Sacred Texts  Zoroastrianism  Index  Previous  Next 
Buy this Book at Amazon.com

Pahlavi Texts, Part II (SBE18), E.W. West, tr. [1882], at sacred-texts.com


CHAPTER LXV.

1. As to the sixty-fourth question and reply, that which you ask is thus: Where and from what did the origin of race, which they say was next-of-kin marriage (khvêtûdâdŏ) 3, arise; and from what place did it arise?

p. 200

2. The reply is this, that the first consummation of next-of-kin marriage was owing to that which Mashyâîh and Mashyâyôîh 1 did, who were brother and sister together, and their consummation of intercourse produced a son 2 as a consummation of the first next-of-kin marriage. 3. So that they effected the first intercourse of man with woman, and the entire progress of the races of every kind of lineage of men arose from that, and all the men of the world are of that race.

4. It is truly said, that it was the joy of the lord and creator after the creation of the creatures, and, owing to that, its consummation, which was his complete accomplishment of the existence of the creatures (dâmânîh), was owing to him. 5. And its occurrence, too, is in evidence that the creator, who is so with unflinching (atôrâk) will, is as much the cause of the begetting and entire progress of his own perfect creatures 3, in whom begetting is by destiny, as Hôshâng 4 by whom two-thirds 5 of the demons were smitten, Tâkhmôrup 6 who overturned Aharman through the power of the angels, Yim by

p. 201

whom order was arranged and death was driven away (avakâldŏ) 1, Frêdûn who fettered Az-î Dahâk 2 and stripped his blaspheming (nîrangâk) from the world, and the many princes (kayân) and high-priests of grave spirit who were, and are, and will be.


Footnotes

199:3 Usually written khvêtûk-das (Av. hvaêtvadatha, 'a giving of, or to, one's own'). It is a term applied to marriages between near relations, and is extolled as specially meritorious. For centuries past the Parsis have understood it to refer to marriages between first cousins, and all allusions to marriage between nearer relations they attribute to the practices of heretics (see Sls. XVIII, 4 n); though, like the professors of all other religions, they must admit the necessity of such a practice in the first family of mankind, as detailed in the text. Translations of other passages relating to the subject will be found in Appendix III, and it is also mentioned in Chaps. XXXVII, 82, LXXVII, 6, and LXXVIII, 19.

200:1 See Chap. LXIV, 2. The names are here written Mashyêîh and Mashyêyôîh.

200:2 Twins, according to Bd. XV, 22, 24.

200:3 That is, he is not only the original creator, but also the perpetual promoter of the increase and progress of the creation, as much as those who appear to be such promoters, though merely acting as his agents.

200:4 Here written Hôshyâng. For the Av. names of these four primeval monarchs, see Chap. II, 10 n.

200:5 K35 has 'three-thirds,' but see Âbân Yt. 22, Râm Yt. 8, Zamyâd Yt. 26.

200:6 He is said to have subjugated the evil spirit, and to have used him as a steed for thirty years (see Chaps. II, 10, XXXVII, 35).

201:1 He is said to have kept away cold and heat, decay and death, and other evils from the earth (see Râm Yt. 16, Zamyâd Yt. 33).

201:2 See Chap. XXXVII, 97.


Next: Chapter LXVI