Pahlavi Texts, Part I (SBE05), E.W. West, tr. , at sacred-texts.com
1. On the nature of seas it says in revelation, that the wide-formed ocean keeps one-third of this earth on the south side of the border of Albûrz 8, and so
wide-formed is the ocean that the water of a thousand lakes is held by it, such as the source Arêdvîvsûr 1, which some say is the fountain lake. 2. Every particular lake is of a particular kind 2, some are great, and some are small; some are so large that a man with a horse might compass them around in forty days 3, which is 1700 leagues (parasang) in extent.
3. Through the warmth and clearness of the water, purifying more than other waters, everything continually flows from the source Arêdvîvsûr. 4. At the south of Mount Albûrz a hundred thousand golden channels are there formed, and that water goes with warmth and clearness, through the channels, on to Hûgar the lofty 4; on the summit of that mountain is a lake 5; into that lake it flows, becomes quite purified, and comes back through a different golden channel. 5. At the height of a thousand men an open golden branch from that channel is connected with Mount Aûsîndôm 6, amid the wide-formed ocean; from there one portion flows forth to the ocean for the purification of the sea, and one portion drizzles in moisture upon the whole of this earth, and all the creations of Aûharmazd acquire
health from it, and it dispels the dryness of the atmosphere.
6. Of the salt seas three are principal, and twenty-three are small. 7. Of the three which are principal, one is the Pûtîk, one the Kamrûd, and one the Sahî-bûn. 8. of all three the Pûtîk 1 is the largest, in which is a flow and ebb, on the same side as the wide-formed ocean, and it is joined to the wide-formed ocean. 9. Amid this wide-formed ocean, on the Pûtîk side, it has a sea which they call the Gulf (var) of Satavês 2. 10. Thick and salt the stench 3 wishes to go from the sea Pûtîk to the wide-formed ocean; with a mighty high wind therefrom, the Gulf of Satavês drives away whatever is stench, and whatever is pure and clean goes into the wide-formed ocean and the source Arêdvîvsûr; and that flows back a second time to Pûtîk 4. 11. The control 5 of this sea (the Pûtîk) is connected with the
moon and wind; it comes again and goes down, in increase and decrease, because of her revolving. 12. The control 1 also of the Gulf of Satavês is attached to the constellation Satavês, in whose protection are the seas of the southern quarter, just as those on the northern side are in the protection of Haptôk-ring 2. 13. Concerning the flow and ebb it is said, that everywhere from the presence of the moon two winds continually blow, whose abode is in the Gulf of Satavês, one they call the down-draught, and one the up-draught; when the up-draught blows it is the flow, and when the down-draught blows it is the ebb 3. 14. In the other seas there is nothing of the nature of a revolution of the moon therein, and there are no flow and ebb. 15. The sea of Kamrûd 4 is that which they pass by, in the north, in Taparîstân; that of Sahî-bûn 5 is in Arûm.
16. Of the small seas that which was most
wholesome 1 was the sea Kyânsîh 2, 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 3.
41:8 Or perhaps better thus: 'the wide-formed ocean is in the p. 42 direction of the south limit of Albûrz, and possesses one-third of this earth.'
42:1 The Av. Ardvî sûra of Âbân Yt. 1, &c.
42:2 Literally, 'for every single lake there is a single kind;' but we may perhaps read lâ, 'not,' instead of the very similar râî, 'for,' and translate as follows: 'every single lake is not of one kind;' which expresses very nearly the same meaning.
42:3 Compare Âbân Yt. 101.
42:4 See Chap. XII, 5.
42:5 Lake Urvis (see Chap. XXII, 11).
42:6 See Chaps. XII, 6, and XVIII, 10, 11.
43:1 The Av. Pûitika of Vend. V, 52, 57, and evidently the Persian Gulf.
43:2 So called from the constellation Satavês (§ 12), see Chap. 11, 7. The details given in the text are applicable to the Gulf and Sea of Umân, the Arabian Sea of Europeans. The description of this Gulf, given in the Pahl. Vend. V, 57, which is rather obscure, is as follows: 'In purification the impurities flow, in the purity of water, from the sea Pûtîk into the wide-formed ocean; at the southernmost side the water stands back in mist, and the blue body of Satavês stands back around it. Pûtîk stands out from the side of Satavês, this is where it is. From which side it stands is not clear to me. The water comes to Satavês through the bottom; some say that it traverses a fissure.'
43:3 Perhaps a better reading would be stûrg sûr-i gôndakîh, 'the intense saltness which is stench.' The author appears to have had some vague idea of the monsoon.
43:4 Or, perhaps, 'the other (the stench) flows back to Pûtîk.'
43:5 Reading band; but it may be bôd, 'consciousness, sensitiveness.'
44:1 See p. 43, note 5.
44:2 See Chap. II, 7.
44:3 This is not a confused attempt to explain the tides as the effect of the land and sea breezes, as might be suspected at first, but is a reasonable conclusion from imaginary facts. Assuming that the wind always blows eastward and westward from the moon, it follows that as the moon rises an easterly wind must blow, which may be supposed to drive the flood tide westward into the Persian Gulf; until the moon passes the meridian, when the wind, changing to the west, ought to drive the ebb tide eastward out of the Gulf thus accounting for one flow and ebb every day, dependent on the position of the moon.
44:4 Evidently the Caspian, which lies north of Taparîstân, a province including part of Mâzendarân.
44:5 Or perhaps Gâhî-bûn, meaning probably the Mediterranean or Euxine, if not both of them; the author appears merely to have heard of the existence of such a sea in Asia Minor (Arûm). In the Selections of Zâd-sparam, VI, 14, it is called Gêhân-bûn.
45:1 Comparing nîstûm with Pers. nist, 'healthy.'
45:2 The Av. Kãsu of Vend. XIX, 18, and Zamyâd Yt. 66, 92 (see also Chaps. XX, 34, and XXI, 7). A brackish lake and swamp now called Hâmûn, 'the desert,' or Zarah, 'the sea,' and which formerly contained fresher water than it does now.
45:3 The MSS. here add the first sentence of Chap. XX, and there is every reason to believe that Chaps. XX-XXII originally occupied this position, between XIII and XIV, (see the list of the contents of TD in the Introduction.).