________________
252
DİNKARD, BOOK IX.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Varstmånsar Nask. 1. The ninth fargard, Hvaêtumaiti', is about the coming of three deceitful demons, and their making supplication (lâgak-karih) to Adharmazd, so that he should consider and reward those aggrieved by him, and it would amount to strength for them in destroying the creatures. 2. The disgorging (akh vârdano) of supplication by those demons clamorously upwards from an abyss, and the statement of one that he is 8 the kindred that is undeceitful, of another one that he is the serfdom that is undeceitful, and of the third one that he is the confederacy that is undeceitful, was in these words, namely: "We are those spirits when the kinsman, confederate, and serfo do not break promises, one with the other ; we are not really these that are no implements of thine, but our religion and law are thine, and we do thy will; we become assistants of him who is thy friend, and injurers of him who is thy enemy *; and from thee we beg a position in the existence that is best, the reward that is a reward of the worthy.'
3. The reply of Adharmazd to them was thus: You rush out, astute in evil, to the extremity (bûn) of that horrible gloom ; so you are all from the demon, your race is really from Evil Thought, that
Literally
I am.'
1 See Chap. IX, i n.
See Pahl. Yas. XXXII, 1 a. • See Pahl. Yas. XXXII, IC.
Compare Pahl. Vend. XIX, 147.
Digitized by Google
