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74
DÎNKARD, BOOK VII.
his conference, and thirty-five years onwards from the acceptance of the religion by Vistâsp?.
2. One marvel is this which is declared that, when Zaratůst chanted revelation in the abode of Vistâsp, it was manifest to the eye that it is danced to with joyfulness, both by the cattle and beasts of burden, and by the spirit of the fires which are in the abode. 3. By which, too, a great wonder is proclaimed, like this which revelation mentions thus: 'There seemed a righteous joyfulness of all the cattle, beasts of burden, and fires of the place, and there seemed a powerfulness of every kind of well-prepared spirits and of those quitting the abode (mân-hishậno), “that will make us 2 henceforth powerful through religion,” when they fully heard those words which were spoken by the righteous Zaratûst of the Spitâmas.'
4. And one marvel is the provision, by Zaratûst, of the achievement of ordeal, that indicator of the acquitted and incriminated for sentence by the judge, in obscure legal proceedings; of which it is said in revelation there are about (kigûn) thirty-three kinds. 5. These, too, the disciples of Zaratûst kept in use, after that time, until the collapse of the monarchy of Irân; and the custom of one of them is that of pouring melted metal on the breast, as in the achievement of the saintly (hû-fravardo) Atûrpåd son of Mâraspend, through whose preservation a know
1 The contents of this chapter and the next, as far as VI, 11, may be connected with the following summary in Dk. VIII, xiv, 9:--Information also as to many other things which are marvellous, and as to a summary of the statements of these seven enquiries, which is derived from knowledge of every kind.' For the seven enquiries, see Zs. XXII.
? Or, perhaps, make the abode.'
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