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VENDIDAD.
Euphrates (ὅτι τὴν ἐμὴν ἐκπονεῖς γῆν, τοὺς πέραν Εὐφράτου καρποὺς ἐπὶ τὰ κάτω τῆς ̓Ασίας μέρη καταφυτεύων).
22
The third Fargard may serve as a Commentary to those texts. The principal subject is, as the Dînkard has it:
What comforts most the Genius of the Earth (§§ 1-6)? What discomforts most the Genius of the Earth (§§ 7-11)? What rejoices the Earth most (§§ 12-35)?
In each of these three developments a series of five objects is considered. Series I and II, though expressed in symmetrical terms, do not answer one another: there is greater symmetry, as to the ideas, between the second series and the third. Series I and II are a dry enumeration. The third series contains two interesting digressions, one on the funeral laws (§§ 14-21), and the other on the sanctity of husbandry (§§ 24-33).
The Fargard ends with a development forbidding the burial of the dead (§§ 36-42): it is a sort of commentary to § 8.
The subject of this chapter has become a commonplace topic with the Parsis, who have treated it more or less antithetically in the Mainyô-i-khard (chaps. V and VI) and in the Ravâets (Gr. Rav. pp. 434-437).
I.
1. O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! Which is the first place where the Earth 1 feels most happy?
Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is the place whereon one of the faithful steps forward, O Spitama Zarathustra ! with the log in his hand, the Baresma 3 in his hand, the milk in his hand, the mortar in his
1 'The Genius of the Earth' (Comm.)
The wood for the fire altar.
The Baresma (now called barsom) is a bundle of sacred twigs which the priest holds in his hand while reciting the prayers. (See Farg. XIX, 18 seq. and notes.)
The so-called gîv or gîvâm, one of the elements of the Haoma sacrifice.
The Havana or mortar used in crushing the Haoma or
Hôm.
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