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Pahlavi Texts, Part I (SBE05), E.W. West, tr. [1880], at sacred-texts.com
1. The second conflict was waged with the water, because, as the star Tîstar was in Cancer, the water which is in the subdivision they call Avrak 3 was
pouring, on the same day when the destroyer rushed in, and came again into notice for mischief (âvârak) in the direction of the west. 2. For every single month is the owner of one constellation; the month Tîr is the fourth month 1 of the year, and Cancer the fourth constellation from Aries, so it is the owner of Cancer, into which Tîstar sprang, and displayed the characteristics of a producer of rain; and he brought on the water aloft by the strength of the wind. 3. Co-operators with Tîstar were Vohûman and the angel Hôm, with the assistance of the angel Bûrg and the righteous guardian spirits in orderly arrangement.
4. Tîstar was converted into three forms, the form of a man and the form of a horse and the form of a bull 2; thirty days and nights he was distinguished in brilliance 3, and in each form he produced rain ten days and nights; as the astrologers say that every constellation has three forms. 5. Every single drop of that rain became as big as a bowl, and the water stood the height of a man over the whole of this earth; and the noxious creatures on the earth being all killed by the rain, went into the holes of the earth 4.
6. And, afterwards, the wind spirit, so that it may not be contaminated (gûmîkht), stirs up the wind and atmosphere as the life stirs in the body; and the water was all swept away by it, and was brought out to the borders of the earth, and the wide-formed 1 ocean arose therefrom. 7. The noxious creatures remained dead within the earth, and their venom and stench were mingled with the earth, and in order to carry that poison away from the earth Tîstar went down into the ocean in the form of a white horse with long hoofs 2.
8. And Apâôsh 3, the demon, came meeting him in the likeness of a black horse with clumsy (kund) hoofs; a mile (parasang) 4 away from him fled Tîstar, through the fright which drove him away. 9. And Tîstar begged for success from Aûharmazd, and Aûharmazd gave him strength and power, as it is said, that unto Tîstar was brought at once the strength of ten vigorous horses, ten vigorous camels, ten vigorous bulls, ten mountains, and ten rivers 5. 10. A mile away from him fled Apâôsh, the demon, through fright at his strength; on account of this they speak of an arrow-shot with Tîstar's strength in the sense of a mile.
11. Afterwards, with a cloud for a jar (khûmb)—thus they call the measure which was a means of the work—he seized upon the water and made it rain most prodigiously, in drops like bull's heads and men's heads, pouring in handfuls and pouring in armfuls, both great and small. 12. On the production of that rain the demons Aspengargâk 1 and Apâôsh contended with it, and the fire Vâzist 2 turned its club over; and owing to the blow of the club Aspengargâk made a very grievous noise, as even now, in a conflict with the producer of rain, a groaning and raging 3 are manifest. 13. And ten nights and days rain was produced by him in that manner, and the poison and venom of the noxious creatures which were in the earth were, all mixed up in the water, and the water became quite salt, because there remained in the earth some of those germs which noxious creatures ever collect.
14. Afterwards, the wind, in the same manner as before, restrained the water, at the end of three days, on various sides of the earth; and the three great seas and twenty-three small seas 4 arose therefrom, and two fountains (kashmak) of the sea thereby became manifest, one the Kêkast lake, and one the Sôvbar 5, whose sources are connected with the
fountain of the sea. 15. And at its north side 1 two rivers flowed out, and went one to the east and one to the west; they are the Arag river and the Vêh river; as it is said thus: 'Through those finger-breadth tricklings do thou pour and draw forth two such waters, O Aûharmazd!' 16. Both those rivers wind about through all the extremities of the earth, and intermingle again with the water of the wide-formed ocean. 17. As those two rivers flowed out, and from the same place of origin as theirs, eighteen 2 navigable rivers flowed out, and after the other waters have flowed out from those navigable streams they all flow back to the Arag 3 river and Vêh river, whose fertilization (khvâpardârîh) of the world arises therefrom.
25:3 The ninth lunar mansion (see Chap. II, 3) corresponding with the middle of Cancer. Tîstar (Sirius) being in Cancer probably p. 26 means that it rises about the same time as the stars of Cancer, as is actually the case.
26:1 See Chap. XXV, 20.
26:2 See Tîstar Yt. 13, 16, 18, where it is stated that Tîstar assumes the form of a man for the first ten nights, of a bull for the second ten nights, and of a horse for the third ten nights. Also in Vend. XIX, 126 Tîstar is specially invoked in his form of a bull.
26:3 Or it may be translated, 'he hovered in the light,' as Windischmann and Justi have it.
26:4 In comparing the inundation produced by Tîstar, with the Noachian deluge, it must be recollected that the former is represented as occurring before mankind had propagated on the earth.
27:1 The term farâkû-kard, 'wide-formed,' is a free Pahlavi translation of Av. vouru-kasha, 'wide-shored,' or 'having wide abysses,' applied to the boundless ocean (see Chap. XIII, 1).
27:2 For the Avesta account of this expedition of Tîstar, see Tîstar Yt. 20-29.
27:3 Miswritten Apavs or Apavas in Pâzand, by all MSS. in this chapter, but see Chap. XXVIII, 39.
27:4 The word parasang is here used for Av. hâthra, which was about an English mile (see Chap. XXVI, 1).
27:5 A quotation from Tîstar Yt. 25.
28:1 Mentioned in Vend. XIX, 135, thus: 'thou shouldst propitiate the fire Vâzista, the smiter of the demon Spengaghra.' It, is also written Spêngargâk in Chap. XVII, 1, and Aspengarôgâ in Chap. XXVIII, 39.
28:2 That is, the lightning (see Chap. XVII, 1).
28:3 Or, 'a tumult and flashing.' Justi has 'howling and shrieking;' the two words being very ambiguous in the original.
28:4 See Chap. XIII, 6.
28:5 See Chap. XXII, 1-3.
29:1 Probably meaning the north side of the Arêdvîvsûr fountain of the sea, which is said to be on the lofty Hûgar, a portion of Albûrz, from the northern side of which these two semi-mythical rivers are said to flow (see Chaps. XII, 5, XX, 1).
29:2 See Chap. XX, 2.
29:3 Here written Arêng, but the usual Pahlavi reading is Arag; the nasal of the Av. Rangha being generally omitted in Pahlavi, as other nasals are sometimes; thus we often find sag for sang, 'stone.'