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SELECTIONS OF ZÂD-SPARAM, IX, 20-x, 5.
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pure propitious liturgy (mânsarspend), as heard from Gâyômard; and Adharmazd, in pure meditation, considered that which is good and righteousness as destruction of the fiend (dragó). 2. And when he (Gâyômard) passed away eight kinds of mineral of a metallic character arose from his various members; they are gold, silver, iron, brass, tin, lead, quicksilver (âvginako), and adamant; and on account of the perfection of gold it is produced from the life and seed.
3. Spendarmad received the gold of the dead Gâyômardi, and it was forty years in the earth. 4. At the end of the forty years, in the manner of a Rivas-plant, Mashya and Mashyôi ? came up, and, one joined to the other, were of like stature and mutually adapteds; and its middle, on which a glory came, through their like stature , was such that it was not clear which is the male and which the female, and which is the one with the glory which Adharmazd created. 5. This is that glory for which man is, indeed, created, as it is thus said in revela
i Compare Bund. XV, 1.
The MS. has Mashai Mashâyê, but see Bund. XV, 6. The Avesta forms were probably mashya mashy ôi (or mashyê), which are regular nominatives dual, masculine and feminine, of mashya, 'mortal,' and indicate that they were usually coupled together in some part of the Avesta which is no longer extant. Påzand writers have found it easy to read Mashyani instead of Mashyội.
* Reading ham-basně ham-dakhik, but whether this is more likely to be the original reading than the ham-ba disn va hamdasak of Bund. XV, 2, is doubtful. The last epithet here might also be read ham-sabîk, 'having the same shirt,' but this is an improbable meaning.
It is evident that ham-ban disnih, 'mutual connection.' in accordance with Bund. XV, 3, would be preferable to the hambasnõîh, like stature,' of this text.
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