Note 429 — Chapter I · (continued 2)

This list is incorrect; it should begin by stating that the Nosks are twenty-one in number, according to the number of words in the Yatha ahu virio—but the ignorance of the transcriber has converted the three first words of a short prayer into the three first Nosks of the Zend-Avesta.—D. S.

According to several Parsee doctors, seven of these Nosks, or rather náskas, treated of the first principle, of the origin of beings, of the history of the human race, etc.; seven treated of morals and of civil and religious duties; and seven of medicine and astronomy. The Pehlvi books and some Persian works mention three other Nosks, which are to complete the Avesta at the end of this world (Zand-Av., t. I. 1. P. p. 479).

Here follows a list of the Nosks according to a translation made by Anquetil from the Persian Ravaet of Kamah Berch (see Mémoires de l’Acad. des Inscript. et des B.-L., t. xxxviii. p. 239-254.) I have abridged the explanation of each Nosk; the contents of several of them are much alike, and the miscellaneous matters in them all confusedly stated.