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24
DINKARD, BOOK VII.
well-disturbed 1 worldly existence remained, Vohdmano and Ashavahistố then associated their preeminence together, and turned off into the embodied existence ; there they came up to where two birds had settled in quest of progeny, and seven years before the serpents devoured the inexperienced progeny. 25. For their own designs, Vohůmanô and Ashavahisto went on, and those birds consulted them thus: We have to offer homage, and our want is that Hôm.'
26. The circumstances of those associated together in pre-eminence and the request of these for that Hôm were a double marvel ; Vohûmano seized one of those birds by both legs, and the other by one; he also brought them that Hôm, and gave it up to them there, on that tree within their nest. 27. And they uncovered above the serpents, that have gone up to the progeny of the birds; then that guardian spirit of Zaratûst started up, and the serpents on the tree rushed also from them away towards the demons; but that guardian spirit of Zaratust smote them on the jaws, and the serpents fell down and expired, which events have also occurred among them till now, having been requisite as regards a depriver of life (gân-gir) and any one of that species. 28. And that Hôm was connected with that tree; and on the summit of that tree, there
ended either when Vistâspô accepted the religion, in Zaratûst's forty-second year, or when Zaratûst received the religion in his thirtieth year, but this earlier date is the more likely.
This word, hu-aibigadig, is written in Pahlavi precisely like an-aîbigadig, without a destroyer,' though its meaning is the reverse, which is an unexpected cause of perplexity to a cursory reader.
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