��OVER THE ANCIENT BATTLE-GROUND
��dashf)^ which were now before our very eyes. This mountain- fragment broke off, the story goes, from the great range that runs along the northern border from Tabaristan, on the ex- treme northwest, to Mount Kumish, already in view in the distance, across the plain on the southeast. The text of the Bundahishn (Bd. 12. 32-34), which describes the scene, may be rendered as follows (my own explanatory additions being added in square brackets) : —
- From Mount Patashkhvargar [in Tabaristan] to Mount Kumish they
call Mount Matufriat (' Come-to-help '), where Vishtasp routed Arjasp.^ The mountain which is Mian-dasht (' Middle-of-the-plain ') was broken off from that mountain there. They say that in the War of the Religion, when confusion came upon the Iranians, it broke off from that mountain ^ (and) slid down (into) the middle of the plain. The Iranians were saved by it, and it was called by them Matufriat (' Come-to-help '). Mount Gunavat is on the same Ridge of Vishtasp in that direction by Revand ; that is, the Abode of the Burzin Mitro Fire is nine parasangs to the west.' '
��1 According to Bd. 12. 2, 17, 31-32, Mount Patashkhvargar (lit. 'the mountain by the side of Khvar') is a portion of the great range of Alburz, starting in Tabaristan and Gilan, and extending to Mount Kumish. Mount Kumish lies across the plain to the southeast of the villages of Mihr and Rivad. The ancient name Kumish is still preserved. In the slightly fuller text of the Iranian Bundahishn (ed. Tahmuras Anklesaria and Behram- gore Anklesaria, p. 80, Bombay, 1908), there is a gloss between the names of these two mountains, which appears to mean, ' The neck was united, con- nected (with) Mount Kumish.' For the entire passage, with text and translation, compare also Justi, Bun- dehesh, text, p. 25, transL, p. 14, glossary, p. 98, Leipzig, 1869 ; West- ergaard, Bundehesh^ text, p. 25, Co- penhagen, 1851 ; Unvalla, Bundehesh, lithographed, p. 29, Bombay, 1897; West, SBE. 5. 40. Compare also
��Justi, Beitrdge zur alien Geographie Persiens^ 2. 3, 4.
- To the word ' mountain ' the text
of the Iranian Bundahishn here ap- pends a word that may be deciphered as gdh, 'place,' or doubtfully as sidh, 'black,' or shah, 'king.' If either of the latter decipherments be adopted, we might compare the name of the snow-capped mountain in the north, which Euan Smith (in Goldsmid, Eastern Persia, 1. 337) calls Siah Kuh ('Black Mountain'), and which Curzon (Persia, 1. 282) speaks of as ♦Shah Kuh (King Mountain), the highest point of the Elburz between Shahrud and Astrabad.'
8 The last sentence is difficult. I have adopted the fuller text of the Iranian Bundahishn, combining with it certain variants from the other texts, the Huzvarish readings being enclosed in square brackets after the Pazand forms : Gttndvato kup pa [pa- van] ham Pu^t-i Vistdspdno dnoi [tam-
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