CONTENTS OF THE NASKS

AS STATED IN

THE EIGHTH AND NINTH BOOKS

OF THE

DÎNKARD.

p. 2

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, for which see the remarks on Pahlavi transliteration near the end of the Introduction. Italic a, â, 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 by 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.

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

6. The manuscripts used, being the only two independent authorities for the text of the Dinkard known to exist, are:—

B (written A.D. 1659), a nearly-complete MS. of Books III-IX, brought from Irân to Surat in 1783, and now divided between three, or more, owners in Bombay, Nawsârî, and Poona. Of the Books here translated two folios are missing, which contained portions of Bk. IX, Chaps. XXXIII, XXXIV, XXXVI, XXXVII.

K (written A.D. 1594 and later), No. 43 in the University Library at Kopenhagen, a miscellaneous MS. containing several fragments of Books III, V, VI, IX. Of the Books here translated it contains the text of Bk. IX, Chaps. I, 1-XXXI, 17.