________________
I. LEGENDS RELATING TO KERESÂSP.
379
Zaratast the Spitamân wept aloud' and spoke thus : “Though there should be no deceiver, I would be the deceiver in thy eyes?, O Allharmazd! as regards the soul of Keresâsp; for when Keresâsp should not have existed as a bodily and living existence, there would have been no remnant of anything whatever, or of creature of thine, in the world 3."
When Zaratūst had become silent therewith, the angel of fire stood upon his feet', and the sinfulness of Keresâsp unto himself was fully mentioned by him, and he spoke thus: “I shall not let him into heaven."
And the angel of fire, having spoken thus many
1 The Persian version does not mention the angels and the weeping.
· This can also be translated thus : 'Though thou shouldst be no deceiver, thou wouldst be a deceiver in my eyes ;' the words hômanâyê, would be,' and hômanês,'thou wouldst be,' being written alike.
The Persian version of this speech is, 'O good creator! I know that hatred and anger are not in thy path, and when any one indulges in hatred of another, there is no acquiescence of thine therein, yet now I see this matter as though some one maintained batred against another.'
• The Persian version says 'the archangel Ardibahist,' who is the protector of fire (see Sls. XV, 5, 12, 13).
• The Persian version proceeds, and concludes the sentence, as follows: 'and Keresåsp groaned unto Zaratûst the Spitamân, and Ardîbahist, the archangel, said: “O Zaratust I thou dost not know what Keresâsp has done unto me; that in the world, formerly, my custom and habit would have been so, that, as they would place firewood under a caldron, I would send the fire, until that caldron should be boiled, and their work should be completed, and then it would have come back to its own place. As that serpent that he speaks of was slain he became hungry, and because the fire fell one moment later upon the firewood which he had placed below the caldron, he smote the fire with a club and scattered the fire, and now I will not pass the soul of Keresâsp to heaven.”'
Digitized by Google
