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BUNDAHIS.
residing in the world, are committed to them?; so that when the destroyer arrives they overcome the adversary and their own persecution, and the creatures are saved from those adversities.
5. As a specimen of a warlike army, which is destined for battle, they have ordained every single constellation of those 6480 thousand small stars as assistance; and among those constellations four chieftains, appointed on the four sides, are leaders. 6. On the recommendation of those chieftains the many unnumbered stars are specially assigned to the various quarters and various places, as the united strength and appointed power of those constellations. 7. As it is said that Tistar is the chieftain of the east, Sataves the chieftain of the west, Vanand the chieftain of the south, and Haptôk-ring the chieftain of the north ?. 8. The great one which they
Pahlavi names would be to transliterate the Pâzand back into Pahlavi characters. The ninth subdivision is mentioned in Chap. VII, I by the name Avrak.
1 That is, to the zodiacal constellations, which are supposed to have special charge of the welfare of creation.
? Of these four constellations or stars, which are said to act as leaders, there is no doubt that Haptôk-ring, the chieftain of the north, is Ursa Major; and it is usually considered that Tîstar, the chieftain of the east, is Sirius; but the other two chieftains are not so well identified, and there may be some doubt as to the proper stations of the eastern and western chieftains. It is evident, however, that the most westerly stars, visible at any one time of the year, are those which set in the dusk of the evening; and east of these, all the stars are visible during the night as far as those which rise at daybreak, which are the most easterly stars visible at that time of the year. Tistar or Sirius can, therefore, be considered the chieftain of the eastern stars only when it rises before daybreak, which it does at the latter end of summer ; and Haptôkring or Ursa Major is due north at midnight (on the meridian below the pole) at about the same time of the year. These stars, there
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