Gathas (Avesta)

Prayers chiefly for Grace and for the Words of Revelation. 2. Zarathurtra, having entered upon the duties of his office (XXIX, 1 1), composes a liturgy for the use of some of his more eminent colleagues, possibly, but not at all probably, for the original mover in the entire religious effort (see the expressions ' to Zarathmtra and to us/ 'to Vutaspa and to me/ 'to Frashaortra and to me '). This reciter, whoever he may have been intended to be, is represented as standing in the appropriate place as a priest, with hands stretched toward Ahura, or His Fire, and praying for the possession of spiritual graces from an unselfish motive, and in order that he might appease the grief of the Kine's Soul, for whose relief Zarathujtra had just been appointed (see XXIX, i, 6, 8). 3. He approaches Ahura Mazda, spiritually inspired by the Good Mind as he declares, and asking for attainments and boons for both the bodily and spiritual lives, derived from Righteousness, whereby that personified Righteousness might establish the elect in a beatified state. 4. The personality of the Ameshospends comes again strongly forward, as it does so often in worship, in addresses in which Righteousness (Asha), the Good Mind (Vohu Manah), Khshathra (the active Power of the Divine Sovereignty), and Aramaiti (practical piety in the souls of believers), are besought to come, as the Vedic Gods so often are, to the appeals of the supplicant, and to his help in the act of worship itself, which is recognised to be the one efficient means for furthering the cause of redemption which is ever held in view.

5. As one who offered his soul to heaven, and would know by actual experience the blessed rewards bestowed by the holy ceremonial and moral actions prescribed by Ahura Mazda, the reciter declares that he will teach on in the effort to propagate the holy Religious Order, and possessed by the one desire for its increase, while power shall last. 6. With a piety as fervent as it is profound, and speaking with great earnestness, he asks Righteousness, as a person, when he shall see him, becoming fully acquainted with the Good Mind of God, the way which leads to Him, and above all with Obedience. But although he addresses these lofty abstractions as persons, it is utterly out of the question to suppose that he did not speak in the deepest meaning of the words as expressing states of mind, and qualities of character : O thou Divine Righteous Order ! (Thus he seems to have meant), O thou divine Righteous Order! when shall I see Thee as if present in my own soul and in those of the people whom Ahura has committed to my charge ? When shall I know the Divine Benevolence as made one with the disposition of my congregation? When shall I possess by knowledge that only way to our most bountiful Ahura which is, not a mythical angel Sraosha only, but that angel interpreted ' Obedience to Ahura ' (observe the dative). One cannot well exaggerate the religious depth or subjectivity. Then, with a bathos which shows how then as ever superstition could hold its own side by side with the truest piety, he exclaims (if the third line was really so composed by him as it has come down to us); ' By such a prayer as a Mathra spell we can with the greatest vigour repel the unclean beasts and creatures which defile our sanctity, or endanger our lives.'

7. Alluding immediately to this revelation, he beseeches Ahura once more to ' come with His Good Mind,' and to grant, not booty, nor even wealth, but ' Asha-gifts,' and (as a bestower of righteousness) long life and powerful spiritual grace to the leading agent Zarathmtra (in all probability the composer of the section), and to himself, the officiating priest with his helpers, in order that, not with carnal weapons, but by his ' lofty ' and holy ' words,' they all combined may overcome the torments of the ravagers who had made havoc of the settlements, and who were still liable to overwhelm the faithful with their raids and rapine (see XLIV, 20). 8. With an intentional and interesting alliteration he prays to Asha for an ashi ; that is, a blessing, even the strenuously attainedto gifts of the great Benevolence. Aramaiti likewise becomes the object of his petition together with Ahura; and this time for the benefit of Vutaspa the monarch, and for himself that they might hear the gracious Mathras, which is indeed the burden of the entire piece. 9. Once more he affords an early (or the earliest (?)) instance of the rhetorical trick, and fills one line with three ' valmtas,' praying Ahura, as being of one mind with Asha (here, for the first time in the Avesta, called ' the best'), to grant the same blessing; and this time again with an intentional change, ' to himself and to Frashaoj-tra ; ' and not for this world, but for ' all the duration of the Good Mind,' using the expression in its concrete sense as heaven ; for heaven to him consisted in an inward state. (So also elsewhere in the Avesta,

even where the palate and the olfactory nerve are the media of felicity or of torture, there also conciliating language on the one side, or 'vile speech ' pointed with finest irony on the other, is equally prominent. It is the mind which chiefly enjoys or suffers.) 10. Deeply sensible of the spiritual benefits for which he is asking, he seems touched with gratitude. Accordingly he adds one more petition, which is, that he and his coadjutors, the three just mentioned, may never anger the indulgent mercy which had granted them their request ; and that they may persevere, as they have begun, in the strenuous service of Ahura, Asha, and Vohu Manah. For they are, as he declares, easy to be entreated, and beings who desire to bestow spiritual blessings upon mortals, rather than to exercise merely capricious favour or cruelty, and who also possess the power to bring their benevolence to effect. ii. As if unwilling to trust his own perception as to his real spiritual needs, he prays Ahura 'to fill up his desire,' not with what he, the reciter, may in particular request, but with what He, Ahura, knows to be the gifts of Righteousness and the divine Benevolence. And these gifts are again mainly the holy revelation, for he knows, so he earnestly declares, the words of those mighty three to be never void, and to be a sustenance able indeed to fill up his wishes, giving him more than he has of himself either the intelligence or the grace to ask.

12. Having added, in verse after verse, some particular to heighten the fervour of his request, he sums up all in a final expression, as remarkable for its earnestness as for its depth, and begs Ahura, as one set for ever for the defence of the Righteous Order and the Good Mind (whose hallowed influences he accurately foresaw were destined to endure for ages), to tell him, with His very ' voice of spirit,' in order that he may declare them to the waiting masses, the laws which pervade the moral universe, and according to which it arose. For according to these holy principles and so alone, could he promulgate a system which might reclaim society from its imperfections and the Iranian saint from his sufferings. Ahura who, be it remarked, is alone addressed in this culminating verse, hears and answers by a revelation of these eternal principles, and this answer is contained in chapter XXX. By a thorough comprehension of that most important document, I hold that we may see how it met its purpose as indicated by the capacities and needs of those to whom it was addressed, and how by discriminating truth from falsehood it helped on the defence of Asha, and the founding of the true Benevolence.

i. (A strengthening blessing1 is the thought, a blessing is the word, a blessing is the deed of the righteous Zarathustra. May the Bountiful Immortals 2 accept and help on 3 the chants. Homage to you, O sacred Gathas 4 !) 2. With venerating (desire) for this (gift) of gracious help, O Mazda5, and stretching forth my hands (to Thee) I pray for the first (blessing) of (Thy) bountiful Spirit ; (that is, I beseech of Thee that my) actions 1 Yanim cannot well mean ' revealed,' except by the most farfetched conception. The Indian yana, as in devayana, should give the fundamental idea, easily reconcileable as it is with the ancient rendering of the Pahlavi translator. 2 Notice that the Ameshospends are mentioned in this early heading. In the Gathas themselves the name, 'Bountiful Immortals,' does not occur. 3 Possibly, 'take up and continue on the Gathas.' Literally, ' seize forth.' 4 It is hardly necessary to say that this is no part of the Gathas. It is, however, in the Gathic dialect, and as it needs not, or perhaps cannot, be considered an intentional imitation, it must be very old. 5 Vocative with the Vendidad Sadah, otherwise the accumulation of genitives would be suspicious. Ahura is, however, beyond any question elsewhere spoken of as ' the most bounteous Spirit.' The usage is like that of the Semitic scriptures ; the Holy Spirit is both God and ' of God.' As to the rendering ' bounteous,' I fear that ' holiest ' (so many) is too bold. Ashavan occurs side by side with spewta as applied to Ahura, and ashavan cannot mean ' righteous ' there, but must mean ' holy.' The Pahlavi renders etymologically afzunik. Comp. jvanta. The sole etymological bases for the meaning ' holy' are presented by the Lithuanian and Ecclesiastical Sclavonic ; but, as Justi has well remarked, in the conceptions of the Avesta that which increases the kingdom of Ahura is equivalent to what is holy. ' Bountiful ' must therefore be understood in a particular sense, only to be rendered by the words, ' gracious, sacred, and august.'

(toward) all (may be performed) in (the Divine) Righteousness ; and with this I implore from Thee the understanding of Thy Benevolent Mind, in order that I may propitiate the Soul of the Kine1 (our herds and folk, which cries so bitterly to Thee). 3. And therefore, O Great Creator, the Living Lord ! (inspired) by Thy Benevolent Mind, I approach You2, (and beseech of Thee3) to grant me (as a bountiful gift) for both the worlds, the corporeal and (for that) of mind, those attainments which are to be derived from the (Divine) Righteousness, and by means of which (that personified Righteousness1 within us) may introduce those who are its recipients into beatitude and glory 5 ! 4. O (thou Divine) Righteousness, and thou Be- 1 See Y. XXIX, 1. 2 The plural of majesty, or the literal plural, referring to the Bountiful Immortals as together. 3 Plural and singular interchange throughout. 4 Possibly, ' one may introduce.' 5 See Y. L, 5. Uvaihra. and its allied forms are so often associated with rao£ah and the like, that I do not hesitate to accept an Iranian ^z>an = to shine (with Justi). As there is an Indian svar which means 'to roar,' and another 'to shine,' and again a svan = to sound, so in Iranian there is a /$z>an=to sound, and another= to shine, as in asmanem ^z>anva«tem. The ' comfortable stone heaven ' is difficult. Comfortable, or even ' delectable mountains ' (so we should have to say elsewhere), are not very likely to have been recognised or appreciated in the Avesta. 'Glorious beatitude' is a better rendering here. If /ivaihra. always means 'comfort,' how comes it that ^z>areno is said to be /foathrava/ ? 'Comfortable glory ' is hardly probable. Compare also the ancient mbha. When it is the fashion to accept a separate Iranian root at every difficulty, small and great, I see no reason for stopping here, where the pressure is considerable. The Pahlavi also may be read to favour my view. (Comp. /iver\g=/ivan.)

nevolent Mind (of Deity) ! I will worship you, and Ahura Mazda the first 1, for all of whom the Pious ready mind (within us) is 2 causing the imperishable Kingdom to advance. (And while I thus utter my supplications to You), come Ye to my calls to help3! 5. (Yea, I will approach You with my supplications, I) who am delivering up (my)4 mind and soul to that (heavenly) Mount (whither all the redeemed at last must pass 5), knowing (full well) the holy characteristics and rewards 6 of the (ceremonial and moral) actions (prescribed) by Ahura Mazda. (And) 1 Or, ' having no first ' (Roth, reading apourvim). 2 I am very far from a positive rejection of the forms suggested by the Pahlavi translator, although he should never be pressed on such a point, being often free. As alternative read ' may Piety who bestows increase (fern, participle) come to my calls to give grace.' 3 The Pahlavi translator, unable to credit 'ye as = I who' (so also modern authority sometimes with regard to other occurrences of ye in this chapter), renders as follows : When I shall be your own (thus for ' worship,' and possibly deceived by the form of the words, ufyani and nafrman being nearly alike in the Pahlavi character), O Ashavahiit and Vohuman ! the first [ ], Auharmazd's also [his own I shall be], through whose unweakened acquisition his rule over them exists [ ], and [hers also I shall be], Spendarmad's, the giver of increase. She comes to me with joy when I invoke her [when I shall call upon you, come ye on toward me with joy]. (A plain and noticeable instance of an alternative rendering in the gloss. The verb was first thought of as a 3rd sing, middle subjunctive, afterwards as an imperative 2nd plural.)

4 Mm = m + the nasal vowel, and may represent man, or I think also mam, adverbially for m^na; or ' man' = 'demane.' 5 Mount Alborg-, where the A^inva/ Bridge extends ; so also important authority; but we might read m^zgaire = mangair6 (Garofl'man). c Ashi, a blessing given in reward ; so elsewhere. so long as I am able and may have the power, so long will I teach * (Your people concerning these holy deeds to be done by them with faith toward God, and) in the desire (for the coming) of the (Divine) Righteousness (within their souls) 2. 6. And, thou Righteousness! when shall I see3 thee, knowing the Good Mind (of God), and (above all the personified) Obedience 4 (of our lives which constitutes) the way5 to the most beneficent Ahura Mazda. (Asking this, I thus beseech thee, for) with this holy word of supplication we most hold off6 with tongue the flesh-devouring fiends, (the very sign and power of all spiritual foulness) 7 ! 1 I think it is better to hold by the parallel passage and the sense of 'teach' here. The Pahlavi has an irregular form which probably means ' I teach,' but might be intended for ' I am taught'

After the words ' so long as I have the power,' ' I will teach ' is rather more natural than ' I will learn.' Haug's rendering of this word has never been accepted. Those most opposed to tradition follow it here. Perhaps, ' I will teach to desire R.' 2 The Pahlavi translation corrected by MSS. may be rendered thus : He who gives up his soul within Garo</man does so by the aid of Vohuman [ ], and is also intelligent concerning the veneration which belongs to the doers of good works [ ] in that which is Auharmazd's [religion] ; as long as I am a suppliant and have the power, so long do I inculcate the desire of Righteousness [which is, duty and good works]. 3 Kada mriRkSm sumana abhi khyam (Rv. VII, 86, 2). 4 Obedience, throughout the Avesta and Parsi literature, guides the soul to heaven. 5 Or,' knowing the throne of Ahura' (so the Pahlavi, most scholars following); but the construction would be awkward. 'Finding the way ' occurs in the icVks, and gatu need not always mean 'place' in the Gathic, because it has that sense most frequently in the Zend. 6 Possibly, ' we may teach the foul polluted men.' Or, ' confess the greatest One with Khrafstra(-slaying) tongue.' Perhaps the text is to be amended ; yet see XXXIV, 5, 9.

7 The Pahlavi translation may be rendered thus : O Ashavahiit ! when do (shall) I see thee? I know this one by means 7. And do Thou, O Lord, the Great Creator ! come to me with Thy Good Mind ; and do Thou, who bestowest gifts through Thy Righteousness, bestow alike long-lasting life on us. And (that this life may be spent aright, do) Thou by means of Thy lofty words (bestow) the (needed) powerful spiritual help upon Zarathuitra and upon us 1, whereby we may overcome 2 the torments of the tormentor. 8. (And) do thou, O (Divine) Righteousness, bestow (upon me) that sacred blessing which is constituted by the attainments of the Good Mind (within my soul) 3 ; and do thou also, O Piety ! grant unto of a good mind's instruction [that is, I see thee in that time when every man is intelligent because he is pious; but when shall it be?]. And the place of Auharmazd, when do (shall) I see it, I who am a suppliant for a benefit? That place is known through Srosh [ ], that greatest of Mathras is to be taught, given forth with tongue to him whose understanding is confused.

1 It certainly involves a question how the words ' to Zarathmtra and to us ' can be compatible with Zarathu^tra's authorship. ViV taspa and Frashaojtra (verses 8, 9) are equally excluded. Who is then the individual who thus refers to himself with others ? And is this verse an interpolation, and with it 8 and 9 ? This last seems to me a very feeble suggestion. Was this piece, together with the rest (for they all are connected), the work of some unnamed man of influence, the true author of Zarathu^trianism ? I think that there is also little gained by this supposition. There is no particular reason why Zarathmtra' s name should have come down to us as the chief figure, while that of the prime mover failed to reach us. I should say that the piece was composed by Zarathmtra and put into the mouth of a leading priest, or that it was composed with many others under his inspiration. Or, can there have been a school, or family, of Zarathmtrians, religious poets, similar to the Vedic seers? (See chap. LIII, 2 Zarathmtru Spitamo.) 2 This mention of ' overcoming an enemy,' strengthens the probability of my view of vavaroimaidi (vauroimaidi).

3 The Good Mind is now, as we should say, ' the Spirit of God ' in the mind of God, and again His Spirit in the human soul. Vfotaspa and to me our wish ; (yea) may'st Thou grant (us), O Mazda, ruler J (as Thou art ! that grace) whereby we may hear 2 (with understanding) Thy benignant words. 9. That best (of gifts therefore) do I beseech (of Thee), O Thou best (of beings) Ahura ! who art one in will with (Thy Divine) Righteousness (within us, likewise), the best 3 (of spirits), desiring it (as I now do) for the (heroic) man Frashaoitra, and for me 4, upon whom also may'st Thou bestow it (not for time alone), but for all the ages of Thy Good Mind (that reign of Thy Benevolence which shall be to us as Heaven5) ! 1 The Pahlavi correctly renders padakhsha. 2 Probably originally heard, inspired words. Compare Many^u haM Thwa aungha, verse 12. So often. Oral communications are figuratively alluded to everywhere. No literal articulation or sound (!) is of course intended. (Or ' sravayaema.= proclaim.') Neryosangh may be rendered as follows : Grant, O Sanctity ! this devotion which (results) from the priority (an error from misreading the characters of the Pahlavi, chiefly his original) of the Good Mind [that is, make me so religious that prosperity may result to me from my good conduct]. Grant thou to the perfect mind [in, or to, the earth (so the Parsis understood Aramaiti)] the wish that proceeds from Gustaspa and from my people [ ]. Grant praisers, O great wise One ! kings, who may be announcers of your word, and bestowers of arrangements (for the service) ; [that is, who may teach thy word, and render it progressive].

3 The earliest occurrence of Asha Vahijta. The Pahlavi : ' Since the best thing that Thou hast [Thy Religion] is better than all other things, the best through Righteousness.' 4 See verses 7 and 8. 5 In the millennial (sic) renovation as well as in heaven. See chap. XXX, 4, where VahLsta Manah is equivalent to heaven. The Pahlavi gloss has : Aigh Frasho^tar va ha.vi.rtan 1 Frasho^tar, vad tanu 1 pasinS hamai nadukih pa.da.s vadun ; that is, for Frasho^tar and the disciples of Frasho^tar for ever, until the final body provide a benefit thereby. 10. And (impressed and moved) by these gifts of strengthening grace * (which Thou may'st give in answer to these prayers) may we never anger You, O Ahura Mazda ! (nor Thy) Righteousness (within us), nor yet Thy Kindly Mind (toward us), since we have most earnestly made effort (helping to advance Your cause) in the (chanted) 2 offering of Your praisers, for most easy to be invoked (are Ye). (Yours are verily both) the desire for (spiritual) blessings (for us), and the (Divine) Possession (of their power) 3. ii. And therefore do Thou, O Lord, the Great Creator ! fill up and satisfy (my4) desire with these attainments (of the grace) of Thy Good Mind, which Thou dost know to be derived from Righteousness, (and) which (are verily) sublime5, for I have known6

1 Possibly, ' may we not anger you with our prayers for these blessings.' Kim me havyam ihrzna.no ^usheta. 2 That daseme may now better be referred to a similar root with dasvare, I regard the more probable because the Pahlavi also freely renders as if it so understood. Its author knew the meaning of dasema=da.rama. One is reminded of course of the 3 The Pablavi with its peculiar view of anair (not to be rejected too confidently ; see note at another occurrence of it) is interesting (as corrected by the Persian MS.) : On account of a not-coming to you, O Auharmazd! This I would not do [ ]. Ashavahut also I will not pain for the sake of a blessing; [that is, I do not desire a single blessing which appears displeasing to Ashavatmt (this turn of the sense is followed by some who have hitherto opposed tradition, but I cannot follow it, although I value every hint of the ancient writers). Also Vohuman, the excellent [I do not harass him]. 4 Or, ' to those whom thou seest as creatures (?) of V. fill up the desire with attainments.' 5 Possibly, 'the righteous,' erethw^wg; cp. n'tavanas (?). Pahl. trans. ' i fraruno.' 6 Possibly, ' I obtain.'

Thine instructions to be never void * of their effect (in the struggles) for our (daily) food 2, and therefore worthy objects of desire 3. 12. (Yea, I approach Thee with my prayers, I) who by these (great gifts of grace) will 4 protect (Thy) Divine Righteousness, and (Thy) Good Mind (within us) for ever. And do Thou therefore, O Ahura Mazda ! teach me from Thyself, yea, from Thine own mouth of spirit, that I may declare it forth to (these Thy waiting people) by what (powers and according to what laws5) the primeval world arose 6 ! 1 Ner. has analaso(-a/z) for asuna more correctly than the Pahlavi asuc/ak. 2 Or, ' well reaching their aim ; ' but the Pahlavi translator gives his evidence for the meaning 'food' = khuri^n5. Recall the constant prayers for nourishment in the i?/ks. And as favouring the ancient translation, see XXIX, 7, where 'food for the eaters' is declared to be the gift of God, who is at the same time ' bounteous with his doctrine.' 3 Neryosangh : Eva#z ye dharmasya vettara^ * uttamasya^a dater manasa/z | ] ekahelaya* Mahag-wanin Svamin! tebhya/z* puinam pari^inohi* kamaw ; [kila, [ ] subham tebhya/z kuru]. Evaw/Ja i^isne/z* analaso labhatara khadyani vastrawi^a vadanena.

4 One is tempted to read nipmmgh/as an infinitive, but the Pahlavi translation anticipates us all with its more critical bara netrunam. 5 This question is answered in Y. XXX. 6 Ner. improving upon the Pahlavi has as follows : Yadi sunirikshawataya dharmaz/z palayami mana^a* uttamaz/z sadapravrzttaye ; [kila, ket satyasya sadvyaparasya^a rakshazzz karomij. Tvam tat * Mahao-wanin Svamin! prakrz'sh/am me.rikshapaya* [ ] va/H. Adrisya Tvatto mukhena [sphu/aya] antar bhuvane purvazzz babhuva [tarn srzsh/im me bruhi]. A translation truly remarkable considering the circumstances under which it was made.

1. Accustomed to instruct the masses who throng him on public occasions seeking light, the composer constructs this hymn for similar opportunities. He may be regarded as continuing the thoughts in the close of Y. XXVIII, where he besought Ahura to inform him concerning the origin of the world. He says that he will declare the counsels of God, by which, as we see, he means the great doctrines concerning the origin of good and evil. With these he will declare also the praises, the laudatory portions of the Mathra, and the sacrifices. And he prays that propitious results may be discerned in the heavenly bodies. 2. He further introduces what he has to say by telling the throngs before him that a decisive moment is upon them. They are to choose their religion, and not by acclamation with the foolish decision of a mob, but man by man, each individually for himself. They should therefore arouse themselves and hear with all attention, and gaze at the holy Fire with a good and receptive disposition of mind. 3. He then delivers the earliest statement of dualism which has come down to us. There were two original spirits, and they are called, be it well noted, not two persons, or at least not only two persons, but a better thing, or principle, and a worse one. (The qualifying words are all in the neuter 1.)

At the next sentence they are personified as a pair, each independent in his thoughts, declarations, and actions. Such is the short Theodicy, followed at once by an admonition to those before him to choose the better. 4. These two spirits came together as by natural combination, to make the opposing phenomena of life and its absence, of Heaven and of Hell. And Hell is described not as a scene of cruelty inflicted on the innocent and the ignorant, but as ' the worst life,' and Heaven as equally remote from a superstitious paradise ; that is, as the ' best mental state.' 1 It is also noticeable that the name Angra Mainyu does not occur in this section. This is the proper Zarathujtrian creation. It is undeniably ' abstract,' very, and just in proportion as it lacks colour and myth are its depths visible. The account of it is also very limited. But it must never be forgotten that its existence is the probable proof that very much more of the kind existed beside it. Instead of there being one hymn sung like this, Y. XXX, there were probably many. The two original forces or beings, although separate clearly, come together; but they do not lose their distinction. Their difference remains as clear as their union. 5. They do not blend unrecognisably ; for having created the two principles, they choose each his own particular realm. Ahura chooses the righteous order of religion, and with it the pious of all ages. The evil spirit chooses the wicked.

The point and meaning of the entire doctrine is that a good God cannot be responsible for permanent evil ; that imperfection and suffering are original, and inherent in the nature of things, and permanently so. The swallowing up of sin and sorrow in ultimate happiness belongs to a later period. It is not Gathic Zarathu-rtrianism. Evil was the work of an independent being. The great thinker saw his point ; and it was that the Deity Himself could not prevent the evolution of base and revolting moral qualities with their consequent miseries in both victim and aggressor. An evil God was therefore their author. 6. But the blood-feuds of War, not to speak of the theological animosity, were too much for his philosophy. The sage could not regard all men and their circumstances with broad and equable impartiality. The hated Daeva-worshippers, who were doubtless equally conscientious with the Zarathu^trians, are said to have failed of correct discernment. As they were deliberating, so he recalls, the Worst Mind, a very real although ' abstract ' Satan, came upon them, to induce them to choose him and his evil realm. They acceded, becoming furious in their intention to injure human life. This may be regarded as a dramatic, but at the same time, in a moral sense, a philosophical statement of a temptation and fall. (For a later one, with more colour and less truth, see the temptation proper of Zarathmtra himself1, recalling as it does so vividly the temptation in the Gospels.)

7. If we can accept the words ahmai/£a to mean merely 'upon 1 Comp. Vd. XIX, 1-10. Consider how much time would be required for the name of Zarathrmtra to become so involved in myth. this,' we may hold that the statements proceed without a break. Even a gap of lost verses does not interrupt the sense. The clothing of souls with bodies seems indicated. If so, the doctrine of the Fravashis, otherwise foreign to the Gathas,may have its origin by inference here, and directly in verse 4. After the creation and first activity of the souls of the Archangels on the one hand, and of the Daevas on the other, together with their respective human adherents, the one choosing good and the other evil, the remaining Ameshospends unite with Aramaiti in bestowing a body upon the newly created soul. (So we must conclude from the language.) And the prophet breaks in with the prayer that in the future, and possibly at the Frashakan/, the completion of progress, these created souls might possess such advantages as they had when Ahura came at first with his acts of creation ; that is, that they might be restored again to a state of sinless happiness, provided with bodies by Aramaiti as at the first. (See Vast XIX, 89.)

8. But, as he implies, and perhaps expresses in a lost verse, vengeance shall come upon the wretched beings who choose the Evil Mind as their master. And it shall come, not in the abstract merely by any means, but as executed by a numerous, if not once predominant party, ' the offspring of the Evil Mind.' And when this shall have been completed (and XXXI, 18 shows us that the weapons to be used to bring it about were not to be those of verbal argument alone) then, as he declares with enthusiasm, ' to God shall be the Kingdom,' a Kingdom established in the Divine Benevolence, which will pervade its organic life, and which will likewise, as the personified ' Immortal,' utter encouragements and commands to its loyal citizens. And these citizens will then not only defeat the Lie-demon, who is the life of the Daeva-party, but they will deliver her up as a captive to the great Genius of Truth, the personified Righteousness. 9. And, as he ardently hoped for the coming of the Kingdom into the hands of Ahura, he as ardently beseeches that he and his coadjutors, the princes already named, may be honoured as the immediate agents in bringing on this 'millennial' completion; nay, he even prays that they may be as Ahuras * in merciful services, declaring that all their thoughts were centred in that scene where religious light dwelt as personified in her home.

10. Once more he announces the certain defeat and chastisement of the incarnate falsehood and her adherents, which enables 1 As the Ahuras of Mazda, the Ameshospends. him only the more impressively to describe the rapid reunion of the righteous amid the home-happiness of Heaven. ii. Having delivered his brief but weighty communication, he commends his hearers for learning the holy vows of the Religion on account of the duration of the announced rewards and punishments. They shall be long indeed ; and upon their complete inauguration full salvation shall be realised for those who shall have learned and heeded the invaluable truths. i. And now I will proclaim, O ye who are drawing near and seeking l to be taught ! those animadversions2 which appertain to Him who knows (all things) whatsoever ; the praises which are for Ahura, and the sacrifices (which spring) from the Good Mind, and likewise the benignant meditations inspired by Righteousness. And I pray3 that propitious results may be seen in the lights. 1 As ' ish ' means approaching with desire, the Pahlavi translator has, freely, khvahuno. 3 So with long e; but yae/Sa (P11 supported by the Pahl.) may be the lost dual neuter of the pronoun, referring to the two principles discussed below. Ye*/£a = I pray for, although the most natural rendering grammatically, does not seem so well adapted here, as a prayer for the success of his communication does not harmonise with the otherwise dogmatic statements of the composer. The urvata (vrata) founded upon the doctrine of dualism bring about salvation. They may therefore be touched upon in this introductory verse. And that the heavenly bodies contained indications bearing directly or indirectly upon human destiny seems to have been early an accepted doctrine. (Compare also chap. XXIX, 3, where ' the lofty fires ' seem alluded to as moved by the Deity, and this in immediate connection with the discussion of the most important problems concerning the fate of the holy community.) It is, however, not impossible that the lights of the altar may have been meant. (See sukCx in the second verse.) The Pahlavi translation

2. Hear ye then with your ears ; see ye the bright flames 1 with the (eyes of the) Better Mind. It is for a decision as to religions, man and man, each individually for himself. Before the great effort of the cause, awake ye2 (all) to our3 teaching! 3. Thus are the primeval spirits who as a pair 4 (combining their opposite strivings), and (yet each) independent in his action, have been famed (of old). (They are) a better thing, they two, and a worse 5, as to thought, as to word, and as to deed. And between these two let the wisely acting choose aright. (Choose ye 6) not (as) the evil-doers 7 ! has den roshano pavan venii-no hu-ravakh-manih. As to ye^'a oryae^a, the Pahlavi does not favour a verbal form. But if the pronoun is accepted, even then change is needed; yae/£a ya=ye"/£ay£na is hardly possible. We should be obliged to render : And which two things (were those?) whereby (adverbially) propitious results have been seen in the stars. Others have experienced difficulty, and even ashayae/£a(?) has been conjecturally suggested for this place and chap. LI, 2. Neither Sp. nor Westg. report a long e. 1 Goshano sriW nyokhshunih [aighaj gosh bara. varammunrf] — Zak 1 roshano. Otherwise ' with the eye ; ' but see ya raoM>fa daresata urvaza. The altar-flame would not unnaturally be mentioned after the heavenly lights.

2 Literally, '(be ye) wakeful.' 3 Hardly, ' to teach us.' Possibly, ' to teach this, each one.' * Pahl. transcribes. Notice that paouruye (pourviye) is neut.* as are vahyo and akem£a, which is not lightly to be passed over. 5 The Pahlavi freely: Benafrman — [aighvano vinas va kirfak benafrman bara yemalelvW], They announced themselves as sin and good works. Ner. yau pu«yaw papa;«£a svayawz avo&itaw. 6 Bara \\g\d. Ner. vibhaktavan*. If a third plural subjunctive, still the force is as if imperative. Possibly it is preterit. 7 On this important verse I cite Neryosangh. He may be rendered as follows : Thus the two spirits [Hormi^da and Aharmana] who uttered first in the world each his own (principle); [that is, who each uttered, one his own good (deed), and the other his own sin], these were a pair, in thought, word, and deed, a highest 4. (Yea) when the two spirits came together at the first to make1 life, and life's absence2, and to determine how the world at the last shall be (ordered), for the wicked (Hell) the worst life, for the holy (Heaven) the Best Mental State 3, 5. (Then when they had finished each his part in the deeds of creation, they chose distinctly each his separate realm.) He who was the evil of them both (chose the evil), thereby working4 the worst of possible results, but the more bounteous spirit5 chose the

and a degraded one. And of these two, the one endowed with good intelligence [ ] was the distinguisher of the true, and not the one endowed with evil intelligence [ ]. (Both he and the Pahlavi fail to credit a plural form in eres vishyata with Spiegel and Hiibschmann.) The Gathic verbatim. Yea ( = thereupon) the-two the-two-spirits the-two-first-things which-two two-twins two-self-acting-ones wereheard-of in-thought in-word-and in-deed these-two a-better an-eviland. Of-which-two-and the wisely-acting (ones) aright may discern, not the evil-acting ones. 1 The Pahlavi read as an infinitive, dazde = avo zak dahuno. (So also an important authority recently.) Otherwise it has the place of a third dual perfect ; ' they two made.' The place of an infinitive is not generally at the end of a sentence in Gathic. Can it be simply a third singular ? ' (Each) makes ' (^amasa karoti). 2 Pavan zendakih — va muni/£ azendakih. Ner. ^ivitena^a ag-ivitena£a. Observe the singular abstract a^yaitiwH, which is not lightly to be passed over. Why not a more ordinary expression ? Have we not here an unusual antithesis ? The danger is great that by aiming to reduce all to commonplace for the sake of safety, we may demolish many an interesting conception of antiquity.

3 Observe the subjectivity. These verses settle the question as to the depth of the Zarathmtrian hymns. Grammar forces us to see that the composer had large ideas. The entire cast of reflection in the Gathas tends to be abstract as well as subjective. Not so their invective and partisan exhortations. 4 Verezyo is a nom. sing, masc, as would seem natural from its position in the sentence. Compare mathraij- verezyaij. c Observe that Ahura is undoubtedly called spenijta mainyu. Elsewhere we must sometimes render, ' His bountiful spirit. (Divine) Righteousness ; (yea, He so chose) who clothes upon Himself the firm1 stones of heaven (as His robe). And He chose likewise them who content Ahura with actions, which (are performed) really in accordance with the faith 2. 6. And between these two spirits the Demon-gods (and they who give them worship) can make no righteous choice :i, since we have beguiled 4 them. As they were questioning and debating in their council5 the (personified 6) Worst Mind approached them that he might be chosen. (They made their 1 Zak 1 sakht sag nihufto asmani/fc. Ner. Ga^/zataram* akasam dadau. 2 ' Who with actions really good piously content Ahura.' Let it be noticed that fraore/ is not independently translated by the Pahlavi. It is freely included in avo Auharmazd ; and yet this is supposed by some to be a word-for-word rendering ! Ner. praka/ai^a karmabhi^.

Verbatim. Of-these-two spirits he-chose-to-himself (he)-who (was) the evil (the one) the worst (deeds) working*. The-RighteousOrder (accusative) (chose) the spirit most-bountiful (he-)who the most-firm stones clothes-on-himself, (those) who-and will-content Ahura with real actions believingly Mazda. (Properly a verbatim rendering is only possible in an inflected language.) 3 La rasto vi^inend. They suffer judicial blindness; a common idea in the Gathas ; compare, ' who holds them from the sight of the truth,' &c. 4 The root is indicated by va muni<£ valmaman frift. I can see no escape from the above rather adventurous rendering. See also dafshnya he«tu in chap. LIII, 8. Perhaps the idea of injury here preponderates over that of deceit; 'since we have impaired their power.' The choice between a preterit or an improper subjunctive is also difficult. Possibly, ' so that we may fatally deceive them.' Poss. nom. ' deception came upon them, even A. M.' 5 This recalls Vendidad XIX, 45, where the demons assemble in council to consider the advent of Zarathu^tra. c Compare verse 4, where Vahutem Mano equals heaven. The fatal decision.) And thereupon they rushed together unto the Demon of Fury, that they might pollute * the lives of mortals 2. 7. Upon this3 Aramaiti (the personified Piety of the saints) approached, and with her came the Sovereign Power, the Good Mind, and the Righteous Order. And (to the spiritual creations of good and of evil) Aramaiti gave a body, she the abiding and ever strenuous 4. And for these (Thy people) so let 5 (that

word is the subject of '^asa/,' and has the proper place of a nominative in the sentence ; cp. Vedic usage. 1 That they might disease (so literally) the lives of those who had not yet been tempted or fallen. The Pahlavi : Vimarini</6 ahvan i man/uman [aigh, levatman aeshm amutaan ahukinend]. Ner. : Ye ni^aghnur bhuvanazw manushyana#z. Hubschmann: 'urn durch ihnPlagen iiber dasLeben desMenschen zu bringen.' Verbatim. Of these two spirits not aright may choose the Daevas, since these we have beguiled (or have injured). To thequestioning ones upon came-he in-order-that he might-be-chosen (subjunctive middle) he-the worst mind. Thereupon to-furiousrapine they rushed-together in-order-that (yena) they might disease (or ruin) the-life of-man. 3 Or, 'to him:' some unnamed benefactor ; hardly 'to us.' The Pahlavi has, avo valman, but Ner. has only tatra/£a. Observe ahmai in chap. XLIII, 1, and in chap. XLVII. 4 Root an = in. The Pahlavi freely, pavan astubih. He seems to have thought of nam + a priv. Kehrpem is feminine. Anma may be a neuter in apposition. Otherwise we must accept -ma as a suffix. Or can kehrpem (corpus) be a neuter here ? The clothing of the spirits with corporeal natures enabled them to advance in the development of moral qualities by self-restraint and pursuit. As has been observed in the summary, no Fravashis appear in the Gathas. Have we here possibly an indication of the pre-existence of souls ? If Aramaiti gave a body, it may be inferred that a period elapsed between the acts of the two spirits and this.

6 That bodies are to be given to the saints as at the first is to body) be (at the last), O Mazda! as it was when Thou earnest first with creations 1 ! 8. And (when the great struggle shall have been fought out which began when the Daevas first seized the Demon of Wrath as their ally2), and when the (just) vengeance shall have come upon these wretches, then, O Mazda! the Kingdom shall have been gained for Thee by (Thy) Good Mind (within Thy folk). For to those, O living Lord ! does (that Good Mind 3) utter his command, who will deliver the Demon of the Lie into the two hands4 of the Righteous Order (as a captive to a destroyer). 9. And may we be such as those who bring on be inferred from Yajt XIX, 89. (Which see in part ii of the translations of the Zend-Avesta.) 1 Verbatim. To-this (to us ?)-and wifh-Khshathra came, withManah Vohu, with Asha-and (Aramaiti) thereupon a-body the-continuing gave Ar(a)maiti the strenuous (Aramaiti, or the body, a vigorous and strenuous thing). Of these thine (or to thee) to let-it (the body)-be as thou-camest in-creations the-first. 2 See verse 6.

3 What else can be the subject of sasti ? 4 Observe the pronounced personification of Righteousness. As a matter of course the ultimate sense is more commonplace, as is the case with all poetical matter. ' Into the hands of Asha,' is the same as to say, ' into the power of the servant of God.' But would this be a proper mode of rendering a line of real though rudely primitive poetry ? Such renderings are commentary rather than translation. The Pahlavi may be rendered as follows : Thus also in that creation [in the final body] hatred comes to these haters and sinners ; [that is, the avengers shall execute chastisement upon them]. And, therefore, O Auharmazd! what to thee is the sovereignty, by that (so possibly) shall Vohuman give a reward. Through these, O Auharmazd ! [through the religion of Auharmazd], when one is instructed in Righteousness, [that is, as to the interests of the pious] then the Drug is given into one's hand, [the Drug- who is Aharmok]. this great renovation, and make this world progressive, (till its perfection shall have been reached). (As) the Ahuras of Mazda1 (even) may we be ; (yea, like Thyself), in helpful readiness to meet 2 (Thy people), presenting (benefits 3) in union with the Righteous Order. For there 4 will our thoughts be (tending) where true wisdom shall abide in her home 5.

10. (And when perfection shall have been attained) then shall the blow of destruction fall upon the Demon of Falsehood, (and her adherents shall perish with her), but swiftest in the happy abode of the Good Mind and of Ahura the righteous saints 1 Otherwise, 'the Ahura-Mazdas,' or, ' O Mazda and the Ahuras!' I think that the most natural rendering according to the grammar should first be given, notwithstanding something uncommon about it. 'All the Ahura-Mazdas,' has been seen by Roth in chapter XXXI, 4. 2 The Pahlavi has the gloss [aigluan hamishako han^aman madam tanu 1 pasino kunLrno], needlessly enlarged of course, but showing the proper root, which is mi/ ; (so Spiegel.) 3 Or possibly sustaining (the feeble). The Pahlavi reads simply dedrununo. 4 The Pahlavi renders hathra in the Indian sense as asar*, endlessly; so others elsewhere. Hathra and yathra are of course distinctly in antithesis. 5 The Pahlavi mihano, Persian makan. That maetha is an adverbial instrumental meaning, ' in one's home,' seems the more probable from the two hathra, yathra, adverbs of place. Compare, for instance, athra-yathra in XLVI, 16, where shaeiti follows. Hiibschmann, 'Dort mogen (unsre) Sinne sein, wo die Weisheit thront ;' see also huj-itoi^ in the next verse.

The Parsi-persian MS. has — Aeduno (sic) ham ma kih an i til hastam (sic) ; [ku an i til 'hwe^ hastam] in — rasta'hiz kardan andar ^ihan. (c) Kih — minim bed [ku minion pah — darad] as a.ng& danai hast [ku, a'hir i /ciz pah neki bih danad] andar makan. shall gather, they who proceed in their walk (on earth) in good repute x (and honour) 2. 1 1. Wherefore, O ye men ! ye are learning 3 (thus) these religious incitations which Ahura gave in (our) happiness4 and (our) sorrow5. (And ye are also learning) what is the long wounding for the wicked, and the blessings which are in store for the righteous. And when these (shall have begun their course), salvation shall be (your portion0)! 1 Pahlavi, ' mun vadund zak i japir namikih = they are creating a good repute,' as if zazewte were understood in the sense of produce. See the sense 'bear' as given for ha, Rig-veda 843, 2 (X, 1 7). The analogy is, however, not strong. 2 The Pahlavi translation may here be rendered as follows : Thus in that dispensation [in the later body] the Drug [who is Ganrak Minavad] will be overthrown [ ] when (his) host is scattered. Thus they move keenly on [to seize the reward], which is attained through the good citizenship of Vohuman [when they shall have dwelt in piety]. They who are creating a good renown are thus moving on toward Auharmazd and Ashavahijt [that is, the person who is of good repute goes forward to seize the reward].

3 Once more the anomalous form amukhtmio meets us in the Pahlavi. May this not be intended to express ' learning,' whereas amuzuno would express ' teaching ? ' I hardly think so. 4 The Pahlavi translation is only remotely if at all responsible for kvitiM as = sua sponte. This would require fonti as=*/2Z>ati with difficulty comparing ' yim ' and ' y<?m '(?). It is generally considered now as=hu + iti ; but the letter YJ = yfy seems doubtful. 5 Read aniti=' with impeded progress.' ' In prosperity or adversity.' But these are conjectures. 6 The Pahlavi : Aetuno akhar valmaman aito nadukih. I do not think that we ought to regard the words of the original as expressing universal restoration. But they may well have given the first indication toward this later view. Literally, they state it, but not when correctly understood. (Supplementary note. The Pahlavi word yomai which transcribes y^sna in verse 4 cannot mean ' by day.' Its imperfect form induced the translators to translate ruzha and bhumandale, but these scholars, as in many other instances, hinted at a correction.)

The Progress and Struggles of the Cause. This composition differs from that in XXX as descending from the more general to the particular, and from the doctrinal to the practical. One might even trace an immediate connection, urvata occurring in the last verse of the one and in the first of the other. It is, of course, very possible that the verses before us are only a remnant of those which originally constituted the piece, and here and there one may have been interpolated from other scriptures. Some writers prefer to assume a loss of the original text or an addition to it at the smallest change of tone, and to assume also a change of subject with it. I do not regard it as very useful to lay too much stress upon these occurrences. Whether caused by gaps or interpolations, they do not at all affect the fact that the subject-matter is homogeneous and contemporaneous ; and, probably, like many more modern compositions, the verses gain in rhetorical effect by being weeded of repetitions. We might divide as follows i, 2, an address to the congregation to be connected with XXX as its concluding words; 3-5, an address to Ahura; 6, an address to the faithful; 7-17, to Ahura; 18, to the congregation; 19, to Ahura; 20, 21, to the congregation; 22, an addition.

Treating the section then as containing homogeneous matter which combines well into a unit, I proceed as follows. The sage chants his hymn in the presence of the multitude as before. 1. He declares that while he is reciting things unwillingly heard by the hostile party, those same truths are valued as the best of existing things by those who are sincerely devoted to Mazda, their good disposition quickening their perception. 2. He then declares that if the truths of the holy Religion are not yet clearly seen by the instrumentalities provided, he will approach them still more effectively in accordance with the especial regulation of the spiritual chieftainship, which Ahura Mazda had prepared in response to the lament of the soul of the Kine ; i. e. of the Iranian herds and people possibly as representing the entire holy, or clean, creation upon earth. And he further asserts that this regulation concerns the struggle of the two parties, and will bring the cause of the Righteous Order to a successful issue. 3. Changing his address to Ahura, he proceeds to pray at once for that satisfying decision which would be the natural result of the regulation just promised, and which could be given by the instrumentality of the Sacred Fire and holy ritual, affording mental keenness to the two contending parties. And he declares that this is the doctrine which should be proclaimed for the conversion of mankind. Here we observe that the Zarathu^trian Mazda-worship was aggressive and missionary in its spirit, and in a proselyting sense by no means indifferent to the final destiny of the Gentile world. (The later and traditional system announced indeed the restoration and so the conversion of all men, and that not as an object proposed to the efforts of charity, but as a necessary result (so by inference; see Bundahij (West), pp. 126, 129). I can find no trace of this in the Gathas.

Here we have only the effort to convert.) 4. Addressing all the Bountiful Immortals, and with the striking title of the Ahuras of Mazda, he prays for the establishment of the ' mighty kingdom ' by means of which he might overcome the personified and aggressive falsehood of the opposing and persecuting Daeva-worshippers. 5. In order to enable himself to fulfil his mission, he asks for prophetic and judicial knowledge as to what ought to be done, or as to what is about to happen in the immediate future. 6. He lauds the Mathra which we may suppose him to recognise as delivered to him afresh in answer to his prayer for prophetic light, and he praises co-ordinately with the Word of God that Sovereign Authority of Ahura, which was to be established in a kingdom where goodness would increase, and be prosperous, if not predominant. 7. He takes the heavenly bodies as evidence of the wisdom of Him who created the Sacred Order personified as the ' Immortal ' Asha, and also the Good Mind, his equal. And he ascribes the support and extension of their hallowing influence to Ahura, because He never changes. 8. He reiterates, in expressions which form the basis for another hymn, his conception of Mazda as the supreme object of devotion, as the father of the Good Mind personified as His child, as the creator of the Righteous Order, and as both the controller and the judge of human actions. Therefore the Good Mind and Righteousness are to be worshipped as standing in the closest possible relation to him.

9. He ascribes the ' Immortal ' Piety to Him as well. She is His own, and elsewhere His own daughter. He is declared, as in chapter XXIX, to be the Creator of the Kine, and of Understanding, (His own intelligence), to guide Him in the disposition of the destiny of the holy Iranian people. And according to it He makes the path for the Kine, which as a matter of course has no meaning as applied to bucolics, but is full of meaning when read in view of the wail of the Kine's Soul in chapter XXIX, and of the intervention of the Deity in her behalf, for He actually appointed Zarathurtra to meet her necessities. He adds, however, that her free choice is not abolished by the construction 'of this path.' It is elsewhere called the. 'religion of the Saviour-prophets,' and she is free to proceed in it, guided by the first prophet, the ideal husbandman, or she can follow the profaner nomad. 10. But he thankfully exclaims that she does not pause in indecision, nor does she choose perversely. She selects the guardian appointed by Ahura, the diligent and pious husbandman, elsewhere identified with Zarathurtra himself. He is rich with the spiritual wealth of the Good Mind ; and she rejects in his favour the idle and free-booting nomad, excluding him from all share in the sacred religious system.

ii. The composer then delineates the struggle which inevitably follows this establishment of the needed means of deliverance. When Mazda has completed the inspiration of doctrines, teaching whither the one endowed with free volition (like the Kine [verse 9] ) should direct his choice in action (12), there upon the spot, as it were, the ignorant Daeva-worshipper makes himself heard beside God's spokesman. But the prophet is consoled by the reflection that the pious mind will not question the evil Spirit, or the good Spirit superficially. It searches both the Spirits, questioning them, as it were, in their very home. (Hence it is that Ahura speaks so fully concerning Angra Mainyu, delineating his opposition to Him in extended detail. See XLV, 2.) 13. The composer is still more reanimated by the certainty that Ahura is gazing into the depths of all questions, trivial and profound; which is to say that he observes most closely the men who are discussing them. And he declares that he also sees the cruel injustice of the punishments which the tyrants visit upon the smallest offences, as well as the more flagrant wickedness of those who persecute his adherents without even a pretence of justice.

14. As he recalls the divine forecasting omniscience, he asks Ahura once more concerning the future which was close at hand with its portentous events. And he inquires as to the nature of the veritable and not iniquitous confessions, which were properly due to be made by the righteous believer in order to avert the impending calamities, and secure the upper hand in the struggle for the throne. And he inquires also as to the proper expiatory prayers which were to be offered by the believer. He does not however fail to inquire analogously concerning the wicked, nor to ask how they, as well as the righteous, shall be situated in the final consummation. 15. Particularising as to the latter, he asks what shall be the punishment for those who succeed in installing an evil monarch, one of the Daeva-party, a prince who cannot exist without the ruthless persecution of the pious husbandman, who repudiates the Liedemon presiding over the counsels and efforts of the opposing religion. 16. He further asks how and by what actions the wise man may become like Ahura, or his faithful adherent, the expressions used implying deep religious feeling. 1 7. Striving to arouse the perceptions of his hearers, he inquires as to which one of the two parties holds to the greater or more important religion, the disciple of Asha, the personified Righteous Order Ahura's immediate creature (see above), or the opponent. And he prays that no blind guide may deceive him, or those who belong to him, ' but that the enlightened, yea, even Ahura Himself, may speak to him, and become the indicator and demonstrator of the truth.'

18. Closing this address to the Deity, he turns to the congregation, vehemently forbidding them to listen to the doctrines of his opponents, warning them against the ruin and death which would ensue, and fiercely appealing to the sword. 19. Once more addressing Ahura, he prays that they may on the contrary listen to Him who has power to vindicate the conscientious Zarathurtrian, inculcating veracity upon him, and encouraging him in its practice ; and this by means of the holy sacrifice, or ordeal of the Fire. 20. He solemnly warns those who would seduce the righteous of their ultimate fate, and adds that their sorrows will be self-induced, if they persevere in their hostility. Their own consciences (as we see from Yast XXII) would not only bring on their ruin, but would form a part of their punishment. 21. On the other hand, happiness and immortality will be the lot of the faithful. And these 'eternal two' will be given to them, accompanied by the fulness of Righteousness, and the exuberant vigour of the Good and Kindly Mind within them and bestowing its blessings upon them. 22. In conclusion he apostrophises the manifest certainty of the truths which he declares, and, addressing Ahura, animates the faithful not merely with the hope of the objective recompense, but with the prospect of being efficient as servants of God.

i. These doctrines (therefore) we are earnestly declaring to You as we recite them forth from memory, words (till now) unheard1 (with faith) by those who by means of the doctrinal vows 2 of the harmful Lie are delivering the settlements of Righteousness to death, but words which are of the best unto those who are heartily devoted to Ahura3. 2. And if by this means the indubitable truths4 are not seen in the soul5, then as better (than these words) I will come to you all (in my person) with 1 Roth, ' wollen wir Worte kiinden — ungern gehort von denen, welche nach des Unholds Geboten,' &c. Hubschmann preferring ' wir sprechen Worte nicht anhorbar fur diejenigen ' (Casuslehre, s. 223). A dative of the pronoun is certainly more natural than the ablative as inst. But on the whole agushta seems better in its ordinary sense, although in so rendering we are obliged to supply a word. 2 Valmaman mun pavan afringanih i Drug- zak i Aharayih gehan bara maren^inen</. 3 The Pahlavi may be rendered as follows : Both these benedictions, which I (we) recite as yours [the Avesta and Zand], we are teaching by word to him who is no hearer, [to the destroyer of sanctity (the heretical persecutor) [ ] ]. Those who utterly slay the world of righteousness through the benedictions of the Drug [ ], even those might be an excellent thing, if they would cause progress in what belongs to Auharmazd.

4 Read perhaps advayao ; see the Pahlavi. Otherwise 'the way ' advao as panthas ; but the participle * does not agree. Compare for meaning kavfm advayantam, sakha advayas.* The Pahlavi renders ' in the soul ' freely by ' believes : ' Pavan nikiri^no la hemnunea'o as pavan zak i agumanikih. The general indications are to be observed. * Is it a loc. ? that power, and in that way according to which Ahura Mazda knows and appoints His ruler1, that ruler over both the two (struggling) bands2, in order that we (in obedience to him), may live according to Righteousness3. 3. And that keenness, that deciding satisfaction, which Thou hast given by (Thy) Spirit4, and (Thy) Fire, and by Thy Righteousness (itself) to the two battling5 (sides), do Thou declare unto us, O Ahura ! that vow which is for the seeing6 (as those endowed with mental light). Yea, do Thou declare this that we may know it, O Mazda! With the tongue of Thy mouth do Thou speak it (that as I preach its mighty truths7) I may make all the living believers8 ! 1 Comp. chap. XXIX, 2, where the Ratu is discussed ; here the word might be the abstract.

2 Roth, ' dieser beiden Parteien (Yasna XXXI).' 3 He repels and condemns the evil, and he hallows and helps the good. 4 Most striking is the use of mainyu. It is 'the Spirit ' = God. It is ' His Spirit.' It is also used of man's spirit. 5 Or, 'from the two arawi;' but see asayao in verse 2. The Pahlavi translator has avo patkan/arano shnakhtarih ; so uniformly. In Y. XLIII, 12, K5 and most MSS., except K4, and likewise excepting the printed B.V. S., read ranoibyo which excludes the dual form ; also the fire is not mentioned there. It is however far from impossible that the present Pahlavi translation may be a growth beyond an earlier one more in accordance with ara/zi. The strivers, or fighters, might describe the two rubbing-sticks (?). 6 Aimar (sic), vi^an/ar. This meaning suits the connection admirably. The word is otherwise difficult, and this general sense is followed by some who do not so often cite the Pahlavi translator. 7 See verse 1. 8 Roth, 'wie ich alle lebenden bekehren soil.' So also the general indication of the Pahlavi translator. Pavan huzvano i Lak — zivandakan harvist-gun hemnund. Observe that the religious system contemplated universal proselytism.

4. And when the Divine Righteousness shall be inclined to my appeal1, and with him all those (remaining ones who are as) Mazda's2 (own) Ahuras then with the blessedness (of the reward), with (my) Piety and with Thy Best Mind (active within me), I will pray3 for that mighty Kingdom by whose force4 we may smite the Lie-demon5. 5. Aye, do Thou tell me that I may discern it, since through (Thy) Righteous Order the better (lot) is6 given ; tell me this that I may know it with (Thy) Good Mind (as it speaks within me), and that I may ponder7 that to which these my truths8 belong (and 1 The general indications karitimtar and bavihunam point to the proper sense. 2 Or, with Roth, ' wenn wirklich sich rufen lassen die AhuraMazdas.' Otherwise, ' O Mazda and the Ahuras.' Hiibschmann also maintained that Mazdau was here a plural; (see his Y. XXX, 10.) 3 Roth, rendering ishasa in accordance with the Pahlavi, ' erbitte ich.' 4 Mun pavan zak i valman gurdih — khiishMo Dru^o ae sufficiently indicates the proper sense. Roth, ' kraft deren wir den Unhold bemeistern mogen.' 5 The Pahlavi may be rendered thus : Since in that dispensation [in the final body], I shall be an invoker of Ashavahut, and of Auharmazd also | ] ; and of her who is veneration ' Spendarmad ' ], I desire [that best of things which is the reward] of Vohuman. Let also that authority which belongs to my people

] be from the strong one [ ] by whose fortitude [ ] the Dru°- is overcome [ ]. 6 Literally, ' Ye gave.' 7 I am far from sure that the indication of the Pahlavi is not correct here. According to it, when properly understood, we have here an accusative with the infinitive ; ' that I should establish.' Its own translation is however avo li yehabunai. M*#=man or mam ; e«(g)=,a the nasal vowel. The Pahl. translator recognises men elsewhere as = minijno. It was from no ignorance (!) of the particular word that he wrote ' li ' here. 8 Or ' my prophet ; ' comp. rishi ; that is, ' that with which my prophet is concerned.' of which my prophet speaks ; yea), tell me those things, O Mazda Ahura ! which may not be, and which may be1. 62. And that verily shall be the best of all words to Him which the All-(wise one) will3 declare to me in very deed, that word which is the Mathra of Welfare and of Immortality (for it proclaims His beneficent power). And to the Great Creator (shall there be) a Realm such as that (whose strength I asked for victory4), and which (at the last) shall flourish5 in its holiness to His (glory6) !

7. (For He has sovereign control.) He who conceived of these (truths of the Mathra) as their first (inspirer), (and as He thought their existence they 1 Or, possibly, ' which shall not be, or which shall be.' Is the subjunctive here used to express obligation ? Roth has ' was nicht sein soil oder was sein soil.' Ner. may be rendered as follows : Tell it to me distinctly [ ], that which is the highest gift, and which is given to me through sanctity ; [that is, because duty and righteousness are fulfilled by me, the best gift of thy reward (is gained) by this means ; but how is it possible to make it (actually) one's own?]. Grant me the knowledge through the best mind; [that is, declare that intelligence to me which comes through good conduct], and by which also safety is (secured) to me [ ]. And declare either that which is not, or that which is, O Great Wise One, the Lord ! [ ]. 2 An interval of silence seems here to intervene, or lost verses leave an unexplained transition. The sage turns again to the people. 3 VaoM/ K4 (Barth.). 4 See verse 4.

5 The Pahlavi has Auharmazd avand (sic) khudftyih £and den valman vakhsh&f Vohumano. 6 The Parsi-persian MS. is as follows : U hast buland, kih an man agahiha (sic) gu-i arkarah [ ] mansar i tamam raftani ; [ku, tamam pedaun pah rah i mansar baz an 'hwe^i i Hormuzd rased], kih pah Sawab darad— bi-marg raftani aza,r [ ]. Hormuzd — 'hudai £and andar u afzayed Bahman [Kuj padLrahi pah tan i mard — /fondi (?) Hormuzd pah tan mihman]. (all) as ( H is) glorious 1 (conceptions first) clothed themselves in the stars2), He is through His understanding the Creator3 of the Righteous Order. And thus likewise He supports His Beneficent Mind (in His saints). And these (holy creatures) may'st Thou cause to prosper by Thy Spirit (since they are Thine own), O Ahura Mazda ! Thou who art for every hour the same4 ! 8. Therefore5, as the first6 did I conceive of Thee, O Ahura Mazda ! as the one to be adored with the mind in the creation, as the Father of the Good Mind within us, when I beheld Thee7 with my (enlightened) eyes as the veritable maker of our Righteousness, as the Lord of the actions of life8 !

9. Thine, O Ahura! was Piety; yea, Thine, O Creator of the Kine! was understanding and the 1 Muna^ avo roshanih gumikhto khvarih. Zfoathra and khvarih can hardly mean ' comfortable ' here. ' Ease ' is the later sense. 2 Rao^bij- certainly means, with illuminating objects, stars or shining lights. 3 Hiibschmann, ' der Schopfer des Asha.' — Casuslehre, s. 190. 4 Pavan minavadikih vakhshineV/ [ ] mun kevanL£ ham khti</ai. 5 Compare the frequent expression ' spe«tem a/ Thwa meNhi,' in chap. XLIII. c Roth, ' vornehmsten.' 7 When I seized Thee (took Thee in) with my eye. The Pahlavi: Amatam [ ] pavan ham/£ashmih av5 ham vakhdun^/ homanih. 8 Den ahvano pavan kuni.mo khiWai homanih. Ner. may be rendered as follows : Thus thou wert thought at the first by me, O Great Wise One, the Lord ! when thou wert engaged in the production of Gvahmana [ ]. In which (production) they apprehend the father of the Best Mind when they observe him with a full-faced look [ ]. (And thou art the father) of that creation which is manifestly righteous ; [that is, thou makest the purer creation good in conduct]. Thou art a King in the world as to action ; [that is, where it is fitting to confer a benefit, and also where it is fitting to inflict a punishment, in each of these thou art capable].

Spirit1, when Thou didst order a path for her (guiding). From the earth's tiller (aided2) she goeth3 (in that allotted way), or from him who was never tiller. (Thy path hath given her choice4.) 10. (But she did not pause in temptation.) Of the two she chose5 the husbandman, the thrifty toiler in the fields6, as a holy master endowed with the Good Mind's wealth 7. Never, Mazda ! shall 1 His spewta mainyu ; otherwise ' spiritual (understanding),' but mainyu is used elsewhere (verse 3 and 7) alone, and certainly not as an adjective even with a substantive understood. The rendering ' spirit ' as ' Thy spirit ' is suspiciously significant ; but what is the help ? We are forced by grammar so to translate. 2 The ablative has this force as in Asha/ ha^a. 3 I can hardly accede to an infinitive here: -te is a rare infinitive termination in Gathic. Also the infinitive seldom falls to the end of the sentence. The Pahlavi has yatuneV, a present ; but the Pahlavi should never be positively cited for the forms, as it is free. 4 Observe that we are forced by every dictate of logic and common sense to avoid the commonplace rendering here. Cattle do not have 'paths' made for them, nor do they cry aloud for an overseer, or complain at the appointment of one who does not appear to them promising ; nor is it one main effort of religion 'to content the soul of cattle.' Cattle, as the chief article of wealth, are taken to signify all civic life. The ' path ' is the path for the people to walk in, securing safety for soul and life and herds. The adhvan is ' the way' which ' is the religious characteristics and teachings of the prophets' (XXXIV, 13).

5 Observe that this cow (some would say ' ox ') chooses her master, unlike other cattle. But observe also, what is more interesting, that she seems reconciled to the guardian appointed by Ahura. In Y. XXIX, 9, she actually ' wept ' at the naming of the pusillanimous Zarathujtra, desiring a kingly potentate. Now, however, we see that she must have dried her tears, as she is satisfied with the simple workman whom he represents notwithstanding high rank. 6 In the later Avesta this first vastrya fruyawt is declared to be Zarathmtra. 7 Mun ffuih pavan Vohumano. the thieving1 nomad share the good creed2. (For the Kine's choice would bestow it3 !) 11. (And this doctrine was the first of rules to regulate our actions. Yet the opposer speaks beside Thee.) For when first, O Ahura Mazda! Thou didst create the (holy) settlements, and didst reveal the religious laws4 ; and when Thou gavest (us) understanding from Thine own mind, and madest our (full) bodily life5, and (didst thus determine) actions (by Thy power), and didst moreover deliver to us (nearer) injunctions whereby (as by a rule) the wisher may place his choices6, 1 2. (There strife at once arose, and still is raging.) There (beside Thy prophet) the truthful or liar, the enlightened or unenlightened, lifts his voice (to utter

1 Pahlavi davasaha^ ; Ner. pratarayitre. 2 Khupo-hoshmurunih. ' Judicial blindness ' is everywhere indicated. (The wicked are kept from the sight of the truth.) Hubschm., Casuslehre, ' der frohen Botschaft.' 3 This seems implied. 4 Or, ' madest the worlds and the souls (?).' 5 Geldner admirably ' flesh.' The Pahlavi : tanu-homandano gan yehabmW. Notice that ' bodily life or flesh ' is mentioned after ' understanding.' Compare Y. XXX, 7, where Aramaiti gives ' a body ' after previous creations. 6 The Pahlavi has the following interesting gloss: [That is, even the actions and teachings of the pious are given forth by thee ; and this was also given in this wisdom of thy mind]. And when there is a person in whom there is a desire for the other world, that desire is granted to him by thee ; [that is, what is necessary when he is arriving in the other world, this which is thus required (or desired) by him at that time, is given by thee — through that which is thy mind and wisdom]. Although not able to follow the indications of the Pahlavi fully, I think that there is no question but that we have an important statement in the last line. It does not seem to me possible to render less profoundly than ' where the wisher may place his choices,' his religious preferences and beliefs, including all moral volition.

his faith), and with devoted mind and heart1. (But without hindrance from this striving, or pausing with feeble search2, our) Piety steadily3 questions the two spirits4 (not here on earth) but (there in the spiritworld) where (they dwell as) in their home5. 13. (Yea, my Piety questions searchingly, for Thou, O Maker ! hast Thy view on all ; we cannot question lightly.) What questions are asked which are open6 (permitted to our thoughts), or what questions (are asked) which are furtive7 (hiding themselves from the light), or (what decision soever we may make, and the man) who for the smallest sin binds on the heaviest penance, on all8 with Thy glittering eye(s) as a righteous guard Thou art gazing9 ! 1 Avo zak libbemman. 2 See verse 13. 3 Pavan ha^uno 1 : the Persian MS. (Haug XII, b) transliterates khezuno: Ner. has mano-utthanena (sic). Or, ' immediately.' 4 The evil as well as the good spirit is questioned. The two spirits of Y. XXX, 3-6 were here inspiring the conflict. 5 The Pahlavi unvaryingly in the sense of mihano [-as gas tamman yehevuneV/6] ; Ner. paralokanivasan. See Y. XXX, 9 ; XXXIII, 9 ; XXXIV, 6. A questioning which was lightly made would indicate a willingness to tamper with error. The Persian MS. following the Pahlavi has : Anga. bang i buland an i dmbgfi guftar [Gana Minu] wa an ham i rast guftar [Hormuzd], &c. But Neryosangh is more accurate or literal : Atra bumbam* karoti [antar ^agati], mithyavakta va satyavakta va, &c.

6 Pavan zak i ashkarako. 7 Nihanik. 8 Thou seest even the questions and decisions of our thoughts as to matters which are simple or difficult, permitted or occult. 9 I have not followed what may yet possibly be a valuable and correct hint of tradition. I render Neryosangh : He who asks through what is open [through righteousness], or he who asks through what is secret [through sin] ; or he (also) who through, or on account of, a little sin which has been committed, commits the great one to secure a purification ; [that is, who for the sake of purification necessary on account of a little sin which has been committed, commits a greater one, in order that the first may not 14. This then I will ask Thee, O Ahura Mazda! (as I seek Thy counsel once again1). What events are coming now, and what events shall come in the future2 ; and what prayers with debt-confessions3 are offered with4 the offerings of the holy? And what (are the awards) for the wicked ? And how shall they be in the (final) state5 of completion6 ? 15. And I would ask Thee this, O Mazda! (concerning the coadjutor of the wicked) : What is the award7 for him who prepares the throne8 for the evil, for the evil-doer9, O Ahura! for him who cannot else reclaim10 his life, not else save11 with lawless

become known], upon these two, each of them, look with thy two eyes. [Over sins and righteous actions thou art in one way, everywhere and again, the Lord.] The concretes here may give the right indication. 1 See verse 5. 2 Mun nW6, muni£ yamtune<fo, 'What has come? And what is coming ? ' 3 Mun avam. 4 HaM in the Indian sense. 5 Angan/ikih, the judgment ; but Ner. vipakata, consummation. c Neryosangh has as follows: Tad dvitayawz tvattaA* pri'fikMmi, Svamin ! yad agataw, ayatLC'a, yo* rinam dadate danebhya^ *pu«- yatmane [Hormi^daya yatha yugyate datuw], ye^a, Mahag-wanin ! durgatimadbhya^ ; kathaw tesha^ asti vipakata * evawz [kila, ya./i tat kurute, tasmai nidane prasadadanaw kiw bhavati, ya^/*a tat kurute, tasmai/fca kira bhavati 'ti ; me bruhi !] This seems to me very close, far more so than we have any right to expect as a general rule from a Parsi living in India, and only five or six centuries ago, too late for ' tradition,' and too early for close criticism. 7 Roth, ' Ich frage — was die Strafe ist ? ' 8 The head of a party seems to have been plotting to introduce a hostile sovereign. 9 I duj-kununo.

10 The Pahlavi translator, nividinec/6, (otherwise nivekineV, which I much suspect has become confused with nividineWo through a clerical blunder) ; Ner. labhate. They both refer vinasti to vid (so Justi) followed by most. Roth (Yasna XXXI, p. 11), 'der sein Brot nicht findet ohne Gewalthat an der Heerde.' 11 The Pahlavi translator sees the root han in the sense of harm to the tiller's herd, to the pious husbandman's flock, who speaks no word with lying, (who abjures the Lie-demon's faith1) ? 1 6. Yea, I would ask Thee such a thing as this : How such an one as he who, with wise action, has striven to promote (Thy holy) Rule 2 over house, and region, and province, in the Righteous Order and in truth, how he may become like Thee3, O Great Creator, Living Lord ? And when he may so become, (this also I would ask), and in what actions living he may so be4 ? 17. And which of the (religions) is the greater (and the more prevailing5 as to these questions which thus concern the soul ?) Is it that which the acquisition, and not from ignorance of the sense given above. In another place, he renders v\gid min; (see XLVII, 5.)

1 Neryosangh may be rendered as follows : Thus I ask thee : What is for him who seizes upon destruction, and who provides the sovereignty for the wicked [ ], and commits that evil action, O Lord ! from which he does not acquire life even through a bribe* (so meaning), [ ] and who is a calamity to the man who acts for herds and men removing calamities from them [ ] ? 2 Roth, ' der die Herrschaft iiber Hof Gau und Land um das rechte zu fordern hat.' 3 Pahlavi, Lak havand ; Neryosangh, tvattulyo ; Roth, ' deiner werth.' 4 I render the Sanskrit of Neryosangh thus (it improves on the Pahlavi) : I ask (thee) thus: How [dost thou bestow] the sovereignty upon one when he is beneficently wise ? [ ] (in the body) of him who, through the increase of sanctity, is no opposer (of prosperity) in provinces or villages ; [that is, with him who is discharging his duty and performing acts of sanctity. He is this teacher's teacher, he does not contend]. Thine equal, O Great Wise One, the Lord ! thus is he verily, who (is such) in action, [who is thus Thine equal through activity].

6 Possibly mazyo has the sense of mazuta in chap. L, 1. There ' the most prevailing ' seems to be the proper rendering. righteous believes, or the wicked1 ? (Let then our questionings cease.) Let the enlightened (alone) speak to the enlightened. Let not the ignorant (further) deceive us, (high though he may lift his voice 2). Do Thou thyself, O Ahura Mazda ! declare3 to us (the truth) as Thy Good Mind's full revealer. 1 8. (And you, ye assembled throngs!) let not a man of you lend a hearing to Mathra, or to command of that sinner4 (ignorant5 as he is), for home, village, region, and province he would deliver to ruin6 and death. But (fly ye to arms without hearing), and hew ye them all with the halberd 7 ! 1 Literally, ' Which of the two (creeds as) the greater does the righteous (the believing saint) or the wicked (opponent) believe ? ' 2 See verse 12. 3 Or with others ' be Thou ' ; but the gloss of the Pahlavi translation contains an explanation which may well afford the true solution as in so many instances in which he is both consciously and inadvertently followed. It reads [aighmano bara khavitunino — ]. May we not see an az = ah in the form, or at least a separate Iranian root, as also in azda (L, 1), where the Pahlavi translator gives the same explanation admirably suited to the context.

Neryosangh : Which is it, the pure of soul, or the wicked who teaches as the great one ? [ ] The intelligent speaks to the intelligent [ ]. Be not thou ignorant after this ; because (ignorance is) from the deceiver. Instruct us, O Great Wise One, the Lord ! j Furnish us with a sign through the Best Mind ; [that is, make me steadfast in good conduct through the recognition of the din]. Such renderings may suffice to show that an examination of these ancient translations in our search for hints is imperative. Yet the practice prevails of omitting a knowledge of the Pahlavi language, on which not only the oldest translation of the Avesta, but also the irregular Sanskrit of Neryosangh, closely depends. 4 Jolly, ' Keiner von euch hore auf die Lieder und Gebote des Liigners.' Roth, ' Rath und Befehle.' 6 Compare evidvao in verse 17. 6 Du.r-rubi.mih. 7 SazeV saneh, 'prepare the sabre.' It was however a two-handed weapon; see Y. LVI, 12, (4 Sp.). The Parsi-persian MS. : Wa ma kas aedun az juma kih u 19. Let them hear Him who conceived of the Righteous Order for the worlds, the (all)-wise One, O Ahura ! For truthful speech He rules with absolute sway over words, and ever free of tongue (to guide us in our way1). By Thy shining flame2 (He doth guide us 3, Thine altar's flame with its signs of decision and of grace) sent forth for the good of the strivers 4.

20. (But, O ye listening men !) he who renders darwand mansar junawad wa amu'htijn (sic); [ku az A^mokan (?) Awesta wa Zand ma junawad], k\h andar — ma^all ^ahar wa deh dehad bad-raftijn wa marg an i Asmogk ; aediin (sic) osan Asmog/ian ra sazad sila^. (Again very close.) 2 Compare chap. XXX, 2. ' Behold ye the flames with the better mind;' possibly, also chap. XXX, 1, 'the signs in the lights seen friendly.' 3 According to the grammatical forms the agent here must be a divine being, as ye mawta ashem ahiibij (see verse 7) is characteristic of the Deity. The vocative, strange as it may seem, does not necessarily exclude Ahura, as the subject referred to in ye. Several analogous cases occur. The Deity may here however represent His prophet, as the Daevas do their worshippers in the later Avesta. Some writers force the language into a reference to the human subject for the sake of the greatly to be desired simplicity. One places Ahura in the instrumental, a case in which the Almighty seldom appears. The above translation needs no alternative, as the language would be the same whoever ye refers to. 4 See note on verse 3, and read as alternative ' from the two ara«i.' As an inferior rendering of tradition I cite Neryosangh here: The matter should be heard (taking gushta. as a third singular in a subjunctive sense); [that is, a study should be made of it by him] who is even (in any degree) acquainted with the righteous design of Hormio-da for both the worlds. He is independent in the literal truth of his words, in his freedom of speech, [and his fear has no existence]. Thy brilliant fire gives the explanation to the contenders. [It makes purity and impurity evident.]

the saint deceived1, for him shall be later destruction2. Long life shall be his lot in the darkness ; foul shall be his food ; his speech shall be of the lowest3. And this, which is such a life4 as your own, O ye vile ! your (perverted) conscience through your own deeds will bring 5 you6 ! 21. But Ahura Mazda will give both Universal Weal and Immortality7 in the fulness of His Righteous Order, and from himself8 as the head9 of Dominion (within His saints). And He will likewise give the Good Mind's vigorous might 10 to him who in spirit and deeds is His friend11, (and with faith fulfils his vows 12). 1 I follow the admirable lead of the Pahlavi here, as the previous verse mentions veracity. Its indication is pavan frin\rno, freely. 2 I differ with diffidence from the hint of the Pahlavi here (as elsewhere). It has shivan = tears, which however is free for ' calamity ' and ' sorrow.' Norn. sing. ; see its position. 3 Anak rubunih yemaleluneVo. This, placed together with such passages as XLVI, n, XLIX, n, and LI, 13, formed the basis for the more complete Vast XXII.

4 Others prefer ' place,' but see ayu in line b. 6 'Has led on'? 6 I cite Ner. : He who betrays the pure through his fraud, may (deceit) be (also his portion) at the last ; [that is, let it be so afterwards ; it is in his soul]. Long is his journey, and his arrival is in darkness; and evil food and increasing lawlessness is his | ]. Darkness is your world, O ye wicked ! your in-bred deeds, and your din, are leading you on. 7 That Ameretata/ means more than long life is clear from amesha. 8 Afaj naf^man patih. The Gathic would be more literally perhaps 'from His own Dominion.' 9 Sardanh. 10 Vazdvarih ; Ner. pfvaratvam. 11 One naturally thinks of urvatha (vratha), as having something of the sense of vratya. But usage compels also the sense of friendship. Hiibschmann, Casuslehre, s. 259, 'der durch Gesinnung und Thaten sich ihm als freund erweist.' 12 Ner.: Maha^Ttani dadau Svami* avirdadat* amirdadat sawpur- 22. And to the wise are these things clear as to the one discerning with his mind (not blinded by the perverter ]). With Thy Good Mind and Thy (holy) Kingdom he follows the Righteous Order both in his words and his actions. And to Thee, O Ahura Mazda ! such a man shall be the most helpful and vigorous being2 (for he serves with every power3)!

nztva.m puzzyatmane [ ] niga?n prabhutvaw ragne * adhipatyena [ uttamena pivaratva/« manasa [-tasmai dadate], yo ni^asya a&risyamurte/z karmazza mitraz/z. 1 So according to frequent indications. 2 Tanu aito. Ner. : Sa te — mitram asti niveditatanu/z. 3 See chap. XXXIII, 14. The Pahlavi translator renders freely as follows: Manifest things (so possibly; otherwise 'manifestly') (are) these to (so a MS. not yet elsewhere compared) the wise when according to his understanding he disposes and reflects, [that is, he who meditates with thought upon that which his lord and dastur declares to him]. Good is the King for whom they would effect righteousness in word and deed, the man whose body is a bearer of Thee, O Auharmazd!

The Struggle is continued in the midst of i. The same author may well be supposed to continue. The first stanzas have been lost, but we observe that the subject of the section is still face to face with the Daeva party. He seems to see them arrayed and engaged in hostile devotions. But he is not intimidated. The friendship of Ahura is before his mind, and he expresses his desire that he and his colleagues may become, or continue, His apostles, notwithstanding the temporal sorrows which, according to XLIII, n, we see that he clearly anticipated as the portion of those who would propagate the holy faith. 2. Mazda answers him, and through him his followers, as established in His spiritual sovereignty, accepting the devotion of their piety with commendations and implied encouragements. He whom they would serve is supreme ; they need not fear. 3. After reporting this response of Ahura, the composer turns with vehemence toward the Daevas, poetically conceived to be present as if before their adherents, who also, according to verse 1, are supposed to be in sight (or are dramatically so conceived) celebrating their profane devotions ; and he addresses them as the ' very seed' of Satan. Their worshippers belong to the religious falsehood and perversity. And they have persistently propagated their evil creed, which is in consequence spreading.

4. They have, so he acknowledges with grief, perverted men's minds, making them spokesmen for themselves, and in consequence deserters from the great Kindly Disposition of Ahura Mazda, and outcasts, fallen from His understanding. 5. They have destroyed the hopes of mankind for a happy life upon earth, and for Immortality in heaven. And in this they are not only the seed of the Evil Mind personified, but his servants rallying at his word. 6. Their leader is striving energetically, so he mournfully bewails, to effect his evil ends; but it is time that he should recall the counteracting measures of Ahura. His holy doctrines are to be announced, and their authority established by the divine Khshathra, His Sovereign Power personified. 7. The composer then contemplates with religious irony the infatuated security of the wretched delinquents whom he is apostrophising. Not a man of them knows the destruction which awaits him, and which, as he intimates, is close at hand, but Ahura, he significantly exclaims, is aware of it. And it will be proportionably severe. The blindness of sinners to danger seems as definite a judgment upon them in his estimate as their blindness to the truth. 8. To point his anger with an instance he names the apostate Yima, whom he supposes to have erred in first introducing the consumption of the flesh of cattle. He disavows community with him as with them all, declaring himself separate from them in Ahura's sight.

9. He acknowledges that their leader has to a certain degree defeated his teachings, and impaired the just estimates of life which he had striven to form within the people, (or that he will do this if not checked), declaring also that he had made inroads upon his property, which was sacred to the holy cause. And he cries aloud to Ahura and to Asha with the words of his very soul. 10. He repeats that their leader threatens to invalidate his teachings, blaspheming the supreme object of nature, the Sun, together with the sacred Kine, injuring the productive land, and carrying murder among the saints. 11. He utters his bitter wail in view of attempted slaughter, and actual spiritual opposition. He points out the plots among the powerful and their illegal confiscation of inheritances, as well those of women as those of men. And he declares that his opponents are endeavouring to injure his adherents, as if repelled by the best spiritual qualities which an individual could possess. 12. He announces the solemn judgment of God upon it all, especially reprobating those who deal treacherously against the mystical Kine; that is, the holy herds and people, and apostrophising those who prefer the GrAma above the saving and sanctifying Asha, and the Kingdom of the Lie-demon above the Divine Khshathra.

13. He declares that Gndima, an opposing chief, desired that evil kingdom in the abode of the personified Hell. And he cannot refrain from adding that he also enviously desires to share in the holy apostleship. But, as he severely rejoins, the messenger of God will hold him afar from the sight of the (Divine) Righteousness. He can have no share in the Faith. (Here it may be noticed that we have some data for presenting the main features of the struggle. In several instances, centring perhaps in the actual description of a battle in XL1V, 15, 16, we see traces of the closeness of the controversy. In XLIV, 15, the two hosts seem to be closing in regular lines for the ' holy vows themselves.' Here, on the other hand, we read of willing complaint or ' regretful desire,' while judicial blindness is referred to over and over again under various phrases. One might suppose that the Daeva-party were very near the Zarathmtrians in many of their religious peculiarities, but that they could not accede to, or understand, the dualism. After the manner of Pagans they implicated the Gods in their sins. (Compare the drunken Indra.) At all events a bitter and violent war of doctrines was waging with both speech and weapons. I think it looks like the struggle ' of two parties ' who each claimed to be the proper representative of some similar form of faith, similar, of course I mean, outwardly.)

14. Deploring the establishment of the Kavis who approach with stratagems and false teachings to aid the opposing party, the composer declares that they say that the Kine herself is to be injured instead of blessed by the very fire-priest who kindles1 the altar-flame. 15. He supports himself however with the hope of ultimate success, and with the prospect of his reward, when he and his fellow-labourers should be gloriously borne to heaven by Weal and Immortality, the ' eternal two,' who not only, as we see, bear saints to bliss, but also constitute the beatitude of heaven itself. 16. He confides all at last to Ahura, who is able to control all events, and to solve all doubts, and who will support his servants in bringing the wicked to vengeance by means of verbal instructions and commands. (That rival-monarch (thus we may supply the sense of lost verses) for whom some are plotting to secure the sovereignty, and who, once in power, would deliver over home, village, town, and province to ruin and to death2, is active in his efforts, and offer- 1 See, however, the notes. 2 Compare XXXI, 15, 18. ing the devotions of his false religion to accomplish his ends.) I. His1 lord-kinsman will pray2 (as I Zarathu^tra prayed), and his labouring villagers, with his (trusted) peers, and his (fellow) Daeva-worshippers 3. But in my mind is the friendship4 of Ahura Mazda, the Great Creator, the living Lord ; and Thine heralds, O Ahura ! may we be ; may we hold back5 those who hate and who offend You !

2. To these (for whom the prophet spake) Ahura Mazda answered, ruling0 as He does through His Good Mind (within their souls), He replied from His Sovereign Power, our good friend (as he is) through His surpassing7 Righteousness: We have accepted 1 Some prominent teacher, representing the entire Daeva-party, is alluded to; see verses 6, 7, 9, 10. 2 Compare yasa. in XXVIII, 2. 3 Or, ' his are the Daevas ;' but the verb yasa/ perhaps affords a sufficient expression for Daeva; yasen or he«ti may be understood. We may also understand the Daevas here, as the embodied Daevas, in the manner in which the pious worshipper is called Vohu Manah. That Daeva should however be used quite simply for Daeva-worshipper in this early composition is not probable. In the later Avesta it is frequent usage. 4 Or, ' the friend ; ' I recoil as much as possible from abstracts, but the Pahlavi has hu-ravakh-manih, and Geldner admirably proposed brahman. 5 Aighsan min Lekum lakhvar yakhsenunem ; so the Pahlavi translation, first venturing on the meaning ' holding back from;' dar in the sense of pa, which latter in Iranian can mean hold back from advantages as well as from misfortunes. High modern authority coincides with the most ancient authority on this latter point. It is apt to be a subject of scepticism with some who neglect the evidence of tradition.

6 ' Pavan sardarih i Vohuman ; ' Ner. svamitayam *. It seems difficult to apply the meaning ' being as a refuge ' here ; see the following ' from His Kingdom.' 7 Lit. ' glorious.' This casts light upon the expression /fo'anvaitu verezo. your good and bountiful Piety, and we have chosen her ; ours shall she be1 ! 3. But you, O ye Daevas ! are all a seed from the Evil Mind2. He who offers sacrifice3 to You the most 4 is of the Lie-demon, and (he is a child) of perversion 5. In advance 6 (are your) deceits whereby ye are famed in the sevenfold 7 earth ! 4. For ye (are) confusing our thoughts 8, whereby men, giving forth the worst deeds, will speak 9, as of 1 Aigh Spendarma</ Lekum rai .rapir doshem [bundak mmisnih] zak i lanman aito [aighmano pavan tanu mahman yehevtinarf]. Neryosangh : To these the Great Wise (One), the Lord, answered in the lordship of the highest (best) mind ; [that is, if, or since, Gvahmana had arrived, as a guest, within (their) body] ; from Saharevara he answered [ ] through (their) righteousness, from the well-inclined, and through good conduct, [if truly good conduct had arrived as a guest^ within (their) body]. And he said : I befriend your Earth (so Aramaiti was later understood), the perfectminded one, and your highest one ; she is mine [ ].

2 Compare Yasna XXX, 6. Where the Daevas are approached by the worst mind as they are consulting. 3 As those who offer sacrifice to these Daevas are mentioned separately, we are forced to concede a large idea to the composer. He addresses the Daevas as poetically conceived to be present, and not merely their worshippers as in verse 1. And this must have its weight in the exegesis of other passages. * The Pahlavi translator has kabed. Or ma* for mashyo (?). 5 Or possibly arrogance, avarminLmtar ; Ner. apamanastara^a. 6 SatunineV freely, but indicating the root. The word is a locative. The seven karshvars, or quarters of the earth, were already B I correct fro m^ (=man) matha (adj. nom. pi.; compare yima keredusha and ma masha). I do so after the admirable reading of the Pahlavi translator, as fraz minuno vardined [aighaj bara frife^, afaj minijno bara avo vinas kan/ano var</ine</J. Ner. prakrz'sh/aw mana/i — mathnati. Notice that a/frLrta is awkward as a masc, although I have so rendered as more personal. Vakhshye«te stood in the ancient writing used by the Pahlavi translator, as also now in some of our surviving MSS. ; otherwise the Demon-gods beloved, forsaken by the Good Mind \ (far) astray from the understanding of the Great Creator, the Living Lord, and (far astray) from His Righteousness !

5. Therefore ye would 2 beguile mankind of happy life 3 (upon earth) and of Immortality (beyond it), since the Evil Spirit (has ruled) you with his evil mind. Yea, he has ruled 4 you, (ye) who are of the Demon-gods, and with an evil word unto action, as his ruler 5 (governs) the wicked 6 ! reading vakhshe«te with Justi and most others, and mimatha with Bartholomae : ' Ye have caused that men who produce the worst results are flourishing, loved of the Daevas (as they are).' But in the Casuslehre, Hubschmann preferred ' sie sprechen was den Devas angenehm ist,' also reading vakhshewte (?) (page 240). 1 So the Pahlavi also indicates a^an Vohuman sizd ; Ner. Gvahmana^* dure* aste. 2 Improper subjunctive ; otherwise ye (have) beguiled. 3 The Pahlavi also freely frifeV amutaan pavan hu-zivimih. * Fra&nas far from necessarily means ' gave ' ; ' assigned,' ' indicated ' renders it more closely. The Pahlavi has here correctly, but freely, ka.shed. 6 The Pahlavi has here jalitaih for khshayo, and in XXVIII, 8 it has pafl'akhsha for khshaya. I do not think that the word is an accusative there. A simple accusative does not so naturally fall to the end of the sentence in Gathic; it is generally in apposition when so situated. The nominatives tend toward the end of the sentence.

6 Ner. : It is through both of these that he is deceiving (sic, unable to follow the Pahlavi which probably renders as a second plural; see mun lekum) mankind in regard to prosperity and immortality, [ (saying) if it is possible to live, immortality lies in our path]. Since he is yours, O ye base-minded ! O ye base Devas ! he is inculcating the lowest actions [ ] of the miscreants ; he says that sovereignty [is from Aharmana ; (that is, the sovereignty) of certain ones (meaning over every one)]. The Gathic verbatim is as follows : Therefore ye beguiled (would beguile) man of-happy-life, of-immortality-and since you with-evil mind (you) who-(are)-and Daevas' (worshippers) the evil-and spirit with an-evil (-word as concerning) action with-word (rules), by 6. Full of crime (your leader) has desired to destroy l us, wherefore he is famed, (and his doctrine is declared) ; but if this be so of these, then in the same manner, O Ahura ! Thou possessest 2 (because Thou knowest) the true (teachings) in Thy memory3. And in Thy kingdom and Thy Righteous Order I will establish Thy precepts (in Thy name) 4. 7. Among these wretched beings5 (this their leader c) knows not that those things 7 which are de-

which (same) means (has-)commanded the wicked (his) ruler (nom. sing. masc. ; see Y. XXVIII, 8). The nom., as in Vedic, at the end. 1 Or, Full of crime ye have striven to attain your ends (?) by those things which are reported. (If verse 5 originally preceded) makfrna would naturally be regarded as a singular as paouru-aenao is an impossible plural masculine. It might, however, be a singular used collectively. In that case we could put the verb in the plural with verse 5 in view. As to concrete or abstract, the first is obviously correct, and is also so rendered by the Pahlavi translation. 2 Vid (with the perf. vaeda) seems to occur in the Gathas in this sense. Or, ' Thou knowest with the Best Mind.' 3 Or ' in the memorised recital;' Ner. praka/aw kalayati. * Parsi-persian MS.: Bisyar kinah-varzandah kinah 'hwahad, [kus wanah-karan padafrah kuned], kih, guft + srud isted [kih guft isted] ; ku, kih o^an bwumar [ku, padafrah pah an zaman tamam bih kunand, kih ruwan baz an tan dehad]. Zahir jumarkunandah Hormuzd [ku pah wanah wa kirfah mmar-kunand] ; wan i buland agah pah Bahman [muzd danad ; ku an kih bayad dadan]. Pah an i Tu i -Suma, Hormuzd ! 'huda, an i Sawab amu'htan bih danestuwan (sic vid) ; [kih 6"uma paduahi tamam bih bed + ya'hni + bajad, har kas pah neki agah bih bajad].

5 The Pahlavi has kinikano. 6 The ^yaetu of the first verse, the dujsasti of the ninth, &c. 7 The Pahlavi curiously errs with his roshano = clear ; Ner. parish phu/atara/^. It would be straining a point to call him free in interpreting what is 'collected ' and so ' obvious ' as ' clear.' We must, however, never forget that the supposed error of the Pahlavi is sometimes the reflex of our own (often necessary) ignorance. Vidvau must refer back to the same subject as ahya in the first verse, or possibly to Aka Manah, going a step further back. clared as victorious l (by his allies) are bound together for the smiting ; yea, those things by which he was famed (as victorious) by his (blade of) glittering iron2. But the utter destruction 3 of those things Thou, O Ahura Mazda! knowest4, most surely5! 8. Of these wretched beings 6 Yima Vtvanghusha was famed to be ; he who, desiring to content 7 our men, was eating kine's flesh in its pieces. But from s (such as) these, O Ahura Mazda ! in Thy discerning discrimination, am I (to be seen as distinct9). 1 Possibly, 'which are by Thee announced as destined and proper to be smitten.' The Pahlavi has mun zanuno amukhtend (sic). J6ya=jaya to jan, as akayia is to kan.

2 Compare other allusions to weapons, snaithuS, and possibly dakhshtem. 3 So also the Pahlavi, ristak and pat/afras. 4 Nae£i/ vidvau and vaedi-rto ahi are in antithesis and emphatic. 5 A literal rendering of this difficult verse would be as follows : Of these wretches, nothing knowing (is he that) for the smiting (dat. ja, jan ; cp. form Sk. ja, jan) (are) the-collected-things, which things (as) victorious (read jay a) are declared forth, by which (things) he has been heard (of) through glittering iron, of which things Thou, O-Ahura ! the ruin, O-Mazda ! most knowing art. Others take s*?nghaite in the sense of 'cut'(P) and render very differently. 6 The Pahlavi has shedaan ; Ner. tan dveshiwa^. 7 Or ' teaching,' so the Pahlavi ; Ner. samasvadayati. 8 The Pahlavi translator hits the true rendering here: 'from among these I am chosen out by Thee.' Otherwise we have a question : Am I of these? The allusion is to the fall of Yima. As to the first eating of the flesh of beasts, recall Genesis ix. 3. Some have rendered: With regard to these I am of Thine opinion, O Mazda (?). 9 The Pahlavi may be rendered as follows : Among (of) these demons Yima of the Vivawhanas is famed to have been a wicked scourge. It was he who taught men thus: Eat ye our flesh in pieces [wide as the breast, long as the arm— (or better with West, 'in lapfuls and armfuls')]. From among these [ ] I am chosen out by Thee, O Auharmazd ! hereafter ; [that is, even by Thee I am considered as good].

9. An evil teacher (as that leader is), he will l destroy (our) doctrines, and by his teachings he will pervert the (true) understanding of life, seizing away2 (from me) my riches 3, the choice and real wealth of (Thy) Good Mind. To You and to Asha, O Ahura Mazda ! am I therefore crying with the voice of my spirit's * (need) ! 10. Aye, this man will destroy my doctrines (indeed, for he blasphemes the highest of creatures that live or are made). He declares that the (sacred) Kine5 and the Sun are the worst of things which eye can see ; and he will offer the gifts of the wicked (as priest to their Demon-gods). And at the last he will parch 6 our meadows with drought, and will hurl his mace at Thy saint (who may fall before his arms 7). 1 An improper subjunctive. Otherwise : He (has) destroyed (not irretrievably, of course; the case was not decided, and finally issued favourably). 2 Apo — yawta; otherwise 'they would take'; Ner. apaharati. 3 Zak i li ishti avorto [ — khvastak i pavan dastobar]. 4 Pavan valmanyan milaya i minavadiha ; Ner. vagbhi/z manasavrz'ttya aham — akrandaye (not following our present Pahlavi text, the gloss however). Observe that in reading Ner. we by no means ipso facto read the Pahlavi, either in correct translation, or as following our texts. Compare XLVI, 2.

' One thinks somewhat of the familiar foes of the Vedic kine ; but there can be of course no connection. The Iranian sacred Cow did not represent the rain cloud, at least not at all directly. G Read viyapa/ as a demon, without sign: 'v' was miswritten for 'y' as often 'y' for 'v.' The Pahlavi language, not to speak of the Pahlavi translation, suggests it. How are we to account for the word viyavanine</? We should not arrest our philology at the Zend and Sanskrit. The long vowel is most awkward for a comparison with the Indian vap = shear. And I think that 'destroying the means of irrigation ' gives as good a meaning as ' shearing the land.' Notice that elsewhere a more correct form appears, viapotemem (Vd. Ill, 15, (51 Sp.) ) = viyap6temem. Literally, ' he will discharge his club at the righteous.' 11. Yea, these will destroy my life, for they consult with the great x of the wicked (enlightening themselves by their words2). And they are seizing away 3 the gifts of inherited treasures 4 from both household-lord and from house-wife5; (wretched men that they are), and those who will fiercely wound (my folk, repelled and in no way kindly moved) by the better mind of the holy 6.

12. (But Ahura will speak His rebuke, for) as to those doctrines which (such) men may be (basely) delivering7 (repelled) by the holiest action, (and galled8 by its sacred truth) God hath said : Evil (are they ! Yea, unto these He hath said it) who have slain the Kine's life by a blessing (and have cursed her while they offered to help her9), men by whom Gr^hmas are loved above Righteousness, and the Karpans, 1 The Pahlavi translator erroneous, or free, as to -£ikoitere.r, indicates the proper sense of mazibii- by pavan masai [ — pavan peshpayih va paspayih — ] ; but Neryosangh, mahattaya-pura/fcsarataya. 2 Comp. XXXI, 12, 'there high his voice lifts the truthful or liar.' 3 Literally, ' he takes.' 5 Ka^ak-khu<fai gabra nesman. 6 Reshinend; see V, 10. The ablative of the cause, comp. asha/ haH ; otherwise with Hubschm., ' Sie die Schaden nehmen mogen durch den besten heiligen Geist, O Mazda! ' (Casuslehre, s. 241.) 7 The Pahlavi translator had probably before him a text reading rashayen ; he renders freely resh sraySnd. With such a text which is far preferable to the one afforded by the MSS. we may read: Whereby (y<ma) men will be opposing and retarding (literally wounding) the doctrines which (are derived) from the best (moral and ceremonial) action ; but to these men Mazda declared : Evil (are ye). See the previous verse.

8 See the previous verse. 9 The Pahlavi has hu-ravakh-manih yemalelund. and the Throne of those who have wished 1 for the Demon of lies (as their deity and friend 2). 1 3. And the Gr67hma will seek 3 for these things by means of his (evil) kingdom 4 in the abode of (Hell which is5) the Worst Mind (who both are together) the destroyers of life, and who, O Mazda ! will bewail 6 with glad but (envious) wish the message of Thy prophet. (But he will not abate with his vengeance), he will hold them afar from the sight7 of the truth ! 14. His is Grt'hma8; aye, his! And to (oppose) Thee9 he will establish the Kavis and (their) scheming 1 So also indicated by the Pahlavi bavihund. 2 There is elsewhere evidence enough of a desire to encroach upon the truth. 3 So also indicated by bavihune^. 4 Or, ' which kingdoms, sovereign power.' 5 Comp. XXX 6. 6 Or, ' they gladly complain ; ' so also the Pahlavi : Mun — garzisnb kamak. The singular ^lgereza/ is difficult with yaeH. Many would alter the text at once, and the temptation is great. 7 Htibschm.,'y<? u pa/daresa/ ashahya der sie abhaltevom Schauen des Asha' (Casus. 241). So of XLVI, 4. So also indicated by pa</end min nikezuno i Aharayih ; evidence of a struggle, or at least of a desire on the part of a rival party to possess themselves of some religious privilege or precedence. See the previous verse; also XXXI, 10: Never, O Mazda! never shall the thriftless and thieving one share the good doctrine. See still further XLIV, 15, where the two hosts meet in hostility ' on account of the doctrinal vows.'

8 Grdhma appertains to, but is not the particular evil teacher referred to throughout. The Pahlavi translator indicates bribery as the meaning of the word. Possibly some impious chieftain is meant whose procedure was of that nature. The word occurs in the plural. 9 A hoi; Thwoi is difficult. Or (see Y. XLIV, 14), 'Thine understanding has subdued the Kavis.' The Pahlavi translator renders masih, as if he had read ahuthwoi, offering an important alternative. plans. Their deeds * of power are but deceits since they have come as an aid to the wicked 2, and since he has been (falsely) said (to be set) to conquer the Kine3, he who shall kindle that (very) help of grace which removes our death afar, (and lightens Thy saving flame). 15. And therefore will I drive from hence4 the Karpans' and Kavis' disciples. And after these (have thus been driven hence and away) then these (my princely aiding saints) whom they (now) render no longer rulers at will over life, (and deprive of their absolute power), these shall be borne (at Read : In his dominion he has established the Kavis and their intended plans. Reading hoithoi, ' his G. is to be bound.'

1 The predecessors of the Pahlavi translator seem to have understood the word var(e)&zu as conveying the idea of power rather than that of brilliancy. He renders freely pavan zak 1 varzanan avaruno danakanS. Supposing the text to stand, and not supplying a formation from var(e)z, we may hold that there existed a var(e)/C' beside var(e)z, as there undoubtedly was a har(e)£ (see hareta) beside har(e)z. This casts light on the Vedic var^as. 2 Amati/£ paduend valman darvandan aiyyarih [ ] amati£ avo Tora zanLmS gufto. The sufferings of the sacred Kine form the central thought of much that occurs. 3 Can gauj be a genitive here ? But if a nominative, must not ye refer to it ? How then could the Kine 'kindle' the aid of grace ? A genitive looks difficult. It is, however, accepted by Spiegel, although he renders differently from my translation. The Pahlavi may give us invaluable relief here by restoring the text. The ancient translator read vao^aya/. Reading with him, we might render: When the Kine which (ya ?) caused a death-removing help to be declared, was said to be meet for subjection (or slaying, reading an infinitive from gan). This rendering is more probable than that from sao^aya/. The Kine distinctly caused this help to be declared. See XXIX. But I make it a matter of principle to follow the MSS. in a first translation, where that is at all possible.

4 The Pahlavi translator differs greatly here, having taken anaLr with adverbial force, and as possessing the a priv. (they being last) by the (immortal ]) two to the home of (Thy) Good Mind (in Heaven)2! 1 6. (And) this entire3 (reward of the righteous) is from that Best One who teaches4 in the wide (mental) light of the pious5, ruling (as supreme), O Mazda Ahura6! whose are my woes and my doubt- not inclined). He also read somewhat as follows: anai.r avaeni(?) as y*=from his non-inclination he was blind who (belongs to the Karpan and to the Kavi). Whether a truer text is indicated by him here is doubtful on account of XLIV, 13, and its nashama ; but the unvarying explanation of the Kavis as blind probably derives its origin from some such reading here, or elsewhere in lost documents. Certainly if ais can be used as a particle, anai^ is not altogether impossible in some such sense. Moreover, the Pahlavi translation here and elsewhere has afforded us such a multitude of valuable concretes, that we shall do well to think twice before we reject its most startling suggestions. Lit. trl. ' what (things are) of the K.'

1 The Pahlavi translation gives a fine suggestion in the concrete sense here; seeing the dual abya, it explains it as referring to Haurvata/1 and AmeretataV, which is very probably correct. So Spiegel also renders. It is very difficult to decide in which sense yeng daiwti noi/ jyateus khshayaman?«g vaso is to be taken. If in an evil sense (as vas<?-khshaya«t is sometimes elsewhere taken) one might think of such a rendering as this : I have driven the Karpans' and Kavis' disciples hence to those (evil rulers) whom they (my servants) render no longer wanton tyrants over life. But these (my champion saints) shall be borne by the two to the home of Thy Good Mind. But strict grammar demands of us that toi should refer back to yeng. Accordingly I suggest as above first. 2 Observe that Vohu Manah equals heaven. Recall XXX, 4, ' but for the holy Vahirta Manah ; that is heaven.' 3 The Pahlavi has ham; Neryosangh has sarvam. 4 Reading sa£(a)yas£i/ (P11, skyaskti; Pahlavi, amukhtuno (sic); Ner., jikshapawaw). Otherwise syas/£i/, which may well mean ' lying, reposing ' in the wide (mental) light of the pious (or of the offering). Geldner lately admirably suggests a 2nd sg.

0 Pavan farakhu hushih. fi If this 'best one' is the Ratu of XXXIII, 1, all is grammatically clear ; but the expressions are rather strong in view of ings1 (yea, they lie in His power to heal), when I shall make (my prophets) men to be sought2 for the harm of the wicked. And this I shall do by the word of my mouth (to defend and avenge my saints) ! XLVIII, 9, where similar language is certainly applied to Ahura. If Ahura is here meant, we have only one instance more to add to the many in which Ahura is spoken of in the third person, with an address to Him thrown in. See the differing views of XLV, 11. Possibly the ' Best One ' was Ahura's Spe«ta Mainyu. 1 Zak i pavan gumanikih. As to aithi, aithivawt seems to prove that its meaning must be calamity also in this place. Otherwise one is strongly tempted to heed the vigorous indication of the Pahlavi translator. Here and in XLVIII, 9, he Tenders ' manifest,' ' what is clear in the midst of my doubt.' The etymology would be far simpler. Alternatively dvaetha= terror (bf). 2 Valman i pumman khvastar. The Pahlavi sees ' to be desired' in ishy^wg. Otherwise one might render: I will cause (verbal) missiles (comp. zasta-irtaiy) to be cast forth from the mouth for the harm of the wicked.

(Supplementary note. 'Parch with drought' in verse 10 may be regarded as having figurative application. The destruction of the means of irrigation, so often resorted to in the same regions later, would point also to a literal sense, but ' waste our meadows like drought' is a safer expression. See further vivapa/, and vivapem = viyapa/, viyapem.)

Brighter times seem to have arrived. The vengeance so confidently promised in the close of XXXII is described as near at hand. In fact the first three verses seem to belong as much to XXXII as to the present chapter. They remind one of the choruses of attending saints, or ' Immortals,' in XXIX, perfectly germane to the connection, but referring in the third person to a speaker who closes the last chapter with a first, and who begins again with a first in verse 4. The propriety of a division of chapters here rests upon the fact that the thought comes to a climax at XXXII, 16, beginning afresh at XXXIII, 4. Whether Zarathujtra, or the chief composer, whatever his name may have been, composed these three verses relating, as they do, to himself, and put them into the mouth of another, or whether their grammatical form indicates another author, is difficult to determine. I doubt very greatly whether either the expressions ; I approach,' ' I offer,' &c, or the words ' he will act,' ' let him be in Asha's pastures,' are at all meant to express more than some modern hymns which use ' I ' and ' he.' Both are in constant employment in anthology with no change in the person indicated. T' and ' Thy servant ' are merely verbal variations. Here, however, the change is somewhat marked by the allusion to the chastisement of the wicked just previously mentioned in XXXII, 16. 1. It is to be noticed that the strictest canon with the original, as indeed with the later, Zarathaytrians of the Avesta was the ' primeval law.' Unquestionably the precepts understood as following from the dualistic principle were intended ; that is to say, no trifling with any form of evil, least of all with a foreign creed, was to be tolerated. Ahura has no share in the evolution of anything corrupt. We may even add that He had no power to prevent either sin or sorrow, although He possessed all conceivable power to oppose them. According to these fundamental laws, then, the Ratu is said to act, as sternly severe upon the evil as he is beneficent to the saint. 2. The fierce hostilities hitherto pursued are more than justified. The injury of the wicked by denouncing, planning, or by physical violence, is on a par with advising the good. They who pursue the enemies of Ahura are actually operating in love to God, and sacrificing to religion itself.

3. And accordingly the reciter is made to pray in this immediate connection for a sincere and useful friend (a vahi.rta) to the believer, to whichever class he may belong, whether chief, allied peer, or villager, a friend spiritually enlightened (vidas), and, according to Ahura's prescript (XXIX, 2), keen, persevering, and brave in the cultivation of cattle (thwakhshangha gavoi). ' Let such an one as this, so asked for by the Lord himself, so needed by the Kine, let him,' he prays, ' be supported in his holy toil for us. Let him till and tend, not in the pastures of our valleys only, but in the spiritual pastures of the Divine Benevolence where the mystic kine is grazing.' 4. Taking up the peculiar T who ' of XXVIII, the composer returns to the first person, continuing in that form with little exception until the last verse, which, naming Zarathurtra in the third person, implies (if it is not an addition, which, however, it may be) that Zarathmtra had been the speaker throughout. As it is highly probable that the author who uses this ' I who ' is the same who uses it in XXVIII, and if we may take verse 14 as fair evidence that Zarathurtra is the speaker here, we acquire some additional grounds for believing that the person who wrote (if we can apply such an expression to the author) the words ' to Zaratrnutra and to us.' as well as ' to Vutaspa and to me,' and ' to Frashao^tra and to me,' was universally recognised to be Zarathurtra himself composing a piece to be recited by another. As if in response to the expression iri verse 3, recalling that although a vahijta (a best one) to some of each class (verse 1) he was no contenter of the wicked (XLIII, 15), he begins a prayer which is only completed by its izya in verse 6, and which gathers force by each preceding profession of fidelity. And true to a practical dualism, he first abjures the leading sin of disobedience to God, and of arrogance, discontent, and dishonesty toward man, accompanied (as it seems to have been) with neglect of the all-important duties to the cattle who shared the sanctity of ' the soul ' of their representative. And perhaps it is this practical severity of dualism as opposed to the more facile ' lying ' of the opposed religion, which was the cause of that high reputation of the Persians for veracity, which was grouped with avoiding debt by Herodotus among the virtues of the race. 5. I, he goes on to say, or to imply, I who not only abjure disobedience, insolence, complaint, and lying, but especially invoke the great genius who is Obedience himself, Obedience toward God, (Thee), endeavouring as I do by this abjuration and prayer to attain, not to a ' hundred autumns ' of booty and glory, but to a long life in the kingdom which was established in the spirit of

the- Divine Benevolence, and to paths not only for the war-cart, or for commerce, but to those rigidly straight paths of moral purity in which Ahura dwells, 6. I, he adds once more, who am thus Thine actually invoking (zbaya) invoker, ' straight ' like the paths (erezm), I am seeking with longing (kaya) to know from that Best Spirit (Thy Spewta Mainyu ?) animated once more by that best mind, to know-what ? Shall we regard it as a bathos when we read that he thus with cumulative urgency prays to know what the Best Spirit thought should be done for the recovery and perfection of the fields ? If we turn back to XXIX, i, we shall see that the identical word (vastrya) describes the original want of the kine's soul. It was vohu vastrya which she implored as her salvation ; and it was the sacred agriculturist who alone could afford it, and who as the ' diligent tiller of the earth ' always remained the typical saint. And as his useful deeds in reclaiming, irrigating, and cultivating land, were justly ranked among the first services of a human being, and as the last preparation of the gathered grain was perhaps humorously, but yet pungently, said to make the Daevas start, and shriek, and fly (see Vendidad III, 32, Sp. 165), and as further, a life from the fruits of the earth to this day constitutes the main difference between those who live by murderous theft and those who live honestly in nearly the same regions, I think we may not only see no bathos here, but on the contrary admire the robust sense of this early religion1, and say that a knowledge as to a true policy in the department of agriculture was one of the wisest possible desires, and the most of all things worthy of a ' sight of Mazda and of consultation with Him.' How the fields had better be worked, and how the people could best be kept from bloody freebooting as aggressors or as victims, this involved Ahura's Righteous Order, Benevolence, Power, and Piety, the four energising Immortals all at once. And this only could secure the other two rewarding personifications, Welfare and Immortality.

7. Having prayed for that which is the first virtue of civilised existence, work (verezyeidyai), he proceeds to further petitions. ' Come Ye,' he beseeches in Vedic fashion. Come Ye, O Ahura, Asha, and Vohu Manah ! and behold the attentive monarch, the leading Magavan, as he listens to my instructions with the other 1 In this particular. As to ceremonies it had at a later period more than its share of absurdities ; but as to honest work as against ' foraging on the enemy ' there is a great difference between the Gathas, and some other ancient hymns, for instance the A'iks of the Veda. In fact these latter may be regarded as representing the opposite extreme. chiefs, and the thronging masses. And let too the sacrificial gifts pour in for offering and worship. 8. He rests at no bare morality for the simple multitude. He knows too well the human foible, therefore he asks with vigour for sacrifice and hymn. 9. Encouraging the two pious chiefs whose souls go hand in hand, he prays that an influence like that of the ' eternal two' might bear their ' spirit ' (sic) to the shining home of Paradise, it having attained to perfection by the help of the Best Mind of God within it. (For mainyu in this sense compare XLIV, 11.)

10. Asking of Mazda to grant in His love (or 'by His will ') all the happy phases of life which have been, or which shall ever be experienced, he prays that their bodies, that is, their persons, as separate accountable individuals (compare narem narem /i&ahyai tanuye) might flourish in the graces of the Good Mind, the Holy Sovereignty, and the Sacred Order, till they were blessed with the ujta, the summum bonum. 11. He here prays all the grand abstractions, Piety, the Righteous Order (which alone can ' push on ' the settlements), the Good Mind of God within His people, and His kingdom, to turn their mental ears and listen, and listening to pardon. 12. And specifying the one central object of desire, the Thriftlaw, the Avesta of the Ratu, or Saoshya«t, he asks Ahura to arise to his help and give him spiritual strength by sustaining him through the inspiring Righteousness and the Good Mind, in an effective invocation. 13. With a spirituality still deeper than his Semitic colleague, he asks, not to see the person of God, but His nature, and especially to be able to comprehend and bring home to his mind what the Sovereignty of God implies with its ' blessed rewards.' And he asks of Piety as first acquired, practised, and then speaking within him, to reveal the Gnosis, the Insight, that is, the Religion.

14. After the fervent language of the previous verses we may accept verse 14 as a legitimate continuation. Its ' Zarathurtra ' may mean ' I ' just as ' David ' is used by the Psalmist for ' me.' And the language can mean nothing but a dedication of all that he is and has to God, his flesh, his body, his religious eminence, the obedience which he offers in word and deed, inspired by Righteousness, and the Kingdom which he has succeeded in saving and blessing. (I do not think that I have at all exaggerated the grasp and fervour of this section. Less could not be said, if the words are to be allowed their natural weight.) i. As by the laws of the primeval world, so will our spiritual chieftain act (that chief besought-for by the Kine \ and named as Zarathu^tra 2 by the Lord). Deeds most just he will do toward the wicked, as toward the righteous, and toward him whose deeds of fraud 3 and righteous deeds combine (in equal measure). 2. Yea, (he will act with justice but with vengeance, for) he who does evil to the wicked by word, or with thought (and plan), and (who therein does not dally, but toils labouring as) with both the hands, or he (again) who admonishes one for his good4, such as these are offering (a gift) to their religious 5 faith in the love (and with the approving view) of Ahura Mazda6; (they are offering to conscience.)

1 See XXIX, i. 2 See XXIX, 6, 8. 3 So the Pahl. ; and so also Roth (Z. D. M. G.,vol. xxxvii. 5, 223) taking mithahya as a nom. pi. (comp. va/fahya). But I am strongly inclined to a former view of my own. Yehya-mithahya look irresistibly like two genitives. I would render as an emphatic alternative 'what fraud he may lay hold of (h^myasaite with the gen.), reach (of the one), and what (seem) to him the righteous deeds (of the other).' But if Roth and the Pahlavi are right, we have here the origin of the later hamestaga, the souls in the intermediate place between Heaven and Hell, whose sins and good works have been equal (West, Gloss, to M. i K.). The Persian manuscript of Haug 12 b. has : Kih \k (pro ham) u i an ham rastd ested an i duru^//, kih \k (ham) u an i 'halu [ku, hamestan]. 4 So the Pahlavi also indicates : Val valman t .Tapir -Hshun. Ner. uttamasya va asvadayanti dehina/2. 6 Literally, ' they are offering a gift to their own choice ' (var= varena ; comp. yavarena). 6 They are holding fast by the holy cause, and their vehemence in vengeance does not negative the fact that they are toiling in the love of Ahura. Pahlavi : Pavan zak 1 lak doshijnS, Auharmazd !

3. (And so may it be), O Ahura ! Let the man who is the best toward the righteous saint, whether lord's kinsman 1,or as village labourer, with the allied 2 peer (of the master), having light, and endowed with energy for the cattle (a Ratu such as Ahura sought to satisfy their wail), let such an one be (for us)3 in the work-field of the Righteous Order, in the pastures of Thy Good Mind4. 4. (And I beseech for Thine instruction), I who will abjure5 all disobedience (toward Thee, praying that others likewise may withhold it) from Thee ; I who abjure the Evil Mind as well, the lordly kinsman's arrogance G, and that lying sin which is (alas !) the next thing to the people7 (their most familiar fault), and the blaming ally's falsehood, and from the Kine the worst care of her meadows 8 (the crime of stint in labour 9), 1 Literally, ' with, or as, the kinsman.' 2 ' With the true ally.' 3 See XXIX, 2 : ' Let that pasture-giver whom ye would appoint for us, teaching by example and precept vohu vastrya, let him be on our sacred pastures, and on our side.'

4 The Pahlavi may be rendered as follows: He who affords increase to the righteous on account of the relationship [that is, something is given to him ?] does so also on account of the labourer's duty, or class [that is, the labourer is to be considered as his own]. Through the loyalty ; that is, the loyal class, that which adheres to Auharmazd, he has a thorough understanding as to what is (true) energy toward the herds. Thus Vohuman (a good mind) is a workman with him to whom Righteousness also belongs. 5 Hubschm. Casuslehre, ' der ich von dir den Ungehorsam und schlechten Sinn durch Gebet abwenden will ' (s. 1 80). 6 Observe that /foaetu certainly designates an upper class. Why else arrogance ? 7 Possibly this severity was the cause of the later high reputation of the ZarathuJtrians for veracity. 8 Literally, ' from the pasture of the Kine.' 9 The Pahlavi may be rendered : Him who will not listen to 5. I, who (abjuring these sins), call earnestly on Thine Obedience of all (assisting guardians) the greatest one for our help 1, gaining (thereby 2) long life in the Realm of (Thy) Good Mind (incarnate in our tribes), and paths that are straight from their Righteous Order, wherein Ahura Mazda dwells 3,

6. (Yea), I who, as this Thy faithful priest, invoke Thee through (my) Righteousness, (now) seek 4 with longing from (Thy) Best Spirit, and with that5 (best) intention of mind, (to know) what6 he himself thought of the working of (our) fields 7. Therefore (because I abjure the Evil Mind, and all disobedience, Thee, O Auharmazd ! will I abjure, and Akoman also, for by him there is the despising of relations, and the deception of the labouring men who live close at hand [that is, of neighbours]. And he is ever bringing censure upon the clients. And he holds to the lowest measure of duty toward the Herd. 1 Avangha ne, or avanghane, an infinitive (see Wilhelm, de Infin. p. 16). The Pahlavi has avo aiyyarih. 2 Sraosha ( = listening obedience) is the greatest for help, because by a Mathra which appeals to him the way to Ahura is found out (XXVIII, 6) and the Demon defeated. If apano is read, so strictly. The Pahlavi translator seems to have understood apa. ne; baram ayafinai pavan der-zivijnih, zak i pavan khiWayih i Vohuman. Ner. : Avapaya dirghe ^ivitalve. This may well restore for us the proper text. Reading apa ne we should render 'obtain for us.'

3 Ahura Mazda dwells as in His abode amid the paths where His saints walk (see XLVI, 16). 4 So also indicated by bavihiineV. Kaya properly refers to ye. 5 The Pahlavi translator seems to have seen an imperative in ava, rendering it freely aiyyarineV/5. c Ya. may be an instr. sing, or an ace. pi. neut. ' I ask what he thought meet to be done ; ' ya does not necessarily equal ye" na in every instance. 7 I need hardly remind the reader that agriculture was the great question of orderly and religious life with the Zarathu-rtrians. Without it there was of course no resource but wandering and plunder for them. arrogance, falsehood), O Mazda ! would I beseech of Thee for a sight of Thee, and for consultation with Thee ! (What is Thy will and mind ?) 7. Come Ye, then, to my best (regulations. Come to my men, and my laws 2), my very own, O Mazda ! and let them see through the Righteous Order and (Thy) Good Mind (which Thou wilt bestow in Thy drawing near) how I am heard before the rich giver2 (in the assembly of Thy worshippers). Yea, (come Ye) ; and let the manifold offerings of worship be manifest among us 3. (Arouse Ye, and help our zeal4 !)