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BUNDAHIS.
says, that it kills the serpent with wings. 24. The magpie (kaskinak) bird kills the locust, and is created in opposition to it. 25. The Kahrkâs', dwelling in decay, which is the vulture, is created for devouring dead matter (na sât); so also are the crow (valâk) ? and the mountain kite.
26. The mountain ox, the mountain goat, the deer, the wild ass, and other beasts devour all snakes. 27. So also, of other animals, dogs are created in opposition to the wolf species, and for securing the protection of sheep; the fox is created in opposition to the demon Khava ; the ichneumon is created in opposition to the venomous snake (garzak) and other noxious creatures in burrows; so also the great musk-animal is created in opposition 3 to ravenous intestinal worms (kadak-danak garzak). 28. The hedgehog is created in opposition to the ant which carries off grain", as it says, that the hedgehog, every time that it voids urine into an ant's nest, will destroy a thousand ants; when the grain-carrier travels over the earth it pro
latter seems most probable, although the crow is perhaps as
common' as it is 'precious,' as a scavenger in the East. Singularly enough Pers. arzân is a synonym to both words, as it means both cheap' and 'worthy.'
The Av. kahrkâsa of Vend. III, 66, IX, 181, Âbân Yt. 61, Mihir Yt. 129; its epithet zarmân-mânisn, dwelling in decay is evidently intended as a translation of the Av. zarenumainis, applied to it in Bahrâm Yt. 33, Dîn Yt. 13.
? The text should probably be valâk-i sîyâk va sâr-i gar, the black crow and the mountain kite,' which are given as different birds in Shâyast-la-shayast, II, 5.
s K20 omits the words from this'opposition' to the next one.
+ The môr-i dânak-kash is the Av. maoiris dâno-karshô of Vend. XIV, 14, XVI, 28, XVIII, 146.
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