________________
384
FRAGMENTS OF THE NASKS.
86. Who for three thousand years kept the world free from death and old age, from hunger, thirst, and evil ?;
87. Yet, when death came over him, he delivered up his body and could not struggle with death.
88. Or there was Hôshang, the Pêshdâdian,
89. Who destroyed two-thirds of all the evil creatures of Ahriman”;
90. Yet, when death came over him, he delivered up his body and could not struggle with death.
91. Or there was Tahmūraf, the well-armed, the son of Vivanghat,
92. Who made the Demon of demons, Ganâ Mainyô, his steeds, and extorted from him the seven kinds of writing * ;
93. Yet, when death came over him, he delivered up his body and could not struggle with death.
94. Or there was Gim, the Shêd, the good shepherd, the son of Vivanghat; (he was Shed, that is to say, shining; he was a good shepherd, that is to say,
Bundahis XXXIV, 1, 2.
See Yt. V, 22, 23. S See Yt. XV, 11-13. In the Sanskrit translation this is interpreted as an allegory: 'Tahmûraf rode on Ahriman; that means that he subdued the bad Ahriman in himself. Cf. Mirkhond, in the History of the Early Kings of Persia, tr. by Shea, p. 98.
* According to Firdausi, Tahmuras obliged the Dêvs he had conquered to teach him some thirty kinds of writing, the Ramî, the Tâzî, the Pârsî, the Sogdhî, the Chinese, the Pahlavi, &c. According to the Mînôkhard (XXVII, 23) he brought to light the seven kinds of writing that the demon kept hidden. Hence is derived the legend in Albîranî, p. 28, that when Tahmuras was warned about the Deluge, he ordered all scientific books to be preserved for posterity, and to be buried in the least exposed place;' in favour of which report, Albirûnî mentions the discovery of many loads of unintelligible bark-manuscripts in buildings under ground, at Ispahan, in his own time.
Digitized by Google
