5
FARGARD I.
5
and he counter-created the locust[1], which brings death unto cattle and plants.
6 (17). The third of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created; was the strong, holy Môuru[2]
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created plunder and sin[3].
7 (21). The fourth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the beautiful Bâkhdhi[4] with high-lifted banners.
Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he counter-created the ants and the anthills[5].
8 (25). The fifth of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was Nisâya[6], that lies between Môuru and Bâkhtri.
- ↑ 'The plague that fell to that country was the bad locust: it devours the plants and death comes to the cattle' (Gr. Bund.)
- ↑ Margu; Μαργιανή; Marv.
- ↑ Doubtful.—The Gr. Bd. has: 'The plague that fell to that country was the comimg and going of troops: for there is always there an evil concourse of horsemen, thieves, robbers, and heretics, who speak untruth and oppress the righteous.'—Marv continued to be the resort of Turanian plunderers till the recent Russian annexation.
- ↑ Bâkhtri; Βάκτρα; Balkh.
- ↑ 'The corn-carrying ants' (Asp.; cf. Farg. XIV, 5).
- ↑ By contradistinction to other places of the same name. There was a Nisâya, in Media, where Darius put to death the Mage Gaumâta (Bahistûn I, 58). There was also a Nisâ in Fârs, another in Kirmân, a third again on the way from Amol to Marv (Tabari, tr. Noeldeke, p. 101, 2), which may be the same as Νισαία, the capital of Parthia (Παρθαύνισα ap. Isid. of Charax 12) ; cf. Pliny VI, 25 (29). One may therefore be tempted to translate, 'Nisâya between which and Bâkhdhi Môuru lies;' but the text hardly admits of that construction, and we must suppose the existence of another Nisâya on the way from Balkh to Marv.
