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DÎNKARD, BOOK VII.
tůst of the Spitâmas ! that, in the ninth and tenth centuries, there come those who are the brood of the fiend and the wound-producer (reshgâr) 1 of the evil spirit; even one of them is more to be destroyed than ten demon-worshippers ? ; 'they also produce extermination for these who are mine, for these of my religion, whom they call a provision for destruction (that is, when it is possible to live in our way, and ours are wicked, they diminish in superiority). 35. Even the iniquity that they shall commit in leadership and subserviency, the sin which is smiting thee, they call a trifle (khalako), O pure one of the Spitâmas! and the smiter, they say, is he whom these of thy religion of Mazda-worshippers smite. 36. Besides thee, O Zaratûst! they distress those duties, too, which are to be acquired by thy people (lagâno); they think scornfully of this ceremonial of thine, scornfully of thy worship, O Zaratūst ! and they think scornfully of both the two blessed utterances, the Avesta and Zand, which were proclaimed to thee by me who am the most propitious of spirits. 37. They foster villainous outrage, and they say the best work for mankind is immoderate fighting whose joyfulness is due to actions that are villainous; those, too, that they exterminate are the existences due to the spirits, they exterminate their own souls, they exterminate the embodied existences of the world ; and they produce lamentation for the soul, and even the religion, as regards what is the mode of controlling orthodox people together with the iniquitous of the same period.'
38. And this, too, it says, that Zaratûst enquired
2 Or idolators'
? Or it may be riyâgâr, 'hypocrite.' : Pahl. vâfrîgânîh = Av. urvâtâ.
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