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CHAPTER II, 42-49.
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bestow no gifts and alms, and even those (they bestow]: they repent of again. 46. And even those men of the good religion, who have reverenced the good religion of the Mazdayasnians, proceed in conformity with (bar-hamako rû bisn) those ways and customs, and do not believe their own religion. 47. And the noble, great, and charitable 3, who are the virtuous of their own country and locality, will depart from their own original place and family * as idolatrous; through want they beg something from the ignoble and vile, and come to poverty and helplessness; through them nine in ten of these men will perish in the northern quarter.
48. Through their way of misrule everything comes to nothingness and destitution, levity and infirmity; and the earth of Spendarmad opens its mouth wide, and every jewel and metal becomes exposed, such as gold and silver, brass, tin, and lead. 49. And rule and sovereignty come to slaves, such as the Türk and non-Türanian (Atūr) of the army, and are turbulent as among the moun
1 This verb is omitted in K20.
? It is rather doubtful whether their own customs are meant, or those of their conquerors.
s Or da hâkân may mean the skilful.'
• Reading dadak instead of růdak. At first sight the miswriting of r for d seems to indicate copying from a text in the modern Persian character, in which those two letters are often much alike; but it happens that the compounds dû and rû also resemble one another in some Pahlavi handwriting.
• Whether through poverty and helplessness, or through the conquerors, is not quite clear.
Very little reliance can be placed upon the details of this sentence, but it is difficult to make any other complete and consistent translation. Darmesteter suggests the reading hênô,' army,' but another possible reading is Khyôn (Av. Hvyaona), the old name
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