To The Earth And The Sacred Waters

Books: Sacred Books Of The East

And now we worship this earth which bears us, together with Thy wives, O

Ahura Mazda! yea, those Thy wives do we worship which are so desired

from their sanctity. We sacrifice to their zealous wishes, and their

capabilities, their inquiries, and their wise acts of pious reverence,

and with these their blessedness, their full vigor and good portions,

their good fame and ample wealth. O ye waters! now we worship you, you

that are showered down, and you that stand in pools and vats, and you

that bear forth our loaded vessels, ye female Ahuras of Ahura, you that

serve us in helpful ways, well forded and full-flowing, and effective

for the bathings, we will seek you and for both the worlds! Therefore

did Ahura Mazda give you names, O ye beneficent ones! when He who made

the good bestowed you. And by these names we worship you, and by them we

would ingratiate ourselves with you, and with them would we bow before

you, and direct our prayers to you with free confessions of our debt. O

waters, ye who are productive, and ye maternal ones, ye with heat that

suckles the frail and needy before birth, ye waters that have once been

rulers of us all, we will now address you as the best, and the most

bountiful; those are yours, those good objects of our offerings, ye long

of arm to reach our sickness, or misfortune, ye mothers of our life!