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• APPENDIX.
from thee; thou, who art Adharmazd, dost not release her from thy hand, and she does not release thee from her hand?." And Adharmazd said: "This is Spendarmad, who is my daughter, the housemistress of my heaven, and mother of the creatures ?." Zaratast spoke thus: “When they say, in the world, this is a very perplexing thing, how is it proclaimed by thee-thee who art Adharmazd-for thee thyself ?” Adharmazd spoke thus: “O Zaratast! this should have become the best-enjoyed thing of mankind. When, since my original creation, Mâharlyâ and Mâhariyâdlhs had performed it, you, also, should have performed it; because although mankind have turned away from that thing', yet they should not have turned away. Just as Mahariyâ and Mahariyâôth had performed Khvêtādad, mankind should have performed it, and all mankind would have known their own lineage and race, and a brother would never be deserted by the affection of his brother, nor a sister by that of her sister. For all nothingness, emptiness', and drought have come unto mankind from the deadly one (mar), when men have come to them from a different country, from a different town, or from a different district, and have married their women; and when they shall have carried away their women, and they have
· This legend is an instance of the close proximity of superstition to profanity, among uneducated and imaginative people.
. She being a representative of the earth. s See p. 402, note 1.
• That is, from marriage of the nearest relations, which is admitted, throughout these extracts, to be distasteful to the people; hence the vehemence with which it is advocated,
Literally 'air-stuffing' (våe-akinib).
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