________________
FARGARD I.
and he counter-created the locust?, which brings death unto cattle and plants.
6 (17). The third of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the strong, holy Môuru.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created plunder and sins.
7 (21). The fourth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful Bakhdhi * with high-lifted banners.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the ants and the anthills.
8 (25). The fifth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Nisayas, that lies between Môuru and Båkhdhi.
1 «The plague that fell to that country was the bad locust: it devours the plants and death comes to the cattle' (Gr. Bund.)
* Margu; Mapyran ; Marv.
: Doubtful. — The Gr. Bd. has : The plague that fell to that country was the coming and going of troops: for there is always there an evil concourse of horsemen, thieves, robbers, and heretics, who speak untruth and oppress the righteous.'-Marv continued to be the resort of Turanian plunderers till the recent Russian annexation.
• Bakhtri; Bakrpa; Balkh. 5.The corn-carrying ants' (Asp.; cf. Farg. XIV, 5).
. By contradistinction to other places of the same name. There was a Nisåya, in Media, where Darius put to death the Mage Gaumâta (Bahistân I, 58). There was also a Niså in Fârs, another in Kirmân, a third again on the way from Amol to Marv (Tabari, tr. Noeldeke, p. 101, 2), which may be the same as Noaia, the capital of Parthia (Clapdaúnioa ap. Isid. of Charax 12); cf. Pliny VI, 25 (29). One may therefore be tempted to translate, Nisaya between which and Bakhdhi Mộuru lies ;' but the text hardly admits of that construction, and we must suppose the existence of another Nisaya on the way from Balkh to Marv.
Digitized by Google