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CHAPTER XX, 5-9.
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also the Mesrgân, the Harhazriver, the Teremet river, the Khvanaidis' river, the Daraga river, the Kâsik river, the Sêd 8 (shining ') river Pêdâ-meyan or Katru-meyan river of Mokarstân.
8. I will mention them also a second time: the Arago river is that of which it is said that it comes out from Albarz in the land of Surâk", in which they call it also the Âmi; it passes on through the land of Spêtos, which they also call Mesr, and they call it there the river Nive. 9. The Vêh? river
Miswritten Araz in Pâzand, both here and in $ 27. • M6 has Khvanaînidis, but in K20 it is doubtful whether the extra syllable (which is interlined) is intended to be inserted or substituted; the shorter form is, however, more reconcilable with the Pahlavi form of Vendeses in 8 20.
As there is no description of any Sêd river it is probably only an epithet of the Pêdâ-meyan or Katru-meyan (pêdak being the usual Pahlavi equivalent of Av. kithro). Justi suggests that Mokarstân (Mokarsta rûd in M6) stands for Pers. Moghulstân, the country of the Moghuls,' but this is doubtful.
• Sometimes written Arang or Arêng, but the nasal is usually omitted; it is the Av. Rangha of âbân Yt. 63, Rashnu Yt. 18, Râm Yt. 27, which is described more like a lake or sea in Vend. 1, 77, Bahrâm Yt. 29. This semi-mythical river is supposed to encompass a great part of the known world (see Chap. VII, 16), and the Bundahis probably means to trace its course down the Âmû (Oxus) from Sogdiana, across the Caspian, up the Aras (Araxes) or the Kur (Cyrus), through the Euxine and Mediterranean, and up the Nile to the Indian Ocean. The Âma (Oxus) is also sometimes considered a part of the Vêh river or Indus (see $$ 22, 28).
Sogdiana (see Chap. XV, 29), the country of the Âmå river. • The combination of the three names in this clause, as Justi observes, renders it probable that we should read, 'the land of Egypt, which is called Misr, and where the river is the Nile. The letter S in Pâz. Spêtos is very like an obsolete form of Av. g, or it may be read as Pahl, îk or ig, so the name may originally have been Gpêtos or Ikpêtos; and the Pâz. Niv, if transcribed into Pahlavi, can also be read Nîl.
The good' river, which, with the Arag and the ocean, completes
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