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CHAPTER XX, 12-XXI, 2.
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to manage everything but temper (gôhar), and it is possible for everything to change but divine providence (bakô-bakhtô).
18. This, too, is declared, that Frédân' wished to slay Az-i Dahak?, but Adharmazd spoke thus :
Do not slay him now, for the earth will become full of noxious creatures.'
CHAPTER XXI. 1. I write the indication of the midday shadow; may it be fortunate!
2. Should the sun come into Cancer the shadow is one foot of the man, at the fifteenth degree of Cancer it is one foot ; when the sun is at Leo it is
been derived from M6 before it lost its last folio; whereas the MS. No. 121 of the Ouseley collection at Oxford, which ends at the same point, must have been written after the folio was lost. 1 See Bund. XXXI, 7.
See Bund. XXIX, 9, XXXI, 6, B. Yt. III, 55–61. * The contents of this chapter, regarding the lengths of midday and afternoon shadows, immediately follow a tale of Gôst-i Fryânô, which is appended to the book of Arda -Vîrâf's journey to the other world, both in M6 and K20. As will be seen from the notes, these details about shadows were probably compiled at Yazd in Persia, as they are suitable only for that latitude.
• Reading ayad-ae (a very rare form), or it may be intended for hômanae, should it be,' but it is written in both MSS. exactly like the two ciphers for the numeral 5. Mulla Fîraz in his Avîgeh Dîn, p. 279 seq., takes 5 khadůk pâî as implying that the shadow is under the sole of the foot, or the sun overhead; but neither this reading, nor the more literal 'one-fifth of a foot,' can be reconciled with the other measures; though if we take 5 as standing for pangak, 'the five toes or sole,' we might translate as follows:
When the sun is at Cancer, the shadow is the sole of one foot of the man.'
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