________________
110
DÎNÂ-Î MAÎNÔG-I KHIRAD.
too, is three hundred years 1, (19) and their pain and disturbance are little 2.
20. “The body of Sahm : is in the plain of Pêsândas 4, near to Mount Dimâvand. 21. And on that plain, except corn and the eatable things they sow and reap and live upon, there is not so much as a single other trees, or shrub, or plant; (22) and its golden colour is mostly wormwood? 23. And the angels and archangels have appointed 99,999. guardian spirits of the righteous as a protection for the body of Sâhm 8, (24) so that the demons and fiends may not injure it.
25. The abode of Srôsh is mostly in Arzah 10, and afterwards also in Savah and the whole world.
man,' that is, a couple of children from each couple, which would agree with Vend. II, 134. 1 Pahl. Vend. II, 136 has 150 years.
The characteristics mentioned in $$ 17-19 are ascribed to the whole of Afrân-vêg6 in Chap. XLIV, 25, 27, 32.
8 See Chap. XXVII, 49.
+ L19 has Pust Gustâs pã, the ridge of Vistâsp,' which appears, from Bd. XII, 18, 34, XVII, 8, to have been somewhere in the central desert of Persia. In Bd. XXIX, 7-9, 11 we are told that Sâm lies asleep in the plain of Pêsyânsai (evidently the Pêsândas of our text) in Kâvulistân, till he is waked hereafter to slay Dahâk, who escapes from Mount Dimâvand. This legend may have led to the perplexing juxtaposition of Pêsândas and Dimâvand in our text, and the perplexity occasioned by this may have led Nêr. to substitute Past-Î Vistâspân for the former name, as being nearer Dimâvand.
6 The highest peak of the modern Albârs, in which Dahâk is said to be confined (see Bd. XII, 31).
. Reading hâno drû-aê; L 19 has han mard, another myrtlebush.' ? With yellow blossoms. 8 As stated in Fravardin Yt. 61.
See Chap. II, 115. 10 The western region, as Savah is the eastern one (see Chap.
XVI, 10).
Digitized by Google