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xiv
PAHLAVI TEXTS.
sources, and it might be preferable to assume that Åtarfarnbag was himself compiling a record of Zoroastrian traditions for the use of some converts from Judaism, to take the place of the Gemara of their former faith.
15. The Zaratust-nâmak of Zâd-sparam is contained in the latter half (Zs. XII-XXIII) of the first series of his Selections, the former half of which, being a paraphrase of the first half of the Bundahis, has been translated in S. B. E., vol. v, pp. 155-186. In Chapter XII Zâd-sparam relates two of the earliest legends referring to Mazda-worship, which he had found in old MSS. The first of these describes the appearance of the archangel Spendarmad, wearing a golden sacred girdle, at the court of king Mânuskihar, 428 1 years before the coming of the religion to Zaratûst when he went to his conference with the sacred beings. The other is the legend of the warrior Srîtô, the seventh brother, who was sent by Kai-Us to kill the frontier-settling ox which threatened him, 300 years before the coming of the religion, with future execration by Zaratûst.
16. Chapter XIII refers to the descent of Zaratůst's glory upon his mother at her birth, and the combination of his spiritual and worldly natures; also detailing his genealogy. Chapter XIV describes the attempts of the demons to destroy him before and at his birth, when Vohûmanô entered his reasoning powers and made him laugh with delight and utter one form of the Ahunavair formula. Chapter XV is about the five Karap brothers, with their first cousins the Aûsikhshes, all descended from the demon of Wrath and a sister of king Mânûskîhar; also about the four brothers of Zaratust who seem to be unmentioned elsewhere.
17. Chapter XVI details the attempts of one of the Karaps to destroy Zaratûst during his infancy, and the means by which he is preserved; it also explains who Râgh and Nôdar were. In Chapter XVII one of the Karaps foretells the future success of Zaratûst. In Chapter XVIII
· The MSS. have 528, but this would be twenty-eight years before the accession of Mânûskîhar, see the synopsis in $ 55.
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