Zend Avesta Part 01

SR No.: 007671
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: James Darmesteter
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1895
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 77

1xxiv
VENDIDAD.
he wants, by performing the acts which are supposed to have brought about things of the same kind when practised by the gods.
The Parsis, being at a loss to find four-eyed dogs, interpret the name as meaning a dog with two spots above the eyes? : but it is clear that the two-spotted dog's services are only accepted for want of a four-eyed one, or of a white one with yellow ears, which amounts to saying that there were myths, according to which the death-fiend was driven away by dogs of that description. This reminds one at once of the three-headed Kerberos, watching at the doors of hell, and, still more, of the two brown, four-eyed dogs of Yama, who guard the ways to the realm of death?
The identity of the four-eyed dog of the Parsi with Kerberos and Yama's dogs appears, moreover, from the Parsi tradition that the yellow-eared dog watches at the head of the Kinvat bridge, which leads from this to the next world, and with his barking drives away the fiend from the souls of the holy ones, lest he should drag them to hell 3.
Wherever the corpse passes by, death walks with it; all along the way it has gone, from the house to its last resting-place, a spirit of death is breathing and threatening the living. Therefore, no man, no flock, no being whatever that belongs to the world of Ahura, is allowed to pass by
In practice they are still less particular: 'The Sag-did may be performed by a shepherd's dog, by a house-dog, by a Vohunazga dog (see Farg. XIII, 19, n.), or by a young dog (a dog four months old),' Comm. ad Farg. VII, 2. As birds of prey are as fiend-smiting as the dog, they are Nasu-smiters like him, and one may appeal to their services, when there is no dog at hand (see Farg. VII, 3, n. 3).
• Rig-veda X, 14, 10 seq.
: Gr. Rav. p. 592. Allusions to this myth are found in Farg. XIII, 9, and XIX, 30 The Commentary ad Farg. XIII, 17 has : There are dogs who watch over the earthly regions; there are others who watch over the fourteen heavenly regions.' The birth of the yellow-eared dog is described in the Ravået (1. c.) as follows: "Ormazd, wishing to keep the body of the first man, Gayômart, from the assaults of Ahriman, who tried to kill him, cried out: “O thou yellow-eared dog, arise !" and directly the dog barked and shook his two ears; and the unclean Satan and the fiends, when they saw the dreadful looks of the yellow-eared dog, and heard his barking, were sore afraid and fled down to hell.'
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