Innermost Asia : vol.2 / 450 ページ（カラー画像）

0450	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

0450

Innermost Asia : vol.2

極奥アジア : vol.2

Hvaçpa, the Fradatha and the beautiful H°areñuhaiti, and Ustavaiti, the mighty, and Urvadha
rich of pastures, and the Erezi and Zarenumati. Towards this [mount] flows and unites the
beautiful glorious Helmand . . .' This rendering of the passage, which is that adopted in Professor
Darmesteter's French translation, not only conforms best to the literal meaning of the text but is
borne out also by the geographical facts. As already stated above,⁷ the first four rivers here named
have been reliably identified by me with the present Khāsh, Khuspās, Farah, and Harūt rivers,
ranged in the same order from east to west. Now reference to the map will show that while these
rivers, as well as the Helmand named at the end of the list, all unite in the Hāmūn, they yet descend
from widely distant mountains, almost as far apart as Herāt and Kābul. Hence it is clear that the
words . . . Ushidhāo yim aiwitō paoiris āpō hām . . . jaçentō must be taken in the sense indicated
above, giving to the proposition aiwitō its regular meaning 'around', instead of rendering it by
'from around' or 'at the foot of', as was done by me, in accord with others, when I first dealt
with the passage.

Mt. Ushi-
dhāo identi-
fied with
Kōh-i-
Khwāja. From the correct interpretation of the words immediately following the name Ushidhāo,
when considered in the light of our present knowledge of the topography of the Sīstān basin,
it clearly follows that Mount Ushidhāo must be identified with the Kōh-i-Khwāja.⁸ This again
helps us to account for its sacred character, as shown by the few other passages of the Avesta where
Ushidhāo is mentioned, as also for the etymology of its name.⁹

Unidenti-
fied rivers of
Avesta
passage. It only remains for me to refer briefly, in connexion with the Yasht passage just discussed,
to the four other rivers which are named in it and which still await identification, viz. Ustavaiti,
Urvadha, Erezi, and Zarenumati. In view of the location now determined for Mount Ushidhāo,
around which all these rivers are said to gather, the question has occurred to me whether they
ought not to be looked for among the streams which the map shows as descending into the Hāmūn
basin from the western hills. It is true that water from these is not likely to reach the Hāmūn
except in the form of occasional floods after especially heavy rain in the ranges towards Birjand and
Neh. But that apparently holds good also in the case of rivers like the Khāsh, Khuspās, and
Harūt (H°āçtra, Hvaçpa, H°areñuhaiti).¹⁰ The fact that the preceding four river names are

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