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44
BUNDAHIS.
moon and wind; it comes again and goes down, in increase and decrease, because of her revolving. 12. The controll also of the Gulf of Sataves is attached to the constellation Satavês, in whose protection are the seas of the southern quarter, just as those on the northern side are in the protection of Haptôk-ring 13. Concerning the flow and ebb it is said, that everywhere from the presence of the moon two winds continually blow, whose abode is in the Gulf of Satavês, one they call the down-draught, and one the up-draught; when the up-draught blows it is the flow, and when the down-draught blows it is the ebbs. 14. In the other seas there is nothing of the nature of a revolution of the moon therein, and there are no flow and ebb. 15. The sea of Kamrad 4 is that which they pass by, in the north, in Taparistân; that of Sahî-ban is in Arům.
16. Of the small seas that which was most whole
1 See p. 43, note 5. * See Chap. II, 7.
8 This is not a confused attempt to explain the tides as the effect of the land and sea breezes, as might be suspected at first, but is a reasonable conclusion from imaginary facts. Assuming that the wind always blows eastward and westward from the moon, it follows that as the moon rises an easterly wind must blow, which may be supposed to drive the flood tide westward into the Persian Gulf; until the moon passes the meridian, when the wind, changing to the west, ought to drive the ebb tide eastward out of the Gulf, thus accounting for one flow and ebb every day, dependent on the position of the moon.
· Evidently the Caspian, which lies north of Taparîstân, a province including part of Mâzendaran.
6 Or perhaps Gâhî-bûn, meaning probably the Mediterranean or Euxine, if not both of them; the author appears merely to have heard of the existence of such a sea in Asia Minor (Arům). In the Selections of Zád-sparam, VI, 14, it is called Gêhân-bûn.
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