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84
DINKARD, BOOK VII.
whose name is 'the propitious wisdom.' 9. Because it says even this about them, namely: ‘I mention thy manifestation, and also the tokens of its publicity when this religion of thy Mazda-worshippers becomes four hundred years old1; in this law benightedness (lêlyaih) arises, and the embodied existences see the manifestation through calculation of the planets and also the stars; and whoever, too, are mine are so for a century, through the average opinion of thirty medium winters for a man ?; and the righteous Arezvâk and those three others are they of the most righteous existences, over whom they are the most masterly and most authoritative in that time.' 10. And this, too, that they who glorify the religion of the Mazda-worshippers in the fifth and sixth centuries are they ; and no persons save their souls, except those who remain for the arrival of the four 3 interpretations that arise through the authority of these four individuals, Arezvâk, Srûtô-spâdhau 4, Zrayang, hau, and Spentô-khratvau who, all four of them, seek their thoughts, words, and deeds in the sacred text (mânsar).
11. Also Rashn-rêsh 5 is the apostate of that
1 If the chronology in Bd. XXXIV, 7, 8 were correct, the interval between the first revelation of the religion and the death of Alexander would be 272 years, and this would make the 4ooth year of the religion coincide with B. C. 195.
? That is, for a generation. The meaning appears to be, that these four successive high-priests insure the continuance of orthodox religion for more than a century, or well into the sixth century of the religion, as mentioned in g 10.
3 The MS. has the cipher for three,' by mistake. + Here written in Avesta characters. • In Dk. III, cxcviii, 2, this apostate is said to have been an
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