594 MANICHAEAN LITERATURE
cut up and the head set on a pike high over the city gate. This burning torch
may be compared to the spear jabbed into Jesus' side to guarantee his expira-
tion according to the Gospel of John.THE STORY OF THE
DEATH OF MANI
1
BAH RAM I AND MANI
Mani came to the audience of Bahram I, after the king had summoned me—
Nuhzadag the interpreter—and Kushtai the scribe, and Abzakhya the Persian.
The king was at the dinner table and had not yet washed his hands nor fin-
ished his meal.
The courtiers entered and said, "Mani has come and is standing at the
door."
The king sent the lord the message, "Wait awhile until I can come to you
myself."
Then the lord again sat down to one side of the guard and waited there
until the king had finished his meal, when he was to have gone hunting.
The king stood up after his meal. After putting one arm around the queen
of the Sakas and the other around Karder,^2 son of Ardavan, he came to the
lord. His first words to the lord were, "You are not welcome here."
"Why? What wrong have I done?" replied the lord.
"I have sworn an oath not to let you come to this land!" And then he an-
grily told the lord, "What good are you? You don't fight or go hunting. Perhaps
you are needed for doctoring and healing, but you don't even do that!"
Then the lord told him, "I have done you no evil. I have always done good
in tending you and your family. And I have freed a multitude of your ser-
vants from demons and witches. And I caused many to rise from their sick-
nesses. I have held down the fever of many. And many who died I brought
back to life."
i. The Story of the Death of Mani: translated by Jes P. Asmussen, Manichaean Literature: Repre-
sentative Texts Chiefly from Middle Persian and Parthian Writings, UNESCO Collection of Rep-
resentative Works: Persian Heritage Series 22 (Delmar, N.Y.: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints,
i975)> PP- 54-58, from M 3 verso, M 5569 recto, and M 5569 verso; revised in verse by Willis
Barnstone. Reprinted by permission of Bibliotecha Persica.
- The high priest.