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DÂDISTÂN-I DİNİK.
94
and venom, and the mischief originally in the lowermost third of the sky', issue upwards, astute in evil, into the middle third, in which are the agreeable 2 creatures which Aûharmazd created.
46. And he smote the ox3, he made Gâyômard mortal, and he shook the earth; and the land was shattered, creation became dark, and the demons rushed below, above, and on all sides, and they mounted even to the uppermost third of the sky1. 47. And there the barricade (band) and rampart fortifying (vakhshiko) the spiritual world is approached, for which the safeguard (nigâs) of all barricades, that is itself the great glory of the pure religion, solving doubts-which is the safeguard of all barricades-is arrayed. 48. And the splendid, belt-bearing Pleiades, like the star-studded girdle of the spirit-fashioned, good religion of the Mazdaworshippers, are so arrayed as luminaries of the fully-glorious ones. 49. And there was no possibility (aitokih) of any demon or fiend, nor yet even of
1 See § 28.
By omitting a stroke nôs, 'agreeable,' would become vêh, 'good.'
> The sole-created, or primeval ox, whence all animals are said to have sprung. For an account of this incursion of the fiend, see Bd. III, 12-20, VIII, 1, Zs. II, 1-11.
⚫ M14 and J have 'even to the upper sky of the middle third,' which means the same thing, as the author's words imply that the demons did not enter the upper third, but only reached its borders (see § 49).
M14 and J conclude the sentence as follows: 'the pure religion, solving doubts, is arrayed.'
• Reading vandvar Pêrvako. The author seems to have been thinking of Yas. IX, 81: 'Mazda brought to thee the star-studded, spirit-fashioned girdle (the belt of Orion) leading the Pleiades; the good Mazda-worshipping religion' (Haug's Essays, p. 182).
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