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DÎNKARD, BOOK VII.
manifestation in the country of any teaching whatever that occurs through the ravager of the country; and so, too, the country should keep a man who is observant and learned on the watch, because information is in his mind.'
33. About the collapse of the sovereignty of Irân, it also states this, namely: 'That very villain (mar), O Zaratûst! brings those provinces on to running astray, so that he may make those quite dissevered which constitute the existence of that powerful sovereignty; and then he is a thorough assailant of the righteous, then he is an assailant of the righteous with eagerness. 34. That same deadly one (mar), O Zaratûst ! does not continue living long afterwards; moreover his offspring disappear (that is, they perish utterly); but his soul falls to the bottom of the gloomy existence which is horrible hell, and upon their bodies every kind of unseemly unhappiness comes from themselves, owing to their own actions when they give approval to the imprisonment of a guardian of spiritual affairs who is eloquent, true-speaking, and righteous. 35. Against that deadly one he contends, O Zaratûst! for the spiritual lordship and priestly authority that I approve as good for the whole embodied existence; also against the preparation of a decree to produce evil decisions, and against the dismissal of litigants, whether heterodox or orthodox, who are of a family of serfs of a far-situated village and are making petitions.
36. 'And as to the land, too, over which he wanders, the evil spirit utterly devastates their country through pestilence and other misery; and, moreover, strife which is tormenting falls upon that
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