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DIFFICULTY OF UNDERSTANDING THE PAHLAVI LANGUAGE. 197
and sensible. Even a scholar like West makes observations upon the
difficulty of forming opinion from these translations of Pahlavi writings
thus in the Introduction to the same volume S. B. E.:
"Omitting all consideration of the possible contents of the lost literature, it
is obvious that the remaining ten-elevenths of that which is extant may contain
much which would modify any opinion based merely upon the one-eleventh here
translated. What the un-translated portion actually contains no one really knows.
The best Pahlavi scholar can never be sure that he understands the contents of a
Pahlavi text until he has fully translated it; no amount of careful reading can
make him certain that he does not mis-understand some essential part of it, and
were he to assert the contrary he would be merely misleading others, and going
astray himself.”
How far these remarks are applicable to the writer of Zoroastrian
Theology who not even being a translator himself presumes to guide
the Parsee public ignorant of original Avesta and Pahlavi scriptures, it
is left to the sensible reader to judge!
One more point must not be left out of the same nonsensical group.
On p. 113 the writer refers to the same foolish idea of slaughter of
animals, and says-
“If the nation sacrificed unto Verethraghna with libations, and the sacred
twigs, and consecrated cooked repast of cattle, either white or of some other
colour, no hostile hordes, no plague, nor evil of any kind would enter the Aryan
lands. The sacrifice is to be offered through righteousness and none but the
righteous should partake of the holy food dedicated to Verethraghna. Untold
calamity would befall the Aryan countries if the wicked should have a share in the
sacred feast.”
We have discussed this statement before at some length, and here
shall briefly say that in the whole Avesta portion extant this is the only
reference which the advocates of animal-slaughter lay emphasis upon,
attaching a very strange meaning to the word "Pasu” When the whole
context is read with attention one can readily see the absurdity of the
idea of animnl-slaughter in a ceremony which is to be performed with
piety and holiness and which is to be partaken of only by professors of
strict