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230
VENDÎDÂD.
Kem-nå mazda:-What protector hast thou given unto me, O Mazda! while the hate of the wicked encompasses me? Whom but thy Âtar and Vohu-manô, through whose work I keep on the world of Righteousness? Reveal therefore to me thy Religion as thy rule!
Ke verethrem-gâ:-Who is the victorious who will protect thy teaching? Make it clear that I am the guide for both worlds. May Sraosha come with Vohu-mano and help whomsoever thou pleasest, O Mazda!
Keep us from our hater, O Mazda and Armaiti Spenta ! Perish, O fiendish Drug! Perish, O brood of the fiend! Perish, O world of the fiend! Perish away, O Drug! Perish away to the regions of the north, never more to give unto death the living world of Righteousness1!]
FARGARD XXI.
I (1). Praise of the holy bull.
II (2-3). Invocation addressed to rain as a healing power. III a (4-7). Joint invocation addressed to the waters and to the light of the sun.
III b (8-11). Joint invocation addressed to the waters and to the light of the moon.
III c (12-17). Joint invocation addressed to the waters and to the light of the stars.
IV (18-21). Spells against disease.
The largest part of this Fargard is filled with a uniform spell, intended, as it seems, for the protection of lying-in women (§§ 6-7, 10-11, 14-15), who are under the special care of Ardvî Sûra Anâhita, the great goddess of the waters. That spell is repeated three times, in a joint invocation to the sun, to the moon, and to the stars respectively; that strange association is perhaps owing to the fact that both the light and the waters spring up from the Hara Berezaiti and return there (see p. 232, note 1).
1 See Farg. VIII, 19-20.
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