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YASTS AND SÎRÔZAHS.
Ardvi Sara Anâhita, O Zarathustra ! runs down there from a thousand times the height of a man, and she is possessed of as much Glory as the whole of the waters that run along the earth, and she runs powerfully?
XXIV. 103. 'Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathustra ! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sûra Anâhita ....
104. Unto her did the holy Zarathustra offer up a sacrifice in the Airyana Vaêgah, by the good river Daitya ; with the Haoma and meat, with the baresma, with the wisdom of the tongue, with the holy spells, with the speech, with the deeds, with the libations, and with the rightly-spoken words%.
105. He begged of her a boon, saying: “Grant me this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sara Anahita! that I may bring the son of Aurvat-aspa 3, the valiant Kavi Vistâspa, to think according to the law, to speak according to the law, to do according to the law4."
106. ‘Ardvi Sûra Anâhita granted him that boon, as he was offering up libations, giving gifts, sacrificing, and entreating that she would grant him
that boon.
For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice ....
1 Cf. § 96.
Cf. § 17. It is to be noticed that only Ahura and Zarathustra (and perhaps Vafra Navâza; see p. 68, note 2) offer the pure Zoroastrian sacrifice.
3 Called Lôhrasp in Parsi tradition.
• Cf. § 18. The conversion of Vistâspa by Zarathustra is the turning-point in the earthly history of Mazdeism, as the conversion of Zarathustra by Ahura himself is in its heavenly history. Cf. Yt. XXIV and IX, 26.
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