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MIHIR YAST.
129
38. 'Sad is the abode, unpeopled with children, where abide men who lie unto Mithra, and, verily, the fiendish killer of faithful men. The grazing cow goes a sad straying way, driven along the vales of the Mithradruges: they2 stand on the road, letting tears run over their chins.
39. Their falcon-feathered arrows, shot from the string of the well-bent bow, fly towards the mark, and hit it not, as Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, angry, offended, and unsatisfied, comes and meets them.
*Their spears, well whetted and sharp, their long spears fly from their hands towards the mark, and hit it not, as Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, angry, offended, and unsatisfied, comes and meets them.
40. “Their swords, well thrust and striking at the heads of men, hit not the mark, as Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, angry, offended, and unsatisfied, comes and meets them.
Their clubs, well falling and striking at the heads of men, hit not the mark, as Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, angry, offended, and unsatisfied, comes and meets them.
41. «Mithra strikes fear into them; Rashnu 4 strikes a counter-fear into thems; the holy Sraosha blows them away from every side towards the two Yazatas, the maintainers of the world. They make the ranks of the army melt away, as Mithra, the lord
1 Doubtful.
2 The cattle. 8 The meaning is, that the cattle of the Mithradruges do not thrive, and that their pasture-fields are waste.
4 See Yt. XII. • As they flee from Mithra, they fall into the hands of Rashnu.
* Thrâtâra; one might feel inclined to read thrâstâra, the fear-striking ;' cf. $ 36.
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