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CHAPTER IV, 5-19.
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good being, became aware, by means of omniscience, of the blemishing operation and the lies and falsehoods of the fiend, (14) and of this too, that is, of what extent was this power of his, by which this blemishing operation and work of ruin creep on, (15) so that, henceforth, there exists no power whatever for its restoration, which is free from the complete daubing of restraint, pain, and entanglement that is inside the sky.
16. It is they? who are sagaciously mingled by him (the good being) with the substance of the luminaries, because that fiend encompassed and was entangled with his luminaries, therefore all his powers and resources are for the purpose of not allowing the fiends of crimes of many kinds their own performance of what is desirable for them each separately; (17) such as the fiendish venom of the noxious creatures which the four elements (zahakân), pertaining to Adharmazd, [keep enveloped18. For if this fiendish venom of the noxious creatures] does not remain entangled (with the four elements of the bodily formations pertaining to Adharmazd]—which are water, fire, earth, and air—it is just as though they came to the sky and spiritual existence. 19.
1 Sans. 'will retreat,' as if Nêr. understood the pronoun 'his' to refer to the good spirit, instead of the evil one; the application of the pronouns in $$ 14, 15 being by no means clear in the original text.
The spiritual representatives of the luminaries, who are angels. : The words in brackets are omitted in AK, PB3, L23, so that $$ 17, 18, in those MSS., stand as follows:—Since the fiendish venom of the noxious creatures, that the four elements pertaining to Adharmazd—which are water, fire, earth, and air-have not entangled, is just as though they (the creatures) came to the sky and spiritual existence.'
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