(8) The Image of the Ox denotes the strong and the mature, turning up the intellectual furrows for the reception of the heavenly and productive showers; and the Horns, the guarding and indomitable. The representation of the Eagle denotes the kingly, and soaring, and swift in flight, and quickness in search of the nourishment which makes strong, and wanness, and agility, and cleverness; and the unimpeded, straight, and unflinching gaze towards the bounteous and brilliant splendour of the Divine rays of the sun, with the robust extension of the visual powers. That of Horses represents obedience and docility, and of those who are white, brilliancy, and as especially congenial to the Divine Light; but of those who are dark blue, the Hidden; and of those red, the fiery and vigorous; and of the piebald, the uniting of the extremes by the power passing through them, and joining the first to the second, and the second to the first, reciprocally and considerately. Now if we did not consult the proportion of our discourse, we might, not inappropriately, adapt the particular characteristics of the aforesaid living creatures, and all their bodily representations to the Heavenly Powers, upon the principle of dissimilar similitudes; for instance, their appearance of anger, to intellectual manliness, of which anger is the remotest echo, and their desire, to the Divine love; and to speak summarily, referring all the sensible perceptions, and many parts of irrational beings, to the immaterial conceptions and unified Powers of the Heavenly Beings. Now not only is this sufficient for the wise, but even an explanation of one of the dissimilar representations would be sufficient for the accurate description of similar things, after the same fashion.

(7) (And together with that chief speaker of your word I would engage yet others in the cause). Your well-incited and swift (servants), O Ahura! would I yoke on (as steeds to take their holy course toward heaven), gaining thereby (at last) the Bridges where Your adoration (rules and is complete). Yea, I (?) yoke on your mighty ones, and with Thy Holy Order, and Thy Good Mind. And with these may Ye drive on; aye, be Ye for my help!

(16) (And to the Hvôgvas would I likewise speak.) Thou Frashaostra Hvôgva (whom I see) ; go thou (forth) with the generous helpers , with those whom we are praying for as for salvation to the land. Go thou where Piety joins hand in hand with the Righteous Order, where are the wished-for Realms of Good Mind, where Mazda in His most honoured home abides,

(9) And let (one like those ), O Mazda! bear on to Thee the spirit of the two leaders who cause the holy ritual Truth to flourish; let him bear them to (Thy) brilliant home with preternatural insight, and with the Better Mind. Yea, let him bear that spirit on as a fellow-help in (furthering) the readiness of those (in their holy work) whose souls go hand in hand .

(1) Verily, the day arose for the horse as the sacrificial vessel which stands before. Its place is the eastern sea. Verily, the night arose for him as the sacrificial vessel which stands behind. Its place is the western sea. Verily, these two arose on both sides of the horse as the two sacrificial vessels. animal sacrifices in ancient India (described at length in Sat. Br. 13. 1-5), is interpreted, in this and the following Brahmana, as of cosmic significance — a miniature reproduction of the world-order. In the liturgy for the Horse-sacrifice (contained in VS. 22-25) there is a similar apportionment of the parts of the animal to the vanous parts of the world. Compare also a similar elaborate cosmic correlation of the ox at AV. 9. 7. symbolized cosmically by the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. Becoming a steed, he carried the gods; a stallion, the Gandharvas; a courser, the demons; a horse, men. The sea, indeed, is his relative. The sea is his place.

(12) (But for the penitent there is yet hope; for all our former foes shall not thus fall, as from the Kinvat Bridge to woe, for) when from among the tribes and kith of the Turanian, even among the more powerful ones of the Fryâna, those shall arise who further on the settlements of Piety with energy and zeal, with these shall Ahura dwell together through His Good Mind (in them), and to them for joyful grace deliver His commands .

(7) Whom, then, as guard, O Mazda! hast Thou set me then when that wicked one still held me for his hate? Whom (had I) then but Thee, Thy Fire and Mind, Ahura! by deeds performed in which Thy Righteous rule is saved and nurtured? Therefore that spiritual power (vouchsafing me) for the (holy) Faith (its truths) declare.

(3) To Him the (Divine Righteousness) answered with his sanctity. (Great was our perplexity); a chieftain who war capable of smiting back (their fury), and who was himself without hate (was not to be obtained by us); among such things as these, those things are not to be known (by beings such as we) which are the influences which approach (and move) the lofty fires (revealing the favour and the will of God ). Of beings He is the mightiest to whom those who have performed their actions approach with invocations. (He has no need to ask!)

(1) His lord-kinsman will pray (as I Zarathustra prayed), and his labouring villagers, with his (trusted) peers, and his (fellow) Daêva-worshippers . But in my mind is the friendship of Ahura Mazda, the Great Creator, the living Lord; and Thine heralds, O Ahura! may we be; may we hold back those who hate and who offend You!

(18) (And, having gained Thine audience and Thine Order's sacred chieftainship), then I ask of Thee, O Ahura! and tell me aright, how shall I acquire that Thy Righteous Order's prize, ten (costly) mares male-mated, and with them the camel (those signs of honour and blessing for Thy chief. I ask Thee for these gifts for sacrifice). For it was told me for the sake of our Welfare (in our salvation), and of our Immortality, in what manner Thou shalt give to these (Thy conquering hosts) both of these Thy (gifts of grace).

(7) (For He has sovereign control.) He who conceived of these (truths of the Mãthra) as their first (inspirer), (and as He thought their existence they (all) as (His) glorious (conceptions first) clothed themselves in the stars ), He is through His understanding the Creator of the Righteous Order. And thus likewise He supports His Beneficent Mind (in His saints). And these (holy creatures) may’st Thou cause to prosper by Thy Spirit (since they are Thine own), O Ahura Mazda! Thou who art for every hour the same !

(9) Aye, let the zealous and thrifty husbandman, so formed for giving help and blessings , give heed and listen when I call, (O Mazda!) Let not the truthful (tiller, he who hears and speaks Thy word ), be he who takes that sheltering chieftainship together with the wicked. Let the believing natures (only) join in that best recompense. And thus in the course of the holy Order are in the fact so joined those two, Gâmâspa and the 'hero' .

(7) (Then in our coming strife let both her mortal foes be slain.) Let the Wrath-demon of rapine be cast down. Smite ye against the envy (which would plot against our Throne ), O ye who, abiding by the Good Mind, and in accordance with our holy Order, desire to hold that refuge fast, to whose sacred bond the bounteous man belongs. And therefore, O Ahura! (to save Thy struggling saint who toils with changing lot) will I place (that refuge) for him in Thy world.

(17) (And not alone amidst our princes hath sanctity been marked), Frashaostra, the Hvôgva, hath presented a blest and an endeared form (his child ); and may Ahura Mazda, who has the Sovereign Power, grant her (to us), who is so much to be beloved. And for the (progress of the) good Religion do ye, O ye people! receive her with desire , and for the gaining of Asha; (she will help the great cause).

(4) (But e’er these helpers come to me, all rests as yet in gloom.) The evil man is holding back those who are the bearers of the Righteous Order from progress with the Kine, (from progress with the sacred cause) within the region, or the province , he, the evil governor, endowed with evil might , consuming life with evil deeds. Wherefore, whoever hurls him from his power, O Mazda! or from life, stores for the Kine in sacred wisdom shall he make .

(1) And to this (man, His chosen saint), Ahura Mazda will give both the two (greatest gifts, His) Universal Weal and Immortality, by means of His bountiful Spirit, and with His Best Mind, from (the desire to maintain His) Righteous moral Order in word and deed, and by the (strength and wisdom) of His Sovereign Power, (established) in Piety (among His folk).

(3) And him will they give Thee, O Pourukista, Haêkat-aspid and Spitâmi! young (as thou art) of the daughters of Zarathustra, him will they give thee as a help in the Good Mind's true service, of Asha's and Mazda's, as a chief and a guardian . Counsel well then (together ), with the mind of Ârmaiti, most bounteous and pious; and act with just action.

(15) This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright. If through Thy Righteousness (within our souls) Thou hast the power over this for my protection, when the two hosts shall meet in hate (as they strive) for those vows which Thou dost desire to maintain, how, O Mazda! and to which of both wilt Thou give the day ?

(8) (And I do not ask in vain, for such an one is found for us, and near at hand.) To Frashaostra hast Thou given that most favouring guardian power, the headship of the Holy Order (for us), O Ahura! This therefore would I pray of Thee (to confirm to him that gracious gift), and for myself likewise, would I now seek as well that sheltering headship which is within Thy Realm; yea, most blest and foremost may we both for ever be within it.

(11) With many faces and eyes, presenting many wondrous sights, bedecked with many celestial ornaments, armed with many divine uplifted weapons; wearing celestial garlands and vestments, anointed with divine perfumes, all-wonderful, resplendent, boundless, and with faces on all sides.