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Pahlavi Texts, Part I (SBE05), E.W. West, tr. [1880], at sacred-texts.com
1. As he (Aharman) came fifthly to cattle—which struggled against him with all the animals—and likewise as the primeval ox 1 passed away, from, the nature of the vegetable principle it possessed, fifty-five 2 species of grain and twelve species of medicinal plants grew from its various members; and forasmuch as they should see from which member each one proceeds, it is declared in the Dâmdâd Nask 3. 2. And every plant grown from a member
promotes that member, as it is said that there where the ox scattered its marrow 1 on to the earth, grain afterwards grew up, corn 2 and sesame, vetches 3 and peas; so sesame, on account of 4 its marrow quality, is itself a great thing for developing marrow. 3. And it is also said that from the blood is the vine 5, a great vegetable thing—as wine itself is blood—for more befriending the sound quality of the blood. 4. And it is said that from the nose is the pulse (mâys or mâsah) which is called dônak, and was a variety of sesame (samagâ) 6, and it is for other noses.
5. And it is also said that from the lungs are the rue-like herbs 1 which heal, and are for the lung-disease of cattle. 6. This, rooted amid the heart, is thyme, from which is Vohûman's thorough withstanding of the stench of Akôman 2, and it is for that which proceeds from the sick and yawners.
7. Afterwards, the brilliance of the seed, seized upon, by strength, from the seed which was the ox's, they would carry off from it, and the brilliance was intrusted to the angel of the moon 3; in a place therein that seed was thoroughly purified by the light of the moon, and was restored in its many qualities, and made fully infused with life (gânvar-hômand). 8. Forth from there it produced for Aîrân-vêg, first, two oxen, a pair, male and female 4, and, afterwards, other species, until the completion of the 282 species 5; and they were discernible as far as two long leagues on the earth. 9. Quadrupeds walked forth on the land, fish swam in the water, and birds flew in the atmosphere; in every two, at the time good eating is enjoyed, a longing (âvdahân) arose therefrom, and pregnancy and birth.
10. Secondly, their subdivision is thus:—First, they are divided into three, that is, quadrupeds walking on the earth, fish swimming in the water,
and birds flying in the atmosphere. 11. Then, into five classes 1, that is, the quadruped which is round-hoofed, the double-hoofed, the five-clawed, the bird, and the fish, whose dwellings are in five places, and which are called aquatic, burrowing, oviparous, wide-travelling, and suitable for grazing. 12. The aquatic are fish and every beast of burden, cattle, wild beast, dog, and bird which enters the water; the burrowing are the marten (samûr) and musk animals, and all other dwellers and movers in holes; the oviparous are birds of every kind; the wide-travelling sprang away for help, and are also those of a like kind; those suitable for grazing are whatever are kept grazing in a flock.
13. And, afterwards, they were divided into genera, as the round-hoofed are one, which is all called 'horse;' the double-hoofed are many, as the camel and ox, the sheep and goat, and others double-hoofed; the five-clawed are the dog, hare, musk animals, marten, and others; then are the birds, and then the fish. 14. And then they were divided into species 2, as eight species of horse, two species of camel, ten 3 species of ox, five species of sheep, five species of goat, ten of the dog, five of the hare, eight of the marten, eight of the musk animals, 110 of the birds, and ten of the fish; some are counted for the pigs, and with all those declared and all those undeclared there were, at first, 282 species 4; and with the species within species there were a thousand varieties.
15. The birds are distributed 1 into eight groups (rîstakŏ), and from that which is largest to that which is smallest they are so spread about as when a man, who is sowing grain, first scatters abroad that of heavy weight, then that which is middling, and afterwards that which is small.
16. And of the whole of the species, as enumerated a second time in the Dâmdâd Nask 2, and written by me in the manuscript (nipîk) of 'the summary enumeration of races 3'—this is a lordly 4 summary—the matter which is shown is, about the species of horses, the first is the Arab, and the chief of them 5 is white and yellow-eared, and secondly the Persian, the mule, the ass, the wild ass, the water-horse, and others. 17. Of the camel there are specially two, that for the plain, and the mountain one which is double-humped. 18. Among the species of ox are the white, mud-coloured, red, yellow, black, and dappled, the elk, the buffalo, the camel-leopard 6, the ox-fish, and others. 19. Among sheep are those having tails and those which are tailless, also the wether and the Kûrisk which, because of its trampling the hills, its great horn, and also being suitable
for ambling, became the steed of Mânûskîhar. 20. Among goats are the ass-goat, the Arab, the fawn (varîkŏ), the roe, and the mountain goat. 21. Among martens are the white ermine, the black marten, the squirrel, the beaver (khaz), and others. 22. Of musk animals with a bag, one is the Bîsh-musk—which eats the Bîsh poison and does not die through it,—and it is created for the great advantage that it should eat the Bîsh, and less of it should succeed in poisoning the creatures—and one is a musk animal of a black colour which they desired (ayûftŏ) who were bitten by the fanged serpent—as the serpent of the mountain water-courses (makŏ) is called—which is numerous on the river-banks; one throws the same unto it for food, which it eats, and then the serpent enters its body, when his 1 serpent, at the time this happens, feeds upon the same belly in which the serpent is, and he will become clear from that malady. 23. Among birds two were produced of a different character from the rest, and those are the griffon bird and the bat, which have teeth in the mouth, and suckle their young with animal milk from the teat.
24. This is the fifth contest, as to animals.
177:1 See Chaps. II, 6, III, 1, and Bund. IV, 1, X, 1, XIV, 1.
177:2 The MS. has 'fifty-seven' in ciphers, but Bund. X, 1, XIV, 1, XXVII, 2, have, 'fifty-five' in words.
177:3 This was the fourth nask or 'book' of the complete Mazdayasnian literature, according to the Dînkard, which gives a very short and superficial account of its contents. But, according to the Dînî-vagarkard and the Rivâyats of Kâmah Bahrah, Narîmân Hôshang, and Barzû Qiyâmu-d-dîn, it was the fifth nask, and was called Dvâzdah-hâmâst (or homâst). For its contents, as given by the Dînî-vagarkard, see Haug's Essays, p. 127. The Rivâyat of Kâmah Bahrah, which has a few more words than the other Rivâyats, gives the following account (for the Persian text of which, see 'Fragmens relatifs à la religion de Zoroastre,' par Olshausen et Jules Mohl):—
'Of the fifth the name is Dvâzdah-homâst, and the interpretation of this is "the book about help" (dar imdâd, but this is probably a corruption of dâmdâd). And this book has thirty-two sections (kardah) that the divine and omnipotent creator sent down, in remembrance of the beginning of the creatures of the superior world and inferior world, and it is a description of the whole of them and of that which God, the most holy and omnipotent, mentioned about the sky, earth, and water, vegetation and p. 178 fire, man and quadrupeds, grazing and flying animals, and what he produced for their advantage and use, and the like. Secondly, the resurrection and heavenly path, the gathering and dispersion, and the nature of the circumstances of the resurrection, as regards the virtuous and evil-doers, through the weight of every action they perform for good and evil.'
This description corresponds very closely with what the Bundahis must have been, before the addition of the genealogical and chronological chapters at the end; and Dâd-sparam mentions in his text here, and again in § 16, particulars regarding the Dâmdâd which also occur in the Bundahis (XIV, 2, 14-18, 21-24). There can be very little doubt, therefore, that the Bundahis was originally a translation of the Dâmdâd, though probably abridged; and the text translated in this volume is certainly a further abridgment of the original Bundahis, or Zand-âkâs. Whether the Avesta text of the Dâmdâd was still in existence in the time of Dâd-sparam is uncertain, as he would apply the name to the Pahlavi text. At the present time it is very unusual for a copyist to write the Pahlavi text without its Avesta, when the latter exists, but this may not always have been the case.
178:1 Or 'brains.'
178:2 Supposing the MS. galôlag is a corruption of gallak (Pers. ghallah).
178:3 Assuming the MS. alûhŏ or arvanŏ to be a corruption of alûm or arzanŏ.
178:4 Reading râî instead of lâ.
178:5 Compare Bund. XIV, 2.
178:6 Either this sentence is very corrupt in the MS. or it cannot be p. 179 reconciled with the corresponding clause of Bund. XIV, 2. Altering dônak and gûnak into gandanak, and samagâ into samasdar, we might read, 'from the nose is mâys, which is called the leek, and the leek was an onion;' but this is doubtful, and leaves the word mâys unexplained.
179:1 The MS. has gôspendânŏ, 'cattle,' instead of sipandânŏ, 'rue, herbs.'
179:2 See Bund. I, 24, 27, XXVIII, 7, XXX, 29.
179:3 Bund. X, 2, XIV, 3.
179:4 Bund. X, 3, XIV, 4.
179:5 Bund. X, 3, XIV, 13.
180:1 Bund, XIV, 8-12.
180:2 Bund. XIV, I, 3-2 3, 26, 27.
180:3 Bund. XIV, 17 says, 'fifteen,' which is probably correct.
180:4 Only 181 species are detailed or 'declared' here.
181:1 Bund. XIV, 25.
181:2 See § 1; the particulars which follow are also found in Bund. XIV, 14-18, 21-24, showing that the Bundahis must be derived from the Dâmdâd.
181:3 The title of this work, in Pahlavi, is Tôkhm-ausmaris-nîh-i hangardîkŏ, but it is not known to be extant.
181:4 Reading marâk (Chaldee מָרֵא), but this is doubtful, though the Iranian final k is often added to Semitic Huzvâris forms ending with â. It may be minâk, 'thinking, thoughtful,' or a corruption of manîk, 'mine,' in which last case we should translate, 'this is a summary of mine.'
181:5 Bund. XXIV, 6.
181:6 Literally, 'camel-ox-leopard.'
182:1 This appears to be the meaning here of amat zak garzakŏ, but the whole sentence is a fair sample of Dâd-sparam's most involved style of writing. By feeding the black musk animal with snakes the effect of a snake-bite, experienced by the feeder, is supposed to be neutralized.