Observations

OBSERVATIONS.

1. For all divisions into chapters and sections the translator is chiefly responsible, as the stops found in the manuscripts are not used systematically.

2. Italics are used for any English words which are not expressed, or fully understood, in the original text, but are added to complete the sense of the translation.

3. Italics occurring in Oriental words, or names, represent certain peculiar Oriental letters (see the 'Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets' at the end of this volume), or certain abbreviated modes of writing Pahlavi letters. Italic a, â, b, d, e, ê, h, i, î, kh, l, p, r, sh, u, v, zd indicate no change of pronunciation; but g should be sounded like j, hv like wh, k like ch in 'church,' s like sh, and Avesta z like French j.

4. In the translation words in parentheses are merely explanatory of those that precede them, and often translate Pahlavi glosses in the original text.

5. For the meaning of the abbreviations, used in the notes, see the explanatory list after the Introduction.

6. The manuscripts used for the Dînkard are:—

B (written A.D. 1659), the only independent authority for Book VII; it was brought from Irân to Surat in 1783, and one folio, at the end of Chap. iv, appears to be missing.

K 43 (written A.D. 1594 and later), No. 43 in the University Library at Kopenhagen, which contains another independent authority for Book V in its later portion.

7. The manuscripts used for the Selections of Zâd-sparam are:—

K 35 (probably written A.D. 1572), No. 35 in the same library, which was brought from Irân by Prof. Westergaard in 1843, along with No. 43.

T, a copy of a MS. about fifty years older, belonging to Ervad Tehmuras Dinshawji Ankalesaria of Bombay.