112. 'Unto her did Zalri-vairi ^, who fought on horseback, offer up a sacrifice behind the river Daltya^, with a hundred male horses, a thousand oxen, ten thousand lambs.
113. * He begged of her a boon, saying: " Grant me this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sura Anahita! that I may overcome Pesho-A'angha the corpse-burier ^, Humayaka^ the worshipper of the Daevas, and the wicked Are^a/-aspa ^ in the battles of this world.
1 14. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita granted him that boon", as he was offering up libations, giving gifts, sacri- ficing, and entreating that she would grant him that boon.
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice...XXVII.
115. 'Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathujtra! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita...116.' Unto her did Are^a^aspa and Va;zdaremaini'^ 1 Zarir in Firdausi, the brother of Vutaspa; cf Yt. V, 117; XIII, loi.
^ The Araxes (Vendidad I, 3).
3 Doubtful (cf. Vend. Ill, 36 seq.).
* This is perhaps an epithet to Pesho-^angha, 'the most malicious.'
" If we may trust the Shah Namah, she did not grant her favour to the last, as Zarir was killed by one of the generals of Ar§-asp, Bidirafi-h.
^ A brother of Ar^asp's: his name is slightly altered in Firdausi (Andariman miswritten for Vandariman,,jU.3^jol for ^jUj^aJj; see Etudes Iraniennes, p. 228).
ABAN YA^T. 8 I offer up a sacrifice by the sea Vouru-Kasha, with a hundred male horses, a thousand oxen, ten thousand lambs.
117.' They ^ begged of her a boon, saying: " Grant us this, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Sura Anahita! that we may conquer the valiant Kavi Vii'taspa and Zairivairi who fights on horseback, and that we may smite of the Aryan people their fifties and their hun- dreds, their hundreds and their thousands, their thousands and their tens of thousands, their tens of thousands and their myriads of myriads."
1 18. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita did not grant them^ that favour, though they were offering up libations, giving gifts, sacrificing, and entreating that she should grant them that favour.
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice...XXVIII.
119. 'Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathujtral unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita...1 20. ' For whom Ahura Mazda has made four horses — the wind, the rain, the cloud, and the sleet — and thus ever ^ upon the earth it is raining, snowing, hailing, and sleeting; and whose armies are so many and numbered by nine-hundreds and thousands.
12 1. 'I will worship the height Hukairya, of the ^ The text has the singular here and in the rest of the sentence: the names of the two brothers form a sort of singular dvandva; of Franghrasyanem Keresavazdem (Yt. XIX, 77); Ashavazdangho Thritahe (Yt. XIII, 113; and same Yast, 115), and in the present passage ViJ-taspo Zairivairij (see ]^tudes Iraniennes, II, 229).
2 Both were killed by Isfendyar (Shah Namah).
^ ]\Iijli translated hamejak, sada (Yt. VII, 4).
82 YA^TS AND SIROZAHS.
deep precipices, made of gold, wherefrom this mine Ardvi Sura Anahita leaps, from a hundred times the height of a man, while she is possessed of as much Glory as the whole of the waters that run along the earth, and she runs powerfully \ ' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice...XXIX.
122. 'Offer up a sacrifice,© Spitama Zarathmtra! unto this spring of mine, Ardvi Sura Anahita...123. 'She Stands, the good Ardvi Stira Anahita, wearing a golden mantle ^, waiting for a man who shall offer her libations and prayers, and thinking thus in her heart: 124. * " Who will praise me? Who will offer me a sacrifice, with libations cleanly prepared and well- strained, together with the Haoma and meat? To whom shall I cleave, who cleaves unto me, and thinks with me, and bestows gifts upon me, and is of good will unto me^?"
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice...XXX.
125. 'Offer up a sacrifice, O Spitama Zarathujtra! unlo this spring of mine, Ardvi Siira Anahita...
126. 'Ardvi Sura Anahita, who stands carried forth in the shape of a maid, fair of body, most strong, tall-formed, high-girded, pure, nobly born of ^ Paitidana, a mande, a tunic (Vend. XIV, 9 [28]).
ABAN VAST. 83 a glorious race ^ wearing along her...^ a mantle fully embroidered with gold; 127. * Ever holding the baresma in her hand, ac- cording to the rules, she wears square golden ear- rings on her ears bored '\ and a golden necklace around her beautiful neck, she, the nobly born Ardvi Sura Anahita; and she girded her waist tightly, so that her breasts may be well-shaped, that they may be tightly pressed *.
128. * Upon her head Ardvi Sura Anahita bound a golden crown, with a hundred stars ^ with eight rays, a fine...^, a well-made crown, in the shape of a...'^, with fillets streaming down.
129. 'She is clothed with garments of beaver^, Ardvi Siira Anahita; with the skin of thirty beavers of those that bear four young ones, that are the finest kind of beavers; for the skin of the beaver that lives in water is the finest-coloured of all skins, and when worked at the right time it shines to the eye with full sheen of silver and gold.
130. 'Here, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Siira Anahita! I beg of thee this favour: that I, fully blessed, may conquer large kingdoms, rich in horses^, with high tributes, with snorting horses, sounding chariots, flashing swords, rich in aliments, with stores of food, with well-scented beds^"; that I may have ' Doubtful (sispemna, from sif, ^j:J^). * Doubtful. ^ Gems.
^? Anupoithwaitim.
'? Ratha; the usual meaning of ratha is 'a chariot;' perhaps the round shape of the chest of a chariot is meant.
' Possibly otter, Vend. XIV. » Doubtful.
8'4 YA^TS AND SIROZAHS.
at my wish the fulness of the good things of life and whatever makes a kingdom thrive \ 131. ' Here, O good, most beneficent Ardvi Stara Anahita! I beg of thee two gallant companions, one two-legged and one four-legged ^: one two-legged, who is swift, quickly rushing, and clever in turning a chariot round in battle; and one four-legged, who can quickly turn towards either wing of the host with a wide front, towards the right wing or the left, towards the left wing or the right.
132. 'Through the strength of this sacrifice, of this invocation, O Ardvi Sura Anahita! come down from those stars ^, towards the earth made by Ahura, towards the sacrificing priest, towards the full boiling [milk '^J; come to help him who is offering up libations, giving gifts, sacrificing, and entreating that thou wouldst grant him thy favours; that all those gallant warriors may be strong, like king Vii-taspa.
' For her brightness and glory, I will offer her a sacrifice...133. ' Yatha ahfl vairyo: The will of the Lord is the law of holiness...' I bless the sacrifice and prayer, and the strength and vigour of the holy water-spring Anahita.
'AshemVohu: Holiness is the best of all good...' [Give] unto that man brightness and glory,...give him the bright, all-happy, blissful abode of the holy Ones!'
^ The translation of the last clause is doubtful.
^ A good horse and a good driver.
KHORSHED YA^T. 85 (Ya^t to the Sun.)
This Yajt is recited at any time, but particularly on the days consecrated to the sun and to Khshathra-Vairya (Shahrivar), Mithra (IMihir), Asman (Asman), and Anaghra rao/^a« (Aniran ^): the last three, Mithra, Asman (the Heaven), Anaghra (the infinite Light), have a natural connection with the sun, but its connection with Khshathra-Vairya is not so clear.
Of this Yart we have a Pahlavi (East India Office, XII), a Persian (ibid. XXIV), and a Sanskrit translation (Fonds Burnouf V; all three edited in lEtudes Iraniennes, II).
0. May Ahura Mazda be rejoiced I...Ashem Vohu: Holiness is the best of all good...
I confess myself a worshipper of Mazda, a follower of Zara- thujtra, one who hates the Daevas and obeys the laws of Ahura; For sacrifice, prayer, propitiation, and glorification unto [Havani], the holy and master of holiness ^...Unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun^; Be propitiation, with sacrifice, prayer, propitiation, and glorification.
Yatha ahu vairyo: The will of the Lord is the law of holi- 1. We sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift- horsed Sun.
When the light of the sun waxes warmer *, when the brightness of the sun waxes warmer, then up ^ Or the nth, i6th, 27th, and 30th days of the month (Anquetil, That is to say, rises up ' (Phi. tr.).
86 YA^TS AND sIroZAHS.
Stand the heavenly Yazatas, by hundreds and thou- sands: they gather together its Glory, they make its Glory pass down, they pour its Glory upon the earth made by Ahura, for the increase of the world of holiness, for the increase of the creatures of holi- ness \ for the increase of the undying, shining, swift- horsed Sun.
2. And when the sun rises up, then the earth, made by Ahura, becomes clean 2; the running waters become clean, the waters of the wells become clean, the waters of the sea become clean, the standing waters become clean; all the holy creatures, the creatures of the Good Spirit, become clean.
3. Should not the sun rise up, then the Daevas would destroy all the things that are in the seven Karshvares, nor would the heavenly Yazatas find any way of withstanding or repelling them in the material world.
4. He who offers up a sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun — to withstand darkness, to withstand the Daevas born of darkness, to withstand the robbers and bandits, to withstand the Yatus and Pairikas, to withstand death that creeps in unseen — offers it up to Ahura Mazda, offers it up to the Amesha-Spe;/tas, offers it up to his own soul^ He rejoices all the heavenly and worldly Yazatas, who offers up a sacrifice unto the undying, shining, swift- horsed Sun.
5. I will sacrifice unto Mithra, the lord of wide ' Literally ' of the body of holiness,' that is to say, of the bodily creatures that incorporate holiness.
"^ ' From the uncleanness that the Daevas mix with the earth during the night ' (Phi. tr.).
^ As he benefits them and himself thereby.
KHORSHEZ) VAST. 87 pastures, who has a thousand ears, ten thousand eyes.
I will sacrifice unto the club of Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, well struck down ^ upon the skulls of the Daevas.
I will sacrifice unto that friendship, the best of all friendships, that reigns between the moon and the sun ^.
6. For his brightness and glory, I will offer unto him a sacrifice worth being heard, namely, unto the undying, shining, swift- horsed Sun. Unto the undying, shining, swift-horsed Sun we offer up the libations, the Haoma and meat, the baresma, the wisdom of the tongue, the holy spells, the speech, the deeds, the libations, and the rightly-spoken words ^.
Yewhe hatam: All those beings of whom Ahura Mazda...7. Yatha ahu vairyo: The will of the Lord is the law of holi- ness...I bless the sacrifice and the invocation, and the strength and vigour of the undying, shining, swift- horsed Sun.
Ashem Vohu: Holiness is the best of all good...
Give unto that man brightness and glory, give him health of body,...give him the bright, all-happy, blissful abode of the holy Ones.
^ Hunivikhtem: suniyuktam (Sansk. tr.); s^il^j ljj.* (Pers.tr.). ^ As they succeed one another in regular order.
^ 88 YAS-TS AND SIROZAHS VII. MAH YA^r.
This Yajt to the Moon is recited on the day of the Moon, and on those of Bahman, Gos, and Ram^ (Anquetil, II, 185). Bah- man and Gos are so far connected with the Moon that all three are gao/^ithra: ' Bahman ^ the Moon, and Gds\ all three, are having in them the seed of the bull; Bahman can neither be seen nor seized with the hand; the Moon proceeded from Bahman * and can be seen, but cannot be seized with the hand; G6s proceeded from the Moon ^ and can both be seen and seized with the hand ^' Ram is referred to here as being;^z;astra, ' lord of good pastures V Of this Yajt we have translations in Pahlavi, Persian, and San- skrit (edited in Etudes Iraniennes, II).
o. May Ahura Mazda be rejoiced!...
Ashem Vohii: Holiness is the best of all good...I confess myself a worshipper of Mazda, a follower of Zara- thu^tra, one who hates the Daevas and obeys the laws of Ahura; For sacrifice, prayer, propitiation, and glorification unto [Havani], the holy and master of holiness...Unto the Moon that keeps in it the seed of the ^ The 1 2th, 2nd, 14th, and 21st days of the month.
2 The Amshaspand Bahman is entrusted with the care of cattle ^ The Genius of Cattle; see Yt. IX.
* Bahman is 'good thought, good mind,' Vohu-Mano; in the Vedas the moon is said to have been made out of the mind (man as) of Puruja. For an explanation of that old mystical myth, see Ormazd et Ahriman, p. 74, note 3.
« Pahlavi commentary to this Ya^t, I.
^ Vend. Introd. IV, 16, and tindes Iraniennes, II, 187 seq.
Bull; unto the only-created Bull and unto the Bull^ of many species; Be propitiation, with sacrifice, prayer, propitiation, and crlorification.
o Yatha ahii vairyo: The will of the Lord is the law of holi- ness...
1. Hail to Ahura Mazda! Hail to the Amesha- Spe;^tas! Hail to the Moon that keeps in it the seed of the BulP! Hail to thee when we look at thee! Hail to thee when thou lookest at us ^!
2, How does the moon wax? How does the moon wane?
For fifteen days does the moon wax*; for fifteen days does the moon wane. As long as her waxing, so long is the waning^; as long as her waning, so long is the waxing.
* Who is there but thee ^ who makes the moon wax and wane '?'
^ Sirozah I, 12. ^ See Vend. XXI, i, text and note.
* When the moon allows itself to be perceived.
* The Pahlavi translation has the following interesting details: ' For fifteen days they take good deeds from the earthly creatures and the rewards for virtue from the heavens; for fifteen days they make the rewards pass to the earth and the good deeds pass to the heavens.' The moon is thus a sort of moral clearing-house between earth and heaven, ^ According to the Parsis this waning does not refer to the moon, but to the constellations that help it in the struggle against the planets, which are supposed to belong to the Ahrimanian world (see Ormazd et Ahriman, §§ 223-226): 'while it waxes — namely, the moon — they wane, — namely, those that are opposed to the planets, to the bad stars; for instance, Haftoiring, Va.na.nd, Tijtar, Satves;...while it wanes — namely, the moon — they wax, that is to say, they are strong for doing good.' Thus the moon and the stars relieve each other in the batde against Ahriman.
« Ahura.
' Quoted from Yasna XLIV [XLIII], 3.
90 YA^TS AND SIROZAHS.
3. We sacrifice unto the Moon that keeps in it the seed of the Bull, the holy and master of holiness.
Here I look at the moon, here I perceive the moon; here I look at the light of the moon, here I perceive the light of the moon. The Amesha- Spe;^tas stand up \ holding its glory; the Amesha- Spe;^tas stand up, pouring its glory upon the earth, made by Mazda ^.
4. And when the light of the moon waxes warmer, golden-hued plants grow on^ from the earth during the spring ^ We sacrifice unto the new moons, the full moons, and the Vtshaptathas^.
We sacrifice unto the new moon, the holy and master of holiness; We sacrifice unto the full moon, the holy and master of holiness; We sacrifice unto the Vishaptatha, the holy and master of holiness.
^ As soon as the moon appears. ^ Cf. Yt. VI, 2.
' Mijti, meaning sada, &..t. » fe; cf. mi-^a/^i.
* Zaremaem, meaning vasantamase,^lp. ^J^p.; it has the same meaning in Vend. XVIII, 9 [23]; cf. Yt. XXII, 18.
^ New moon and full moon are not used here in the English meaning: the month was divided into six parts, of five days each (the Norse fimt or five days' week; see Vigfusson, Icelandic Dictionary, s. v.): the first five days (pan/^ak fartum) formed the new moon or awtare-mcz/ngha, literally ' the moon within;' the next five days (pan/^ak datigar) formed the peren6-maMngha, literally ' the moon full,' which in fact partly answered to our first quarter; the next five days (pan/^ak sitigar), belonging to the full moon, were called the Vishaptatha; no mention is made of the last three pan;6ak, forming the second half of the month. It may be they were not mentioned, as belonging to the waning period, when the powers of the moon are suffering an eclipse. Cf. Neriosengh to 5. I will sacrifice unto the Moon, that keeps in it the seed of the Bull, the liberal, bright, glorious, water - giving \ warmth - giving, wisdom - giving ^, wealth-giving ^ riches-giving, thoughtfulness-giving ^, weal-giving, freshness -giving^, prosperity -giving^, the liberal, the healing.
6. For its brightness and glory, I will offer unto it a sacrifice worth being heard, namely, unto the Moon that keeps in it the seed of the Bull.
Unto the Moon that keeps in it the seed of the Bull, we offer up the libations, the Haoma and meat, the baresma, the wisdom of the tongue, the holy spells, the speech, the deeds, the libations, and the rightly-spoken words.
Ye?/he hatam: All those beings of whom Ahura ]\Iazda...7. Yathaahiivairyo: The will of the Lord is the law of holi- ness...I bless the sacrifice and prayer, and the strength and vigour of the Moon, that keeps in it the seed of the Bull, and of the only-created Bull, and of the Bull of many species.
Ashem Vohu: Holiness is the best of all good.
Give unto that man brightness and glory, give him health of body,...give him the bright, all-happy, blissful abode of the holy Ones.
^ Or possessing: giving may be replaced by possessing in this word as in the following.
^ Vare>^angha«tem: danak (Phi.); ^wanitaram (Sansk.).
* Khjtavawtem: lakshmivantam (Sansk.).
* Yaokhjtiva«tem, 'pondering on what good is to be done' (vi/^aryavantam karyanyayanam; J jj:. XS sjo,b dLo is^AJl).
^ Zairimyavawtem: haritavarwavantam, kila pr/thivi(m) sardra- taram karoti (Sansk.).
* Vohvavawtem: uttamasamr/ddhimantam (Sansk.).
92 YA5TS AND SIROZAIIS.
VIII. TIR YA^T.
Tijtrya is the leader of the stars against the planets, as stars and planets belong, respectively, to the worlds of Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu (Vend. Introd. IV, 36; Bund. II, 5 seq.).
This Yast is a description of the production of the rain through the agency of the star Tij-trya. It has to struggle against the Daeva of Drought, Apaosha, is first overcome and conquers at last. This seems to be a refacimento of the old storm myths, which have been in so far renewed as the role of the hero in the original myth has been transferred to a star. It is to be noticed, however, that Apaosha is not described as a planet.
Tijtrya is Sirius \ It presides over the first month of summer (21 June-2i July). This Ya^t appears thus to have been written in a part of Iran where the dog-days must have fallen in July, and the rainy season began in the last days of July, unless the place of Tijtrya in the calendar has been changed at some later period.
This Yajt is recited on the days of Tijtrya, Haurvata/ (as the Genius of Waters), Farvardin (as the Fravashis are his allies in the struggle; § 34), and Bad (the wind; § 32).
The struggle between Tiotrya and Apaosha is described in the Bundahij- (VII), but it has there a cosmological character: it has not for its object the annual and regular return of the rains after the dog-days, but the production of the seas and lakes in the first ages of the world.
o. May Ahura Mazda be rejoiced I...Ashem Voh{i: Holiness is the best of all good...I confess myself a worshipper of Mazda, a follower of Zara- thujtra, one who hates the Daevas and obeys the laws of Ahura; For sacrifice, prayer, propitiation, and glorification unto [Havani], the holy and master of holiness...Unto Ti.ytrya, the bright and glorious star, and unto the powerful Satavaesa, made by Mazda, who pushes waters forward ^, ^ "Eva S' dcrrepa npo ndvTcov, olov (})v\aKa Koi Trpoonrrjp fyKarearrjae, top 2(ipiop (Plutarchus, de Iside et Osiride, § 47; cf. infra, § 48). ^ Sirozah I, 13.
TIR VAST. 93 Be propitiation, with sacrifice, prayer, propitiation, and glorification.
Yatha ahu vairyo: The will of the Lord is the law of holi- ness...I.
1. Ahiira Mazda spake unto Spitama Zarathui-tra, saying: ' We worship the lordship and mastership [of Ti^trya], whereby he protects ^ the Moon, the dwelling, the food, when my glorious stars come along and impart their gifts ^ to men. I will sacri- fice unto the star Tijtrya, that gives the fields their share [of waters].
2. ' We offer up libations unto Tij-trya, the bright and glorious star, that gives happy dwelling and good dwelling; the white, shining, seen afar, and piercing; the health-bringing, loud-snorting ^, and high, piercing from afar with its shining, undefiled rays; and unto the waters of the wide sea, the Van- guhi of wide renown ^, and the species ^ of the Bull, made by Mazda, the awful kingly Glory, and the Fravashi of the holy Spitama Zarathui-tra.
3. ' For his brightness and glory, I will offer unto him a sacrifice worth being heard, namely, unto the star Ti.ytrya.
' Unto Ti^trya, the bright and glorious star, we offer up the libations, the Haoma and meat, the baresma, the wisdom of the tongue, the holy spells, the speech, the deeds, the libations, and the rightly- spoken words ".
^ Doubtful. 2 The rain.
^ In his disguise as a horse; § 18, ^ Numa; see Etudes Iraniennes, II, 124. ^ Cf. p. 47.
K.
94 YA5'TS AND SIROZAHS 'Ye;2he hatam: All those beings of whom Ahura Mazda...II.
4. ' We sacrifice unto Ti^trya, the bright and glorious star, who is the seed of the waters, powerful, tall, and strong, whose light goes afar; powerful and highly^ working, through whom the brightness and the seed of the waters come from the high Apam Napa/^.
' For his brightness and glory, I will offer him a sacrifice worth being heard...'o III.
5. * We sacrifice unto Tirtrya, the bright and glo- rious star; for whom long ^ flocks and herds and men. looking forward for him and deceived in their hope*: "When shall we see him rise up, the bright and glorious star Ti^trya? When will the springs run with waves as thick as a horse's size and still thicker? Or will they never come?"
' For his brightness and glory, I will offer him a sacrifice worth being heard...IV.
6. 'We sacrifice unto Tii-trya, the bright and glo- rious star; who flies, towards the sea Vouru-Kasha ^, as swiftly as the arrow darted through the heavenly ^ Powerfully.
^ Or, 'through whom the beauty of the waters comes from Bereza, and their seed from Apfun Napa/.' Bereza, the high, the tall, an epithet of Apam Napa/, became one of his names (Ized Bor^; cf. § 34); for Apam Napa/, see above, p. 6, note i.
* Or better, ' in their looking.'
A TIR YAST. 95 Space \ which Erekhsha ^, the swift archer, the Arya amongst the Aryas whose arrow was the swiftest, shot from Mount Khshaotha to Mount //zja.nv3.nl ^ 7. * For Ahura Mazda gave him assistance; so did the waters and the plants; and Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, opened a wide way unto him.
' For his brightness and glory, I will offer him a sacrifice worth being heard...V.
8. *We sacrifice unto Ti^trya, the bright and glorious star, that afflicts the Pairikas, that vexes the Pairikas, who, in the shape of worm-stars^, fly * Mainivas^?/=mainyu-as«?^ (meaning pun minoi ^ivakih, svargasthanam, Yasna LVII, 27 [LVI, 11, 3]).
^ Erekhsha khshviwi-ishuj, in Pahlavi Avis Shivatir (see Etudes Iraniennes, II, 220), or ' Aris of the swift arrow,' was the best archer in the Iranian army. When Mino/^ihr and Afrasyab determined to make peace and to fix the boundary between Iran and Tiiran, ' it was stipulated that Arii- should ascend Mount Damavand, and from thence discharge an arrow towards the east; and that the place in which the arrow fell should form the boundary between the two kingdoms. Axis thereupon ascended the mountain, and discharged towards the east an arrow, the flight of which continued from the dawn of day until noon, when it fell on the banks of the Gihun (the Oxus),' (Mirkhond, History of the Early Kings of Persia, trans, by David Shea, p. 175; cf. Noeldeke, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, ^ Mount Khshaotha seems to be the same as Mount Damavand (see preceding note); Mount ffvanvan/ may be the same as Mount B ami an, from which the Balkh river springs, as according to Tabari (trans, by Noeldeke, 1. 1.), Ans' arrow stopped at the Balkh river (an affluent of the Oxus). But it may be that the limits given refer to the course of Tijtrya; cf § 38, text and note.
* Doubtful. Shooting stars are alluded to. IMr. Geiger remarks that there is a swarm of shooting stars falling every year just at the time when Tijtrya, in the European climate, is supposed to be most active, on the loth of August.
96 YA^TS AND SIROZAHS.
between the earth and the heavens, in the sea Vouru-Kasha, the powerful sea, the large-sized, deep sea of salt^ waters. He goes to its lake in the shape of a horse, in a holy shape; and down there he makes the waters boil over, and the winds flow above powerfully all around.
9. * Then Satavaesa ^ makes those waters flow down to the seven Karshvares of the earth ^, and when he has arrived down there, he stands, beau- tiful, spreading ease and joy on the fertile countries (thinking in himself): " How shall the countries of the Aryas grow fertile? " * For his brightness and glory, I will offer him a sacrifice worth being heard...VI.
10. ' We sacrifice unto Ti^trya, the bright and glo- rious star, who spake unto Ahura Mazda, saying: " Ahura Mazda, most beneficent Spirit, Maker of the material world, thou Holy One!
IT. ' " If men would worship me with a sacrifice in which I were invoked by my own name, as they worship the other Yazatas with sacrifices in which they are invoked by their own names, then I should have come to the faithful at the appointed time*; I should have come in the appointed time of my ^ Satavaesa is said to be the leader of the western stars (to be read southern stars, Bund. II, 7), and has in its protection the seas of the southern quarter (ibid. XIII, 12); the Satavaesa sea is the Persian gulf.
^ This seems to be an allusion to the tide in the Arabian sea (the sea Vouru-Kasha) and in the gulf of Oman, which, being a southern sea, is under the control of Satavaesa (cf. preceding note and Vend. V, 18, note i).
* At the right time of the year when rain is expected.
t{r vast. 97 beautiful, immortal life\ should it be one night, or two nights, or fifty, or a hundred nights."
12. 'We sacrifice unto Tii'trya; * We sacrifice unto the rains of Ti^trya ^.
*We sacrifice unto the first star^; we sacrifice unto the rains of the first star.
*I will sacrifice unto the stars Haptoiri/^ga'*, to oppose the Yatus and Pairikas.
*We sacrifice unto Yanan^^, the star made by Mazda; for*' the well-shapen strength, for the Victory, made by Ahura, for the crushing Ascendant, for the destruction of what distresses us, for the destruction of what persecutes us.
* We sacrifice unto Tii^trya, whose eye-sight is sound ^.
13. 'For ten nights, O Spitama Zarathu^tra! Ti^- trya, the bright and glorious star, mingles his shape ^ AsTijtrya is the producer of the rain: Tijti7enyas/^a=Tistara- tarakasya vr/sh/im (Khorshe^ Nyayij- 8, Sansk. tr.).
* Haptoiriwga (Ursa Major) is the leader of the stars in the north (Bund. II, 7). It is 'entrusted with the gate and passage of hell, to keep back those of the nine, and ninety, and nine hundred, and nine thousand and nine myriad demons, and demonesses, and fairies (Pairikas) and sorcerers (Yatus) who are in opposition to the celestial sphere and constellations' (INIinokhired XLIX, 15; tr. by West).
^ Yananf is the leader of the stars in the south (read west; ® To obtain...This invocation is brought about by the very name of Vana;//, which means ' who smites, who overcomes.' The peculiar office of Yananl is to keep the passes and gates of Mount Alborz, around which the sun, the moon, and the stars revolve, and to prevent the Paris and Daevas from cutting off and breaking the road of the sun (INIinokhired XLIX, 1 2).
■^ 'I sacrifice to Tijtar for (=to obtain) the soundness of the sight' (Khorshec/ Nyayij 8, Pahl. tr.).
98 YAi'TS AND SIROZAHS.
with light, moving in the shape of a man of fifteen years of age^ bright, with clear eyes, tall, full of strength, strong, and clever.
14. 'He is active as the first man ^ was; he goes on with the strength of the first man; he has the virility^ of the first man.
15*. 'Here he calls for people to assemble, here he asks, saying: " Who now will offer me the libations with the Haoma and the holy meat? To whom shall I give wealth of male children, a troop of male children, and the purification of his own soul? Now I ought to receive sacrifice and prayer in the material world, by the law of excellent holiness."
16. 'The next ten nights, O Spitama Zarathui-tra! the bright and glorious Tii'trya mingles his shape with light, moving in the shape of a golden-horned bull I 17. 'Here he calls for people to assemble, here he asks, saying: " Who now will offer me the libations with the Haoma and the holy meat? To whom shall I give wealth of oxen, a herd of oxen, and the purification of his own soul? Now I ought to receive sacrifice and prayer in the material world, by the law of excellent holiness."