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350
SHAYAST LÂ-SHAYAST.
and they should not set their minds steadfastly on hell; thereby much sinfulness for which there is a desire would be undesirable, because there is nothing which is a sin in my religion for which there is no retribution, as it says in the Gathas thus:-'Of those who are aware that thou art, O Adharmazd! is even he who is infamous (raspako); and they know the punishment of him even who is very sinful.' 29. And as to him even who is a very sinful person, through the desire ? of good works which is entertained by him, there then comes more fully to him the joy of a soul newly worthy (nuk shầyad); as in the Spend Nasks it was shown to Zaratūst about one man, that all his limbs were in torment, and one foot was outside ; and Zaratust enquired of Adharmazd about the reason of it; and Adharmazd said that he was a man, Davâns + by name; he was ruler over thirty-three o districts, and he never practised
· The passage here quoted from the Gâthas will be found in Pahl. Yas. XXXII, 7.
• M6 has merely 'through the good works which are practised by him ;' but K20 has'ı hamak' inserted at this point, which seems to indicate the existence of the nearly identical Pahlavi letters kâmak, desire,' in the original from which it was copied.
. See Chap. X, 4. The passage here quoted was no doubt contained in that part of the Nask which treated of the exhibition of heaven and hell to Zaratûst, which must have been very similar to the Arda-Viráf-nâmak, in which most of the details of this story about Davâns are given (see AV. XXXII).
• This is, no doubt, the Av. da vas of Yas. XXXI, 10, which may be translated hypocrite.' The Pahlavi translation of the line in which the word occurs is thus rendered in Haug's Essays (p. 351): • Adharmazd does not allot to him who is an idler, the infidel who is any hypocrite (davās) in the sacred recitations. In the good religion it is asserted that even as much reward as they give to the hypocrite they do not give to the infidel.'
6 K20 has 'thirty-four.'
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