The Zend Avesta, Part I (SBE04): Vendîdâd: Fargard I

5:3 'There are many Khrafstras in the Dâitîk, as it is said, The Dâitîk full of Khrafstras' (Bund. p. 51, 20). The serpent in the river was originally the mythical Serpent, Azis, who overthrew and killed the king of Irân Vêg, Yima (see Introd. IV, 18); then it was identified, as appears from the Bundahis, with the snakes that abound on the banks of the Araxes (Morier, A Second Journey, p. 250). 5:4 As Irân Vêg is a place of refuge for mankind and all life from the winter that is to destroy the world (see Farg. II, 21 seq.), winter was thought, by a mythical misunderstanding, to be the counter-creation of Irân Vêg: hence the glacial description of that strange paradise (see the following clause). 5:5 Vendîdâd Sâdah: 'It is known that in the ordinary course of nature there are seven months of summer and five of winter' (see Bund. XXV). 5:6 Some say: 'Even those two months of summer are cold for the waters . . .' (Comm.; cf. Mainyô-i-khard XLIV, 20, and above, n. 4). 5:7 Vend. Sâdah: 'There reigns the core and heart of winter.' 5:8 Doubtful: possibly the name of a river (the Zarafshand). 5:9 Suguda; Sogdiana. 6:1 A word unknown: possibly 'the cattle fly.' It is a fly that hides itself among the corn and the fodder, and, thence stings with a venomous sting the ox that eats of it (Comm. and Asp.) 6:2 Margu; Margiana; Merv. 6:3 Translated according to the Comm. and Asp. 6:4 Bâkhtri; Bactra; Balkh.