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CHAPTER XVII, 8-XVIII, 5.
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CHAPTER XVIII. 1. On the nature of the tree they call Gôkard it says in revelation, that it was the first day when the tree they call Gôkard grew in the deep mud 2 within the wide-formed ocean; and it is necessary as a producer of the renovation of the universe, for they prepare its immortality therefrom. 2. The evil spirit has formed therein, among those which enter as opponents, a lizards as an opponent in that deep water, so that it may injure the Hôm 4. 3. And for keeping away that lizard, Adharmazd has created there ten Kar fish 6 which, at all times, continually circle around the Hôm, so that the head of one of those fish is continually towards the lizard. 4. And together with the lizard those fish are spiritually fed, that is, no food is necessary for them; and till the renovation of the universe they remain in contention. 5. There are places where that fish is
1 A corruption of the Av. gaokerena of Vend. XX, 17, Adharmazd Yt. 30, Haptân Yt. 3, Sîrôz. 7. In the old MSS. of the Bundahis the form gôkard occurs thrice, gôkarn once, and gogry once.
? Reading gil, 'mud.' Windischmann and Justi prefer gar, mountain,' and have 'depth of the mountain.
3 That the writer of the Bundahis applies the term vazagh to a lizard, rather than a frog, appears from the 'log-like lizard's body' of Chap. III, 9.
That is, the Gôkard tree, which is the white Hôm (see Chap. XXVII, 4).
The Av. karô masyô of Vend. XIX, 140, Bahrâm Yt. 29, Dîn Yt. 7; see also Chap. XXIV, 13.
• Windischmann and Justi prefer translating thus : Moreover, the lizard is the spiritual food of those fish;' but this can hardly be reconciled with the Pahlavi text.
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