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YAZATAS
209

Her work. She is ever ready to help the faithful. She leads to rectitude.[1] She goes to those who invoke her from near or afar with pious libations.[2] The house which Ashi graces with her presence becomes full of perfume.[3] Happy indeed is the man whom Ashi attends, for riches, abundance, and prosperity spring in his house. The kings whom she favours have kingdoms rich in snorting horses, sounding chariots, flashing swords, large tributes, and an abundance of rich food.[4] Happy indeed are they whom Ashi attends, for they come by well-furnished houses wherein live righteous persons, rich in cattle, who have well-adorned beds, with rich cushions, and with feet inlaid with gold.[5] Their wives and daughters have square bored earrings and necklaces of gold.[6] And the men on whom Ashi, the genius of fortune, smiles have hoards of silver and gold and rich garments and swift and loud neighing horses and chariots, and large-humped, fiery camels, and weapons of war.[7] Glory is his whom she, in her goodness, attends.[8] The devout pray and implore her not to turn her face from them and withhold her kindness from them.[9] That Ashi may not quit their houses, is the fervent prayer of the faithful;[10] and the Fravashis are invoked by the righteous to bring the blessed Ashi into their abodes.[11] The householder prays that she may come and stay in his house.[12] She follows the generous man who causes joy unto the righteous poor by his liberal gifts, and the moment she puts her one foot in the house, it is filled with a thousandfold flocks and horses and virtuous offspring.[13] Zarathushtra asks Ashi to bestow her gifts upon King Vishtaspa.[14] The twenty-sixth day of the month is sacred to her.[15]

What offends Ashi most. She is grieved at the sight of maidens who remain unmarried for a long time.[16] She does not accept the libations offered by sterile persons and wicked courtesans.[17] As the zealous guardian of the sanctity of matrimony, she abhors the wife who is untrue to the nuptial tie, the woman who violates the law of chastity, and the adulteress who sells her body for profit or pleasure.[18] Three times does she

  1. Ys. 56. 3.
  2. Yt. 17. 2.
  3. Yt. 17. 6.
  4. Yt. 17. 7.
  5. Yt. 17. 8, 9.
  6. Yt. 17. 10, 11.
  7. Yt. 17. 12-14.
  8. Yt. 17. 2.
  9. Yt. 17. 15.
  10. Ys. 60. 7.
  11. Yt. 13. 157.
  12. Ys. 10. 1.
  13. Yt. 18. 3-5.
  14. Yt. 24. 8.
  15. Ys. 16. 6.
  16. Yt. 17. 59.
  17. Yt. 17. 54.
  18. Yt. 17. 57, 58.