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Pahlavi Texts, Part IV (SBE37), E.W. West, tr. [1892], at sacred-texts.com


CHAPTER XIII.

dkar Nask.

1. The twelfth fargard, Ustavaiti 2, is about the exaltation of Zaratûst through the satisfaction of water, and the hope of all creatures for him. 2. And about the impure recitation of a text, when 3 the text is not uttered by a high-priest. 3. This, too, that the text which a man who is corrupted may

p. 196

offer is an impropriety (adînâîh) for that which is an uncorrupted place. 4. This, too, is declared, that a greedy man whose belly is filled by accumulation—and the end of every sin is, to him, only for the gratification of the body—one considers just like a gallows to which there is a foundation (sîpŏ) of every impurity. 5. This, too, that a bird (vâê) practises that habit (sân) even that it kills those outright which have become large in our midst, which are the serpents produced by the demons. 6. This, too, that for invocation (azbâyisnŏ) of the sacred beings thinking with speaking, speaking with acting, and acting without deceitfulness are effectual.

7. About the pure goodness of the archangels, and the union of their thoughts, words, and deeds together; their bountifulness, nurturing, and protection are the cause 1 of the prosperity of the world. 8. About the production of Zaratûst by Aûharmazd with a goodness like his own. 9. This, too, that whoever gives anything to the disciples of Zaratûst, his reward and recompense are just as though the thing had been given by him to Zaratûs2.

10. It is perfect excellence that is righteousness.


Footnotes

195:2 The appellation of the first hâ of the second Gâtha (Yas. XLIII) which begins with the words ustâ ahmâi yahmâi ustâ; it is here written aûstavâîtŏ in Pahlavi.

195:3 Assuming that mûn, 'which,' stands for amat; the Pâzand of both words being practically the same. Or, it may be, 'also him who does not utter the text through a high-priest.'

196:1 B omits sân, 'the cause of.'

196:2 Compare:—'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.' (Matthew XXV. 40.)


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