QUOTES ABOUT SNAKES

 A faithful friend, as no snake ever yet

 A snake - a king of serpents - lying curled

 afflict the snakiest of the Snake's brood

 Afterwards, the evil spirit, with the confederate demons, went towards the luminaries, and he saw the sky; and he led them up, fraught with malicious intentions. He stood upon one-third of the inside of the sky, and he sprang, like a snake, out of the sky down to the earth

 ahituNDikaH = (m) a snake charmer

 and other weapons. Purest woman art Thou on earth.

 And so the snake, transformed, vanished away

 At that moment the King of Ocean rose serenely above the weltering billows in all his splendour, attended by shining water snakes. He addressed Rama with great reverence, reminding him that according to ancient laws he must remain unfordable, but counselling him the while to seek the aid of the Vanar chief Nala, son of Vishwakarma, the divine artisan, so that a bridge might be constructed to enable the armies to cross the deep. Then

 Azi Dahâka, 'the fiendish snake,' is a three-headed

 belong either to Ormazd or Ahriman according as they are useful or hurtful to man; but, in fact, they belonged originally to either the one or the other, according as they had been incarnations of the god or of the fiend, that is, as they chanced to have lent their forms to either in the storm tales . In a few cases, of course, the habits of the animal had not been without influence upon its mythic destiny: but the determinative cause was different. The fiend was not described as a serpent because the serpent is a subtle and crafty reptile, but because the storm fiend envelops the goddess of light, or the milch cows of the raining heavens, with the coils of the cloud as with a snake's folds. It was not animal psychology that disguised gods and fiends as dogs, otters, hedge-hogs, and cocks, or as snakes, tortoises, frogs, and ants, but the accidents of physical qualities and the caprice of popular fancy, as both the god and the fiend might be compared with, and transformed into, any object, the idea of which was suggested by the uproar of the storm, the blazing of the lightning, the streaming of the water, or the hue and shape of the clouds

 Bhima of the Pan´davas, the human son of the wind god Vayu, once went forth to obtain for his beloved queen the flowers of Paradise :: those Celestial lotuses of a thousand petals with sun-like splendour and unearthly fragrance, which prolong life and renew beauty: they grow in the demon-guarded woodland lake in the region of Kuvera, god of treasure. Bhima hastened towards the north-east, facing the wind, armed with a golden bow and snake-like arrows; like an angry lion he went, nor ever felt weary. Having climbed a great mountain he entered a forest which is the haunt of demons, and he saw stately and beautiful trees, blossoming creepers, flowers of various hues, and birds with gorgeous plumage. A soft wind blew in his face; it was anointed with the perfume of Celestial lotus; it was as refreshing as the touch of a father's hand. Beautiful was that sacred retreat. The great clouds spread out like wings and the mountain seemed to dance; shining streams adorned it like to a necklace of pearls

 bhuja.nga = snake

 bhujaN^ga = snake

 black snake hangs, in that other world, on to the liver of that person who

 Called the great snake to memory

 Foremost of Devas, be gracious to me

 Freed her, and laved the snake's slime from her limbs

 From what hour may the good waters be offered up? From sunrise to sunset. He who offers up the good waters after sunset, before sunrise, does no better deed than if he should shed them downright into the jaws of the venomous snake' (Nîrangistân, in the Zand-Pahlavi Glossary, p. 76).]

 Golden-sheathed and gold embosséd like a snake or fiery tongue

 Great Aswatthâman. As a snake lies coiled

 He it is who smites me that brood of the Snake, and who

 He shall kill a thousand snakes of

 He shall kill ten thousand snakes of those that go upon the belly; he shall kill ten thousand

 He smites the brood of the Snake; he smites the brood of

 He will smite the snakiest of the Snake's brood, he will

 Hushed and trembling, he gazed upon Kaikeyi as a startled deer gazes at a tigress. . . . He was as helpless as a serpent which hath been mantra-charmed, and for a time he sobbed aloud. . . . At length wrath possessed him, and, red-eyed and loud-voiced, he reproached her, saying: "Traitress, wouldst thou bring ruin to my family? . . . Rama hath never wronged thee; why dost thou seek to injure him? O Kaikeyi, whom I have loved and taken to my bosom, thou hast crept into my house like a poisonous snake to accomplish my ruin. It is death to me to part with my brave and noble Rama, now that I am old and feeble. . . . Have pity on me and ask for other boons."

 If a lamp, trimmed with oil extracted from the shrawana and priyangu plants, its wick being made of cloth and the slough of the skins of snakes, is lighted, and long pieces of wood placed near it, those pieces of wood will resemble so many snakes

 If by observance of Vrata to live on air, leaves of trees, bits of grain, or water, final liberation may be attained, then snakes, cattle, birds, and aquatic animals should all be able to attain final liberation (121)

 In the course of time Thraêtaona, Yima, and Azi Dahâka became historical: it was told how King Jemshid (Yima Khshâeta) had been overthrown and killed by the usurper Zohâk (Dahâka), a man with two snakes' heads upon his shoulders, and how Zohâk himself had been overthrown by a prince of the royal blood, Feridûn (Thraêtaona). Yet Zohâk, though vanquished, could not be killed; he was bound to Mount Damâvand, there to lie in bonds till the end of the world, when he shall be let loose, and then killed by Keresâspa. The fiend is as long-lifed as the world, since as often as he is vanquished he appears again, as dark and fearful as ever

 In the dark wood, haunted with beasts and snakes

 In the month Fravardîn and the day Ahuramazda he rushed in at noon, and thereby the sky was as shattered and frightened by him, as a sheep by a wolf. 13. He came on to the water which was arranged below the earth, and then the middle of this earth was pierced and entered by him. 14. Afterwards, he came to the vegetation, then to the ox, then to Gâyômard, and then he came to fire ; so, just like a fly, he rushed out upon the whole creation; and he made the world quite as injured and dark at midday as though it were in dark night. 15. And noxious creatures. were diffused by him over the earth, biting and venomous, such as the snake, scorpion, frog (kalvâk), and lizard (vazak), :: so that not so much as the point of a needle remained free from noxious creatures. 16. And blight was diffused by him over the

 In the same way the poet says that in the days of their political disruption, the cowed and down-trodden Indian people through the mouths of their poets sang the praises of the same Shakti. "The Chandi of Kavikangkan and of the Annadamangala, the Ballad of Manasa, the Goddess of Snakes, what are they but Paeans of the triumph of Evil? The burden of their song is the defeat of Shiva the good at the hands of the cruel deceitful criminal Shakti." "The male Deity who was in possession was fairly harmless. But all of a sudden a feminine Deity turns up and demands to be worshipped in his stead. That is to say that she insisted on thrusting herself where she had no right. Under what title? Force! By what method? Any that would serve."

 In this Age the Mantras of the Tantras are efficacious, yield immediate fruit, and are auspicious for Japa, Yajna, and all such practices and ceremonies (14). The Vedic rites and Mantras which were efficacious in the First Age have ceased to be so in this. They are now as powerless as snakes, the poison-fangs of which are drawn and are like to that which is dead (15). The whole heap of other Mantras have no more power than the organs of sense of some pictured image on a wall. To worship with the aid of other Mantras is as fruitless as it is to cohabit with a barren woman. The labour is lost (16-17). He who in this Age seeks salvation by ways prescribed by others is like a thirsty fool who digs a well on the bank of the Jahnavi (18), and he who, knowing My Dharmma, craves for any other is as one who with nectar in his house yet longs for the poisonous juice of the akanda plant (19). No other path is there to salvation and happiness in this life or in that to come like unto that shown by the Tantras (20). From my mouth have issued the several Tantras with their sacred legends and practices both for Siddhas and Sadhakas (21). At times, O My Beloved! by reason of the great number of men of the pashu disposition, as also of the diversity of the qualifications of men, it has been said that the Dharmma spoken of in the Kulachara Scriptures should be kept secret (22). But some portions of this Dharmma, O Beloved! have been revealed by Me with the object of inclining the minds of men thereto. Various kinds of Devata and worshippers are mentioned therein, such as Bhairava, Vetala, Vatuka, Nayika, Shaktas, Shaivas, Vaishnavas, Sauras, Ganapatyas, and others. In them, too, are described various Mantra and Yantra which aid men in the attainment of siddhi, and which, though they demand great and constant effort, yet yield the desired fruit (23-25). Hitherto My answer has been given according to the nature of the case and the questioner, and for his individual benefit only (26)

 Indrajit obtained a new chariot by offering up in sacrifice a black goat, and returning to the battlefield with his forces he shot arrows at Rama and Lakshmana. Then he threw a serpent noose, which bound the two brothers so that they were unable to move. Great was their peril, but Vayu, god of wind, sent to their aid the great Celestial bird Garuda, the serpent killer, and the snakes which formed the noose fled from before it, whereat the brethren, who had meantime fallen in a swoon, rose up again. Ravana then came forth, but Rama shot arrows which swept the ten crowns from his ten heads, and he retired in his shame and skulked in the city

 It appears from those passages that the dead must lie on the mountain naked, or 'clothed only with the light or heaven' (Farg. VI, 51). The modern custom is to clothe them with old clothing (Dadabhai Naoroji, Manners and Customs of the Parsis, p. 15). 'When a man dies and receives the order (to depart), the older the shroud they make for him, the better. It must be old, worn out, but well washed: they must not lay anything new on the dead. For it is said in the Zend Vendîdâd, If they put on the dead even so much as a thread from the distaff more than is necessary, every thread shall become in the other world a black snake clinging to the heart of him who made that shroud, and even the dead shall rise against him and seize him by the skirt, and say, That shroud which thou madest for me has become food for worms and vermin' (Saddar 12). The Greeks entertained quite different ideas, and dressed the dead in their gayest attire, as if for a feast. Yet the difference is only in appearance; for, after the fourth day, when the soul is in heaven, then rich garments are offered up to it, which it will wear in its celestial life (Saddar 87, Hyde 64)

 It is for this, O slayer of the Asura Mahisha

 It is written in the law (the Avesta

 kuNDalinii = a coiled female snake, the latent energy at the base of the spine

 Like a snake of deadly poison flew his arrow swift and low

 lord of the waters, as also do hooded snakes (Nagas) with human heads and arms, and Daityas and Danavas (giants and demons) who have taken vows and have been rewarded with immortality. All the holy spirits of rivers and oceans are there, and the holy spirits of lakes and springs and pools, and the personified forms of the points of the heavens, the ends of the earth, and the great mountains. Music and dances provide entertainment, while sacred hymns are sung in praise of Varuna."

 Maharaj, kindly lord, I am the snake

 Mâr bânak snakes: they are dog-like, because they sit on their hindparts' (Comm.) The cat seems to be the animal intended by this name. In a paraphrase of this passage in a Parsi Ravaet, the cat is numbered amongst the Khrafstras which it is enjoined to kill to redeem a sin (India Office Library, VIII, 13); cf. G. du Chinon, p. 462: 'Les animaux que les Gaures ont en horreur sont les serpents, les couleuvres, les lezars, et autres de cette espece, les crapaux, les grenouïlles, les écrevisses, les rats et souris, et sur tout le chat

 naaga = snake

 naagaashana = peacock (whose food is snakes)

 NAGA, snake; a being of the lower or snake world; also a tribe in Eastern India

 o Like a snake with its coils it encircleth his arm

 O Zartust Isfitamân! with regard to woman, I say to thee that any woman that has given up her body to two men in one day is sooner to be killed than a wolf, a lion, or a snake: any one who kills such a woman will gain as much merit by it as if he had provided with wood a thousand fire-temples, or destroyed the dens of adders, scorpions, lions, wolves, or snakes' (Old Rav. 59 b)

 Once upon a time the ambrosia was robbed from the gods by Garúda, half giant and half eagle, the enemy of serpents. This "lord of birds" was hatched from an enormous egg five hundred years after it had been laid by Diti, mother of giants; his father was Kas´yapa, a Brahman identified with the Pole Star, who had sacrificed with desire for offspring. It happened that Diti, having lost a wager, was put under bondage by the demons, and could not be released until she caused the amrita to be taken from a Celestial mountain where it was surrounded by terrible flames, moved by violent winds, which leapt up to the sky. Assuming a golden body, bright as the sun, Garuda drank up many rivers and extinguished the fire. A fiercely revolving wheel, sharp-edged and brilliant, protected the amrita, but Garuda diminished his body and entered between the spokes. Two fire-spitting snakes had next to be overcome. Garuda blinded them with dust and cut them to pieces. Then, having broken the revolving wheel, that bright sky-ranger flew forth with the amrita which was contained in the moon goblet

 Other goddesses include Man´asa, sister of Vasuka, King of the Nagas, who gives protection against snake bites, and is invoked by the serpent worshippers: Sasti

 phaNin.h = snake

 Samvarana opened his eyes and beheld Tapati. Weak with emotion he spoke and said: "I am burning with love for thee, thou black-eyed beauty, O accept me. My life is ebbing away. . . . I have been bitten by Kama, who is even like a venomous snake. Have mercy on me. . . . O thou of handsome and faultless features, O thou of face like unto the lotus or the moon, O thou of voice sweet as that of singing Kinnaras, my life now depends on thee. Without thee, O timid one, I am unable to live. It behoveth thee not, O black-eyed maid, to cast me off; it behoveth thee to relieve me from this affliction by giving me thy love. At the first sight thou hast distracted my heart. My mind wandereth. Be merciful; I am thy obedient slave, thy adorer. O accept me. . . . O thou of lotus eyes, the flame of desire burneth within me. O extinguish that flame by throwing on it the water of thy love. . . . "

 sarpa = snake

 Seized Bhima's daughter. A prodigious snake

 Seized in the lone wood by this hideous snake

 Sleek and fine-turned like the five-headed snake

 So came they homewards, but the Snake-King's child

 Spouse of Shiva. The Devi Purana says; "She who was burned by the fire of yoga was again born of Himalaya; as She has the colour of the conch, jasmine, and moon, she is called Gauri." Her colour is golden. Shiva said to Parvati: "O Daughter of Himalaya, I am white as the moon and thou art dark. I am the sandal-tree, and thou art, as it were, a snake entwined round it." Parvati, taking umbrage at this remark upon Her dark complexion, went away to the forest, and there, by the performance of austerities, gained for herself a golden complexion beautiful as the sunlit sky

 That Thou art praised and worshipped by the Devas for the protection of the three worlds.

 The 'Khrafstra-killer;' an instrument for killing snakes, & c.]

 The brood of the Snake fled away; the brood of the Wolf

 The demon Akâtâsh is the fiend of perversion (nikîrâyîh), who makes the creatures averse (nikîrâî) from proper things; as it says, that whoever has given anything to that person (tanû) whose opinion (dâd) is this, that it is not necessary to have a high-priest (dastôbar), then the demon Aeshm is propitiated by him. 21. Whoever has given anything to that person whose opinion is this, and who says, that it is not necessary to have a snake-killer (mâr-van), then Aharman, with the foregoing demons, is propitiated by him; this is said of him who, when he sees a noxious creature, does not kill it. 2 A snake-killer (mâro-gnô) is a stick on the end of which a leathern thong is

 The gods went in pursuit of Garuda. Indra flung his thunderbolt, but the bird suffered no pain and dropped but a single feather. When he delivered the amrita to the demons his mother was released, but ere the demons could drink Indra snatched up the golden moon-goblet and wended back to the heavens. The demon snakes licked the grass where the goblet had been placed by Garuda, and their tongues were divided. From that day all the snakes have had divided tongues. . . . Garuda

 THE great snake being gone, Nishadha's Chief

 The mother who had given birth to this monster died nine days after its birth. The people of the country decreed that this monstrous infant should be bound to the mother's corpse and left in the cemetery. The infant was then tied to his mother's breast. The mother was borne away in a stretcher to the cemetery, and the stretcher was left at the foot of a poisonous tree which had a boar's den at its root, a poisonous snake coiled round the middle of its trunk, and a bird of prey sitting in its uppermost branches. (These animals are the emblems of lust, anger and greed respectively which "kindle the fire of individuality".) At this place there was a huge sepulcher built by the Rakshasas where they used to leave their dead at the foot of the tree. Elephants and tigers came there to die; serpents infested it, and witch-like spirits called Dakinis and Ghouls brought human bodies there. After the bearers of the corpse had left, the infant sustained his life by sucking the breasts of his mother's corpse. These yielded only a thin, watery fluid for seven days. Next he sucked the blood and lived a week; then he gnawed at the breast and lived the third week; then he ate the entrails and lived for a week. Then he ate the outer flesh and lived for the fifth week. Lastly he crunched the bones, sucked the marrow, licked the humors and brains and lived a week. He thus in six weeks developed full physical maturity. Having exhausted his stock of food he moved about; and his motion shook the cemetery building to pieces. He observed the Ghouls and Dakinis feasting on human corpses which he took as his food and human blood as the drink, filling the skulls with it. His clothing was dried human skins as also the hides of dead elephants, the flesh of which he also ate. He ate also the flesh of tigers and wrapped his loins in their furs. He used serpents as bracelets, anklets, armlets and as necklaces and garlands. His lips were thick with frozen fat, and his body was covered with ashes from the burning ground. He wore a garland of dead skulls on one string; freshly severed heads on another; and decomposing heads on a third. These were worn crosswise as a triple garland. Each cheek was adorned with a spot of blood. His three great heads ever wrathful, of three different colors, were fierce and horrible to look at. The middle head was dark blue and those to the right and left were white and red respectively. His body and limbs which were of gigantic size and proportions were ashy gray. His skin was coarse and his hair as stiff as hog's bristles. His mouth wide agape showed fangs. His terrible eyes were fixed in a stare. Half of the dark brown hair on his head stood erect, bound with four kinds of snakes. The nails of his fingers and toes were like the talons of a great bird of prey, which seized hold of everything within reach, whether animals or human corpses which he crushed and swallowed. He bore a trident and other weapons in his right hands, and with his left he filled the emptied skulls with blood which he drank with great relish. He was a monster of ugliness who delighted in every kind of impious act. His unnatural food produced a strange luster on his face, which shone with a dull though great and terrible light. His breath was so poisonous that those touched by it were attacked with various diseases. For his nostrils breathed forth disease. His eyes, ears and arms produced the 404 different ills. Thus, the diseases paralysis, epilepsy, bubonic swellings, urinary ills, skin diseases, aches, rheumatism, gout, colic, cholera, leprosy, cancer, small-pox, dropsy and various other sores and boils appeared in this world at that time. (For evil thoughts and acts make the vital spirit sick and thence springs gross disease.)

 The mountain ox, the mountain goat, the deer, the wild ass, and other beasts devour all snakes. 27. So also, of other animals, dogs are created in opposition to the wolf species, and for securing the protection of sheep; the fox is created in opposition to the demon Khava; the ichneumon is created in opposition to the venomous snake (garzak) and other noxious creatures in burrows; so also the great musk-animal is created in opposition to ravenous intestinal worms (kadûk-dânak garzak). 28. The hedgehog is created in opposition to the ant which carries off grain , as it says, that the hedgehog, every time that it voids urine into an ant's nest, will destroy a thousand ants; when the grain-carrier travels over the earth it produces

 The Nagasatva-stri, or snake-woman, is always in hurry and confusion; her eyes look drowsy; she yawns over and over again, and she sighs with deep-drawn respiration; her mind is forgetful and she lives in doubt and suspicion

 The pan is the concentrated light of these lights; in that he puts down the pan, verily he wins the light from these worlds; in the middle he puts (it) down; verily he bestows upon it light; therefore in the middle we reverence the light; with sand he fills (it); that is the form of Agni Vaiçvanara; verily by his form he wins Vaiçvanara. If he desire of a man, 'May he become hungry', he should put down for one (a pan) deficient in size ; if he desire of a man, 'May he eat food that fails not', he should put it down full; verily he eats food that fails not. The man accords a thousand of cattle, the other animals a thousand; in the middle he puts down the head of the man, to give it strength. In the pan he puts (it) down; verily he makes it attain support; the head of the man is impure as devoid of breaths; the breaths are immortality, gold is immortality; on the (organs of the) breaths he hurls chips of gold; verily he makes it attain support, and unites it with the breaths. He fills (it) with curds mixed with honey, (saying) 'May I be fit to drink honey'; (he fills with curds) to be curdled with hot milk, for purity. The curds are the food of the village, honey of the wild; in that he fills (it) with curds mixed with honey, (it serves) to win both. He puts down the heads of the animals; the heads of the animals are cattle; verily he wins cattle. If he desire of a man, 'May he have no cattle' , he should put them down, looking away, for him; verily he makes cattle look away from him; he becomes without cattle. If he desire of a man, 'May he be rich in cattle', he should put (them) down looking with (the man's head); verily he makes the cattle look with him; he becomes rich in cattle. He puts (the head) of the horse in the east looking west, that of the bull in the west looking east; the beasts other than the oxen and the horses are not beasts at all; verily he makes the oxen and the horses look with him. So many are the animals, bipeds and quadrupeds; them indeed he puts down in the fire, in that he puts down the heads of the animals. 'I appoint for thee N.N. of the forest', he says; verily from the cattle of the village he sends pain to those of the wild; therefore of animals born at one time the animals of the wild are the smaller, for they are afflicted with pain. He puts down the head of a snake; verily he wins the brilliance that is in the snake . If he were to put it down looking with the heads of the animals, (the snakes) would bite the animals of the village; if turned away, those of the wild; he should speak a Yajus, he wins the brilliance that is in the snake, he injures not the animals of the village, nor those of the wild. Or rather should it be put down; in that he puts down, thereby he wins the brilliance that is in the serpent; in that he utters a Yajus, thereby is it appeased

 The same myth in the Vedas was described as a feat of Traitana or Trita Âptya, 'Trita, the son of waters,' who killed the three-headed, six-eyed fiend, and let loose the cows . 'The son of waters ' is both in the Vedas and in the Avesta a name of the fire-god, as born from the cloud, in the lightning. The same tale is told in the same terms in the Avesta: Thraêtaona Âthwya killed Azi Dahâka (the fiendish snake), the three-mouthed, three-headed, six-eyed, . . . the most dreadful Drug created by Angra Mainyu. The scene of the battle is 'the four-cornered Varena,' which afterwards became a country on the earth, when Thraêtaona himself and Azi became earthly kings, but which was formerly nothing less than 'the four-pointed Varuna,' that is, 'the four-sided {Greek Ou?rano's},' the Heavens

 The serpent, Asi Dahâka, let loose, takes hold of the world again. As the temporary disappearance of the light was often mythically described either as the sleeping of the god, or as his absence, or death, its reappearance was indicative of the awakening of the hero, or his return, or the arrival of a son born to him. Hence came the tales about Keresâspa awakening from his sleep to kill the snake finally ; the tales about Peshôtanu, Aghraêratha, Khumbya, and others living in remote countries till the day of the last fight is come ; and, lastly, the tales about Saoshyant, the son who is to be born to Zarathustra at the end of time, and to bring eternal light and life to mankind, as his father brought them the law and the truth. This brings us to the question whether any historical reality underlies the legend of Zarathustra or Zoroaster

 The story is that of the rise and fall of the Self. The disciple "Transcendent Faith" who became the Bodhisattva Vajrapani illustrates the former; the case of "Black Salvation" who incarnated as a Demoniac Rutra displays the latter. He was no ordinary man, for at the time of his initiation he had already attained eight out of the thirteen stages (Bhumika) on the way to perfect Buddhahood. His powers were correspondingly great. But the higher the rise the greater the fall if it comes. Through misunderstanding and misapplying, as so many others have done, the Tantrik doctrine, he "fell back" into Hell. Extraordinary men who were teachers of recondite doctrines such as those of Thubka, who was himself "hard to overcome," seem not to have failed to warn lesser brethren against their dangers. It is commonly said in Tibet of the so-called "heroic" modes of extremist Yoga, that they waft the disciple with the utmost speed either to the heights of Nirvana or to the depths of Hell. For the aspirant is compared to a snake which is made to go up a hollow bamboo. It must ascend and escape at the top, at the peril otherwise of falling down

 Then we see the Pairika, under the name of Knãthaiti, cleave to Keresâspa. Keresâspa, like Thraêtaona, is a great smiter of demons, who killed the snake Srvara, a twin-brother of Azi Dahâka. It was related in later tales that he was born immortal, but that having despised the holy religion he was killed, during his sleep, by a Turk, Niyâz, which, being translated into old myth, would mean that he

 There are many Khrafstras in the Dâitîk, as it is said, The Dâitîk full of Khrafstras' (Bund. p. 51, 20). The serpent in the river was originally the mythical Serpent, Azis, who overthrew and killed the king of Irân Vêg, Yima (see Introd. IV, 18); then it was identified, as appears from the Bundahis, with the snakes that abound on the banks of the Araxes (Morier, A Second journey, p. 250)

 Thou art the northern quarter, the stable by name; of thee as such Varuna is overlord, the striped snake, & c

 Thou bearest in Thy six other arms A vessel, lotus, bell, noose, bow, a great discus

 Thou glitterest with brilliant girdle round Thy hips, And shinest like Mount Mandara encircled by the snake.

 Thy well-formed ears are decked with beautiful earrings. Thy face challenges the moon in beauty. Wonderful is Thy crown, and beautiful is the braid (of Thy hair). Thy body is like that of a serpent

 To might, a boa-constrictor; the mole, the Srjaya, the lizard, these are for Mitra; to death the dark (serpent); to wrath the viper; the pot-nosed, the lotus-sitter, the copper snake, these are for Tvastr; to the echo the Vahasa

 Verily I say unto thee, O Spitama Zarathustra! such creatures ought to be killed even more than gliding snakes , than howling wolves, than the wild she-wolf that falls upon the fold, or than the she-frog that falls upon the waters with her thousandfold brood

 Which haunt, with swinging snakes, the undergrowth

 While from the dust he saw the snake arise

 While the serpent passed thus from mythology into legend, he still continued under another name, or, more correctly, under another form of his name, âzi, a word which the Parsis converted into a pallid and lifeless, abstraction by identifying it with a similar word from the same root, meaning 'want.' But that he was the very same being as Azi, the snake, appears from his adversaries: like Azi, he fights against Âtar, the fire, and strives to extinguish it, and together with the Pairikas, he wants to carry off the rain-floods, like the Indian Ahi

 Who killed the snake Srvara, the horse-devouring, men-devouring

 wholesome was the sea Kyânsîh , such as is in Sagastân; at first, noxious creatures, snakes, and lizards (vazagh) were not in it, and the water was sweeter than in any of the other seas; later (dadîgar) it became salt; at the closest, on account of the stench, it is not possible to go so near as one league, so very great are the stench and saltness through the violence of the hot wind. 17. When the renovation of the universe occurs it will again become sweet

 With moths, toads, newts, and snakes red-gulleted

 With standing peacock feathers on Thy head, Thou art resplendent. By Thy vow of virginity Thou hast maintained heaven.

 With venom from the great snake's fang, which passed

 yellow, poisonous snake, over which yellow poison flowed a thumb's