almost complete, with fragments of others, have been preserved. The Vendidad is the name given by the Parsees of Guzerat to the portion of the 20th Naska which they possess, and to this is added the Izeschené or Yasna, a liturgical book, containing also fragments of other Yasnas. With this is combined a third book called the Vispered, which is a small collection of hymns or invocations called Yashts. These several books are evidently not all of equal antiquity, and the earliest date is now assigned to the Gáthás, which form the second part of the Yasna, the Yashts being the most recent. Spiegel says that it is a significant fact that in the Gâthâs, which form the oldest part of the Yasna, "nothing is fixed on the doctrine regarding God." In the writings of the second period, that is in the Vendidad, we trace the advance to a theological, and, in its way, mild and scientific system.1 The ideas contained in that book nevertheless form an essential part of the religion ascribed to Zarathustra, for the understanding of which some knowledge of its cosmogony is necessary.

2

At the foundation of the world-system proclaimed by the Vendidad we find a Supreme Being infinite and eternal, invisible and incomprehensible, who is some

1 Spiegel's "Avesta " (English translation, by Bleeck). Introd. 2 We cannot discuss here the place of origin to be assigned to Mithraism, but its ideas are so closely related to those anciently prevalent in Western Asia, that the Chaldæan origin assigned for it by Lajard is not improbable (Le Culte de Mithra, pp. 3 seq., 93 seq., 105 seq., &c.). Perhaps, however, it should be referred rather to the mysterious Scyths from whom the Chaldæans themselves seem to have sprung, and of whose sacerdotal caste Lajard thinks the Brahmans, the Magis, and the Chaldæans were three branches (op. cit. p. 6). As to the Magian origin of Zervana, see Rawlinson's "Notes on Early Babylonian History," p. 40. It should be mentioned, however, that Dr Haug supposes Zervana to have been simply the historical Zarathustra, who was converted into a dogmatical and metaphysical being, and then placed at the beginning of creation.—"Lecture on an original speech of Zoroaster " (1865), p. 24.

times called "Time without bounds," Zervâna or Zarvana akarana, that is The Eternal, and sometimes "the Being absorbed in excellence." This Being contained in thought, from all eternity, the typical ideas— called by Zarathustra ferouërs—of the creature word, of the darkness, of light, and of the four elements, fire, air, water, and earth, and he is emphatically the Law. From Zervâna, thus existing as the law and containing the "ideas of all things, emanates a fresh order of things. The light and the darkness become manifested, and with them the two beings called Ormuzd and Ahriman. These beings were equally endowed with the power of pronouncing the creative word, and Lajard supposes that, as originally they were also both good and beneficent, and as they represented at the same time light and darkness, they formed with Zervâna a supreme triad. Hardly, however, had Ahriman obtained being, when he refused to pay to Zervâna the homage which belonged to him, and thereupon he became separated from the Law. Henceforth, Ahriman becomes the principle of evil, and expressive only of darkness and death, while Ormuzd is the embodiment of good, of light, and life. The heavens, which represent the light, are synonymous with the divine intelligence, and when this was expressed in word by Ormuzd, the world itself was created. The world of light thus formed embraces three superimposed regions—the firmament or fixed heaven, the planetary zone or revolving heavens, and the earth. The first, says Lajard, "renferme principalement les étoiles fixes et le mont central. Dans le monde bon, cette montagne, qui répond à l'Olympe des Grecs, se nomme le Bordj ou l'Albordj, le Gorotman, le Behescht Tireh, dénominations qui concourent à exprimer les idées de montagne tres-élevée et de montagne de lumière. C'est, en effet, sur la haute cisme de l'Albordj

et au milieu d'une éclantante lumière qui réside le Dieu Ormuzd, assis sur une trône d'or, emblème de la fixité Il est entouré de son fils Mithra et La réside surtout une

et de la puissance.

d'une cour céleste nombreuse.

seconde triade, qui, formée de Zarvâna, d'Ormuzd et de Mithra, représente la pensée, la parole et l'action, et régit les cieux et la terre. De là Ormuzd a prononcé et prononce incessamment l'honover, cette parole créatrice qui, dès le commencement, existait dans Zarvâna, le Temps sans bornes ou l'Eternel."

Beneath the firmament is situated the region which, from its containing the sun, the moon, and the five planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturnthe constellations, and the wandering stars, is called the movable heavens. It is here, placed between the sun and the moon, that Mithra, surrounded by his court, usually resides, but in continual movement, as directing the ever-active energy of nature. With his two hamkars, or assistants, the izeds Sarosch and Raschnarâst, he there forms a third triad. But Mithra reigns also over the earth, the third zone of the world created by Ormuzd, and which is itself divided into the three regions of water, heat, and air. counterpart in the moral world. preserver of harmony in the model of perfectibility exhibited to humanity." He is even more than this. He is the mediator between Ormuzd and man. Moreover, says Lajard, "il préside aux initiations ou aux mystères institués pour le salut des âmes; il pèse les actions des âmes, assisté de Sarosch et de Raschna-râst, l'ized de la médiation; il leur ouvre la porte du ciel et les conduit au pied du trône d'Ormuzd, juge suprême, ou bien il les précipite dans les enfers, selon que leurs bonnes actions l'emportent ou non sur les mauvaises." Mithra, therefore,

This position has its Mithra is not only the creation, but also "the

is entitled King of the movable heaven, King of the living or of the earth, and King of the dead or of hell. The assistants of Ormuzd, the intermediate agents by whom the world is supposed to be governed, are the Amschaspands, or amesha-spěntá, the "excellent immortals," seven in number, of whom Ormuzd himself, the being from whom they all emanate, is the first and chief.1 Each of these immortals, again, is aided by three hamkars, or assessors. The agents of Mithra, also seven in number, are, as manifestations of himself, called Izeds, or izata, the "divine," and he occupies as to them the same position as Ormuzd does in relation to the Amschaspands.

Thus far the creations of light, which could not remain unchallenged by the powers of darkness. The antagonism between Ahriman and Ormuzd, once begun, never ends, and the former, therefore, must seek to counteract the work of the latter. Hence Ahriman creates a world of darkness, having its three superimposed regions, in analogy to the tri-form luminous world of Ormuzd. There, on the summit of a lofty mountain, dwells Ahriman, enveloped in darkness and surrounded by a numerous company of infernal agents, with his son Mithra-daroudj at their head. These wage

continual warfare with Mithra and the celestial beings to whom Ormuzd has given existence. Mithra-daroudj, moreover, superintends the earth, dark and impure, which Ahriman created in opposition to the earthly creation of Ormuzd, placed under the care of Mithra. From him emanated, also, the dews-sometimes said to be seven, and sometimes nine, in number,—who answer to the amschaspands of Ormuzd, and three other classes of evil genii, called daroudjs, darvands, and peris, the

1 Sometimes the sun and the moon are classed as Amschaspands, who are then nine in number.

first of whom appear to be analogous to the izeds who assist Mithra in his control of creation.

Having seen the formation of the opposing worlds of light and of darkness, we have now to trace the origin of life on the earth, as described by the Persian sacred books. As to this, we learn from the Avesta that the first created earthly being was the celestial bull. This creature was pure and holy, but attracting the envy and hatred of Ahriman, this Spirit of Evil caused its death. The soul of the bull, however, personified as the ized Goschoroun, escaped from its right shoulder, collected the seed which had fallen to the ground and carried it to the moon, 1 there to be "purified and fecundated by the warmth and light of the sun, in order to become the germ of all creatures." From this seed was produced, by the power of Ormuzd, two buffalos, one male and the other female, from which proceeded all other animals. From the body of the bull issued, at the same time, the material prototypes of all "the creatures which live in the water, on the earth, and in air," including man himself. This human prototype called Gaya-měrěta, or Kaïomorts, was not destined to fare better than the divine animal from which it sprung. Attacked by the dews of Ahriman, Kaïomorts fell a victim to their wiles, according to the legend preserved in the Avesta. From the Boundehesch, however, we learn that the seed of Kaïomorts was planted in the earth, producing a tree, the reivas, from which sprung an androgynous human being Meschia, 2 who, dividing asunder, became the man Meschia and the woman

1 As to the influence of moon over generation, see supra, p. 169; also Deut. xxxiii. 14.

2 These are, however, described by Windischman as being male twins, see "Zoroastrische Studien," Ed. by Fr. Spiegel, 1863, p. 217.