Yasna XI. Prelude To The H(a)oma-Offering
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The Zend Avesta, Part III (SBE31), L.H. Mills, tr. [1886], at sacred-texts.com
YASNA XI.
PRELUDE TO THE H(A)OMA-OFFERING 5.
1. Three clean creatures (full of blessings) curse betimes while yet invoking, the cow, the horse, and then H(a)oma. The cow cries to her driver 6 thus:
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[paragraph continues] Childless be thou, shorn of offspring, evil-famed, and slander-followed, who foddered 1 fairly dost not use me, but fattenest me for wife or children, and for thy niggard selfish meal.
2. The horse cries to his rider thus: Be not spanner 2 of the racers; stretch no coursers to full-speed; do not stride across the fleetest, thou, who dost not pray me swiftness in the meeting thick with numbers, in the circuit thronged with men.
3. H(a)oma speaks his drinker thus: Childless be thou, shorn of offspring, evil-famed, and slander-followed, who holdest me from full outpouring, as a robber, skulls in-crushing. No head-smiter 3 am I ever, holy H(a)oma, far from death 4.
4. Forth my father gave an offering, tongue and left eye chose Ahura, set apart for H(a)oma's meal.
5. Who this offering would deny me, eats himself, or prays it from me, this which Mazda gave to bless me, tongue with left eye (as my portion).
6. In his house is born no fire-priest, warrior ne’er in chariot standing, never more the thrifty tiller. In his home be born Dahâkas, Mûrakas of evil practice, doing deeds of double nature.
7. Quick, cut off then H(a)oma's portion, gift of flesh for doughty H(a)oma! Heed lest H(a)oma
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bind thee fettered, as he bound the fell Turanian Frangrasyan 1 (the murderous robber) fast in iron close-surrounded in the mid-third 2 of this earth! 8. Thereupon spake Zarathustra 3; Praise to H(a)oma made by Mazda, good is H(a)oma Mazda-made.
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9. 4Who to us is one hereupon to thee (becomes) two, to be made to three, for the five 5-making of the four, for the seven-making of the sixth, who are your nine in the decade (?), who serve you and with zeal 6.
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10. 7To thee, O holy H(a)oma! bearer of the ritual sanctity, I offer this my person which is seen (by all to be) mature, (and fit for gift); to H(a)oma the effective do I offer it, and to the sacred exhilaration which he bestows; and do thou grant to me (for this), O holy H(a)oma! thou that drivest death afar, (Heaven) the best world of the saints, shining, all brilliant.
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11. (The Ashem Vohû, &c.)
12-15. May’st Thou rule at Thy will, O Lord 1!
16. I confess myself a Mazdayasnian of Zarathustra's order 2.
17. 3I celebrate my praises for good thoughts, good words, and good deeds for my thoughts, my speeches, and (my) actions. With chanting praises I present all good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, and with rejection I repudiate all evil thoughts, and words, and deeds. 18. Here I give to you, O ye Bountiful Immortals! sacrifice and homage with the mind, with words, deeds, and my entire person; yea, (I offer) to you the flesh of my very body (as your own). And I praise Righteousness. A blessing is Righteousness (called) the Best, &c.
Footnotes
244:5 This characteristic fragment is repeated and extended in the later literature of the Parsis. The curse of the cow, horse, and of Haoma (scilicet the priest) when they are stinted, was extended to all domestic animals. It has been difficult to avoid the full metrical rhythm of the original with its jingling cadence. A full freedom is also not avoided.
244:6 Not 'to the priest;' Ner. grihîtâram.
245:1 'Who dost not give me cooked (food)' seems improbable. If hvâstãm means fodder, why is it fem., especially here with a feminine correlative? I think that 'having good food' is the meaning of the word, as an adjective, and agreeing with gãm understood. Possibly, 'who dost not bestow upon me as the one well-foddered.'
245:3 'Light is the intoxication of Haoma;' (other toxicants smite the head).
246:2 Observe the threefold division of the earth; see it also in Vend. II.
246:3 A poetical reproduction. Z. had been long among the ancient dead.
246:4 The Raspi at present hands the Haoma-cup to the priest at this point; the efficacy of the liquor is supposed to be multiplied.
246:5 Pendaidyâi is to be read as of course; the letter
, not unlike
in a MS. when turned, was probably half inverted.
246:6 This seems rendered by the Pahlavi as an interlude between the Ratu and the Zaotar; comp. Y. XXVIII, 11. Several broken sentences from other parts of the Avesta are here doubtfully recalled, perhaps as having especial sanctity.
246:7 The Raspi brings the Haoma-vessel to the Baresman at this point; and touching its stand, the Mâh-rû, lays a cloth on the right hand of the Zaotar, who, looking at the vessel, proceeds to recite as follows in verse 10.
247:3 This piece is in the Gâthic dialect, and therefore an especially fitting prelude to the Confession of faith in Y. XII.
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