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FARGARD XIX.
219
made by Mazda”, they ask for their spirits and souls the reward for the worldly goods which they gave away here below:
30 (98). “Then comes the beautiful, well-shapen, strong and well-formed maid, with the dogs at her sides“, one who can distinguisho, who has many children, happy, and of high understanding.
She makes the soul of the righteous one go up above the Hara-berezaiti?; above the Kinyad
1 The Kinvad bridge extends over hell and leads to Paradise ; for the souls of the righteous it widens to the length of nine javelins; for the souls of the wicked it narrows to a thread, and they fall down into hell (cf. Ardå Vîrâf V, 1; Dinkard IX, 20, 3). The Kinvad bridge has become the Sirath bridge of the Musulmans. Not long ago they sang in Yorkshire of the Brig o' Dread, na brader than a thread' (Thoms, Anecdotes, 89), and even nowadays the peasant in Nièvre tells of a little board
'Pas pu longue, pas pu large
Qu'un ch'veu de la Sainte Viarge,' which was put by Saint Jean d'Archange between the earth and Paradise :
*Ceux qu'saront la raison (=l'oraison ?) d'Dieu
Par dessus passeront. Ceux qu’la sauront pas
Au bout mourront. (Mélusine, p. 70.) * Cf. § 26, and Farg. III, 34, 35; XVIII, 33 seq.
· The soul of the dead, on the fourth day, finds itself in the presence of a maid, of divine beauty or fiendish ugliness, according as he himself was good or bad, and she leads him into heaven or hell: this maid is his own Daêna, his Religion, that is the sum of his religious deeds, good or evil (Yasht XXII).
• The dogs that keep the Kinvad bridge (see Farg. XIII, 9). * The good from the wicked.
• Doubtful. Those children would be the righteous, as the sons of the Drug are the wicked (Farg. XVIII, 30 seq.)
* The Kinvad bridge rests by one end on the Alborz (Hara-berezaiti) and by the other on the Kikâd Daitik in Irân Vềg (Comm. ad $ 101 ed. Sp.; Dînkard IX, 20, 3).
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