cold, axd the unproductiveness of the
world, mos. mortals die; avd even the ¢hzngs attain-
able by mortals are attended with threatenings of
scarcity. 95. Afterwards—as among the all-wise,
preconcerted remedies (pés Zarih) of the bene-
ficent spirit® such a remedy was established (and
nihad ar) that ¢here zs one of the species of
lands, that is called ‘the enclosure formed by
