Through it the face of every tract and region is kept in bloom.
“Let them keep dead bodies far removed from it, and let them not defile it with blood or any dead carcass, as the food dressed with such water furnishes an unwholesome repast.”
Murdád next came forward and said to Zardusht: “Let not men heedlessly destroy the vegetable productions of the earth or pluck them from their place:
“As these form the delight of both man and beast.
“Also, O prophet of God! send Mobeds around the whole country, and appoint a wise person in every city to communicate these tidings to all men: let them understand the Avesta, and bind around their waist the zone, which is a sign of the pure faith and constancy in it, and let them endeavor to keep the four substances (elements) undefiled:
“Out of the four elements has the body of every animal
Been composed by the supreme and just Lord:
It is therefore necessary to keep them undefiled,
Accounting them among the choice blessings of God.”
It is to be remembered that the conference of all these angels with Zardusht was a revelation and message from God; but there was a more transcendent dignity in this fact, that the Almighty himself addressed Zardusht without the intervention of angels, and imparted to him the mysteries of all that exists.[407]