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162
SELECTIONS OF ZÂD-SPARAM.
monished by her, about the care and propitiation of the earth : that each district is to be intrusted to a faithful testifier (gôkâs-i vâvar), each settlement to a judge acquainted with the law, each station to an officiating priest (magôpato) of just intentions, and each frontier to a pure priestly authority (rado); over all is proclaimed the councillor of the spirits, the supreme priest (magôpatânò magôpa to), and through him the sovereignty of Adharmazd is provided.
11. For the occurrence of the sixth questioning, which is Khûrdad's, the spirits of seas and rivers have come with Zaratûst to a conference at the Asnavad mountain ?, and he was told about the care and propitiation of water.
12. For the occurrence of the seventh questioning, which is Amûrdad's, the spirits of plants have come out with Zaratûst to a conference on the precipitous bank of the Darega”, on the bank (bar) of the water of Dâitih, and different places; and he was informed about the care and propitiation of plants.
13. The seven questionings are explained within the length of these winters, which are of five months, and within ten years 3.
1 See $ 9.
2 Pahl. pavan Daregîn zbâr'= Av. Dregya paiti zbarahi' of Vd. XIX, 4; a mythical river in Afrân-vêg, where Pôrůshaspô resided (Bd. XX, 32).
: The Pahlavi is rather vague, but it is clear that Zaratûst starts for his conference at thirty years of age (Chap. XXI, I), returns from it ten years later (Chap. XXIII, 1), and the conversion of Vistasp occupies two years longer (Chap. XXIII, 5), occurring when Zaratûst was forty-two years old and thirty-five years before his passing away at the age of seventy-seven (Chap. XXIII, 9).
At this point another dislocation of text occurs in all existing
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