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I. LEGENDS RELATING TO KERESÂSP.
375
districts were devoured at once. When I looked among the teeth of Gandarep, dead men1 were sticking among his teeth; and my beard was seized by him, and I dragged him out of the sea; nine days and nights the conflict was maintained by us in the sea, and then I became more powerful than Gandarep. The sole of Gandarep's foot was also seized by me, and the skin was flayed off up to his head, and with it the hands and feet of Gandarep were bound; he was also dragged by me out to the shore of the sea, and was delivered by me over to Âkhrûrag3; and he slaughtered and ate my fifteen horses. I also fell down in a dense thicket (aisakŏ), and Gandarep carried off my friend Âkhrtrag, and she who was my wife was carried off by him, and my father and nurse (dâyako) were carried off by him. And I took under my protection (din hâriginido) and raised all the people of our pleasant place, and every single step sprang forward a thousand steps, and fire fell into everything which was struck by my foot as it sprang forward'; I went out to the sea, and they were brought back by me,
1 The Persian version says 'horses and asses.'
* For this clause the Persian version substitutes 'the sea was up to his knee, and his head up to the sun.'
"This is merely a guess. The word can also be read khârvarag, 'thorny, or a thorny brake;' but it seems to be the name of some person, being followed by the word dôsto, 'friend,' in the next sentence. Âkhrura, son of Haosravangh, is mentioned in Fravardin Yt. 137, next after Sâma Keresâspa, as 'withstanding Hashi-dava (or daêva), the wicked and covetous one destroying the world.' The Persian version omits from the dragging out of the sea in this sentence to the slaying in the next (p. 376, line 1).
BK has 'by me,' which must be a blunder.
B
J omits these last seven words.
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