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CHAPTER XXVI, I-XXVII, 2.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
1. On the nature of plants it says in revelation, that, before the coming of the destroyer, vegetation had no thorn and bark about it; and, afterwards, when the destroyer came, it became coated with bark and thorny1, for antagonism mingled with every single thing; owing to that cause vegetation is also much mixed with poison, like Bts the height of hemp (kand), that is poisonous, for men when they eat it die.
2. In like manner even as the animals, with grain of fifty and five species and twelve species of medicinal plants, have arisen from the primeval ox 3, ten thousand species among the species of principal
Av. uzasti (Pahl. lâlâ-ast) of eight finger-breadths, or about 6 inches, which is a span between the thumb and fore-finger. Other measures mentioned by the same authority are the pâî (Av. padha, Vend. IX, 15, 20, 29), 'foot,' of fourteen finger-breadths, or about 10 inches; the gâm (Av. gâya, Vend. III, 57, &c.), ' step,' which ' in the Vendîdâd is three pâî,' or about 2 feet 7 inches, and in other places is said to be two frârâst' (Av. frârâthni in Vend. VII, 76, 79, 87); so the frârâst, which is probably the distance from the neck to the extended elbow, is half a gâm, or from 15 to 16 inches. Two other measures are mentioned in Vend. VII, 79, 87, 90, IX, 8, the Av. frâbâzu, fore-arm or cubit' from elbow to finger-ends, which is about 18 inches (or it may be a half fathom); and Av. vîbâzu, which is probably the 'fathom,' or extent of the two arms out-stretched, from 5 to 6 feet.
1 M6 has 'poisonous,' but is evidently copied from an original almost illegible in some places.
• Perhaps 'hemp the height of Bis' would better express the Pahlavi words, but Bîs (Napellus Moysis) is often mentioned as a poisonous plant. The phrase may also be translated 'like Bîs and tall hemp.'
See Chap. XIV, 1.
M6 has 'a thousand,' but marks an omission. See Chap. IX, 4.
H 2
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