Topic: Life and teachings of Zoroaster, 1905, and where the Jews annexed it from

[Prometheus]

Life and teachings of Zoroaster,
by Whitney, Loren Harper,  1905


 
https://archive.org/details/lifeteachingsofz00whit

Life and teachings of Zoroaster, the great Persian
by Whitney, Loren Harper, 1834-1912; deLaurence, Lauron William, 1868-



OF THE CHICAGO BAR
AUTHOR OF

“A QUESTION OF MIRACLES”  1910

PARALLELS IN

THE LIVES OF BUDDHA AND JESUS

https://archive.org/details/aquestionmiracl01whitgoog


THIS WORK ALSO INCLUDES A COMPARISON
OF THE PERSIAN AND HEBREW RELIGIONS
SHOWING THAT “THE WORD OF THE
LORD” CAME TO THE HEBREWS BY
WAY OF PERSIA

PART SECOND

OFFERS PROOF THAT THE JEWS COPIED
HEAVILY FROM THE HINDU BIBLE

SECOND EDITION

Arranged for publication in its present form by Dr. L. W.
de Laurence, who is now sole owner of this wonderful
work, the same to now serve as “TEXT BOOK” NUM-
BER THREE for THE CONGRESS OF ANCIENT,
DIVINE, MENTAL and CHRISTIAN MASTERS.
Published exclusively by
de LAURENCE, SCOTT & CO.

Chicago, 111., U. S. A.
 Copyright 1905

LOREN HARPER WHITNEY

OF THE CHICAGO BAR



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Adam Came Alone......................................... 37

Angels Direct the Prophet............................... 70

Angels Visit the Prophet................................ 87

Animals in the Ark...................................... 15

Apes, The.............................................. 244

Arabs Victorious ...................................... 177

Archangel Meets Zoroaster............................... 62

Ark, The................................................ 14

Aryans 7,000 Years Ago.................................. 78

Astronomy Against Genesis.............................. 231

Atheist, Not An........................................ 197

Avesta Conflicts with Genesis........................... 10

Babylon, Deluge Story.................................  247

Babylon and Ur.......................................... 45

Benda, A Border Chief.................................. 135

Berosus and Babylon..................................... 42

Bibles, Persian and Jewish.............................. 13

Birth, Second or Spiritual One......................... 214

Births, Miraculous.....................................  21

Blind, Healing of...................................... 146

Bodily Resurrection, None.............................. 158

Brahmanism Older than the Flood........................ 192

Brahma’s Day .......................................... 237

Bridge, The Kinvad...................................... 96

Bum the Wicked......................................... 183

Burnt Oblations........................................ 215

Captain Cook and the Nails............................. 189

Casts, Four Great Ones................................. 210

Catholics Take Hamistaken for Their Purgatory......101, 183

Chrisna, the Hindu Savior.............................. 196

1
 2   TABLE OF CONTENTS

Christian Hell, The..................................... 159

Chronology Wrong......................................... 88

Churches Quarrel........................................ 205

Conclusion.............................................. 188

Conflicting Creeds...................................... 205

Convert, Zoroaster’s First One........................... 40

Cows of the Sky.......................................... 81

Creation—When........................................... 230

Creations Final Change.................................. 169

Creators, Two........................................... 113

Creed-makers ........................................... 193

Dante’s Inferno......................................... 183

Darkness in the Ark..................................... 246

Death of Zoroaster...................................... 172

Defeated, If Persia Had Been............................ 176

Deities, Two New Ones................................... 193

Deluge, a Babylonian Myth................................ 18

Destruction of the World................................ 250

Deuteronomy Was Found................................... 253

Devil Tempts Zoroaster................................... 72

Devils as Linguists..................................... 115

Devils in All Religions.................................. 76

Diaglogue with the Serpent.............................. 233

Dives and Lazarus’ Story, The Original.................. 147

Divine Radiance at Zoroaster’s Birth..................... 48

Dualism, Doctrine of...............................105, 187

Early Deities............................................ 79

Earth Is Old............................................. 38

Egoism, What Is It?..................................... 229

Egypt and Zoroaster..................................... 166

Egypt Gave the Soul a Trial............................. 164

Evil, Did the Lord Create It?............................137

^Evil, Why It Exists....................................... 108

Ezekiel’s Vision........................................ 120

Ezra and Ezekiel in Babylon............................. 170

Faith No Justification.................................. 122

Fasts..............................................206, 207

Fire, None in the Ark................................... 241

Fire Worshippers, Zoroastrians Not...................... 155

First Man and Woman...................................35, 36
 TABLE OF CONTENTS   3

Fish Saved Manu.......................................238

Five Senses, Will They Survive....................... 228

Floods, Two of Them...................................236

Future Life Not Taught by Moses...................... 223

Genesis of Hindu and Hebrew Bibles................... 227

God, The God of 1900 Years Ago on Trial.............. 168

Gods, Elect of Animals............................... 243

** Good and Evil Created................................ 34

Gulf, An Impassable One.............................. 213

Hamistaken .......................................... 101

Heaven and Hell Mental States........................ 157

Heaven Has Doors and Rooms...........................184,   185

Heaven of St. John................................... 186

Heaven Promised....................................... 91

Heaven Visited by Zoroaster........................... 63

Hebrews in Babylon...................................169,   170

Hell Beneath Kinvad Bridge............................ 97

Hell of Christians Not a Drop of Water............... 160

Hell of Jesus is Barbarous...........................171,   183

Hell of Persians They Have Foul Food................. 160

Hell of the Perisans................................. 100

Hells, Persian and Jew............................... 103

Hindu Bible..........................................208,   209

Hindu Eve............................................ 238

Hindu Speculation ................................... 257

Hindus Our Ancestors................................. 199

Holy Mountains........................................ 56

Homer and Zoroaster.................................. 140

Horn-Juice............................................ 82

Hushedar to Surpass Joshua........................... 151

Immortality Not Taught by Moses...................... 223

Immortality of the Soul.............................. 180

Indian History ..................................202,   203

Iranians and Hindus Separate.......................... 29

Iranians Older Than Hebrews........................... 58

Jesus Copies Zoroaster............................... 169

Jesus Hell is Barbarous.............................. 171

Jesus Hell the Wicked Bum............................ 183

Jews as Copyists...................................... 11

Jews Found Their Devil in Babylon.................... 119
 4   TABLE OF CONTENTS

Jews Had One. God..................................... 194

Joshua Fable ......................................... 150

Karpans, The.......................................... 136

Kinvad Bridge.......................................... 96

Legends and Myths...................................... 74

Man and Woman Grew from the Earth...................... 35

Many Countries Claim Him............................... 28

Mashaya and Mashyoi.................................... 36

Matthew Copies from Zoroaster......................... 184

Metempsychosis........................................ 251

Milton’s Paradise Lost................................ 221

Miracle, A Great One if True.......................... 143

Miraculous Births...................................... 21

Miraculous Exits, Many................................ 174

Miraculous Release from Prison........................ 86

Mohammedanism......................................... 194

Moon Sacrifices ...................................... 216

Moses and Zoroaster................................... 149

Moses a Unitarian..................................... 226

Oblations, Burnt...................................... 215

Osiris Court 2,300 years B. C......................... 200

Noah’s Orders......................................... 240

Nodites, The...........................................235

Parting of the Tribes.................................. 31

Paul and Zoroaster.....................................182

Persian and Hebrew Bibles............................... 8

Perisan Hell.......................................... 100

Persian Hell, They Have Foul Food..................... 160

Persians on the Oxus................................... 30

Persians Truthful...................................... 55

Peter Copies the Hindus............................... 256

Poor, The, Zoroaster’s First Converts.................. 67

“^Predestination...........................................252

Primal Spirits, Two................................... 109

Prison, In............................................. 85

Purgatory and Hamistaken the Same..................101, 183

Records 4,000 Years B. C.............................. 198

Released from Prison................................... 86

Religion a Matter of Education........................ 162

Religion at Times Depends on Battles.................. 178
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

5

Religion Slowly Changing................................ 167

Religions All Have Devils................................. 76

Religious Wars........................................... 127

Renovated World ......................................... 102

Resurrection of the Dead.................................. 95

Retribution Not Taught in Egypt.......................... 181

Rig-Veda, Its Age........................................ 224

Sacrifices .........................................153, 210

Sacrifices to the New Moon............................... 216

Scoffers Punished........................................ 144

Serpent and the Lord.................................... 233

Seven Thousand Years Ago.................................. 78

Shirt, The Sacred......................................... 53

Sin’s Penalty............................................ 124

Sons to Be Bom to Zoroaster............................... 93

Soul, Immortality of..................................... 180

Souls of the Righteous and Wicked.......................98, 99

Spirits, Two Primal Ones................................. 109

Spiritual Birth.......................................... 214

St. John’s Heaven........................................ 186

Still in Prison........................................... 85

Story, Original of Dives and Lazarus..................... 147

Sudra, His Punishment.................................... 232

Swine Flesh Forbidden.................................... 222

Tanzis’ Ark............................................... 19

Theologies Are Inventions............................... 219

Three Hundred Years Ago................................. 189

Translation of Persian Bible............................... 9

Trinity, The............................................. 195

Tur, the Scanty Giver..................................... 66

Two Creators .............................................113

Visions .................................................. 69

Visions Are Dreams....................................... 148

Visited by Angels......................................... 87

Vistaspa.................................................. 84

Vistaspa Embraces the Faith.............................. 156

-^?War Between Good and Evil................................. 114

War of the Religions . .................................. 133

Wars of Aryans............................................ 80

Where Did Zoroaster Live?................................. 33
 6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Wicked, The Souls of..................................... 99

Wicked, The, to Burn.................................... 183

Window, One Only in the Ark............................. 240

Wolf's Den, Zoroaster Flung Into......................... 50

Woman, The First Hindu.................................. 239

Word of the Lord Came via Persia......................... 12

World, Its Destruction.................................. 250

World Strife............................................ 200

World, The Under........................................ 118

Worshipped on Mountains.................................. 57

Writers of Bibles........................................ 39

Yima Builds a Vara....................................... 17

Yima, The Persian Noah................................... 17

Zend-Avesta............................................... 7

Zerana, Akerana..........................................110

Zoroaster and an Angel Visit Heaven...................... 63

Zoroaster, Attempt to Murder Him......................... 49

Zoroaster Died at 77 Years.............................. 175

Zoroaster, His Faith Tested.............................. 64

Zoroaster in Prison...................................... 84

Zoroaster 6,000 Years Ago................................ 44

Zoroaster Was Named for a Star........................... 24

Zoroaster’s Birthplace................................... 25

Zoroaster’s Doctrines ................................... 26

Zoroaster’s Marriage..................................... 59

Zoroaster’s Mother ...................................... 47

Zoroaster’s Prayer...................................... 128

[Prometheus]

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

§ i. For more than three thousand years the name of
Zoroaster has been known in the world. Yet, during the
middle ages Europe was under such a cloud that his
name and his precepts faded, almost, from the memory
of man. It was known that Persia, until the battle of
Marathon (490 B. C.) was master of Western Asia, and
the doctrines of Zoroaster were dominant in her realm.
But Persia, even as late as three hundred years ago, was,
to Europe, almost a sealed book. With the revival of
learning, however, inquiry began to be made into her
ancient doctrines and their author.

Early Greek and Roman writers had made frequent
mention of Zoroaster’s name, and this stimulated later
scholars to know more of him. Travelers in the far East
were not then as numerous as to-day; but they kept
bringing back word concerning the Persian Holy Book,
the Avesta,1 and, finally, some two hundred years ago,
Thomas Hyde, an Englishman, and an Oxford professor
and oriental scholar, undertook to write a history of the
Persian religion. His materials to draw from were
scanty, though he at once discovered, to his amazement,
the striking analogies and parallels, existing between

1   The Avesta is the Holy Book, the Bible of the Ira-
nian or Persian religion. It is called the Zend Avesta.
The prefix “Zend” seems to have improperly crept into
use in Europe. The translations are called “Zend Aves-

7
 8

PERSIAN AND HEBREW BIBLES

Zoroaster's Bible and the Jewish Bible. But he got the
“cart before the horse” in stating that the great Iranian
drank his inspiration from a Jewish fountain. We now
know, to an absolute certainty, the exact reverse of this
to be true. Hyde thought the exiled Jews, in Babylon,
had carried their religion with them, and that Zoroaster
learned from them. How could this be, for the Persian
lived and taught many centuries before the captivity?2
We shall find overwhelming proof of this farther on.

§ 2. In the year 1754, Anquetil Du Perron, a young
Frenchman, then only twenty-four years old, a student
of oriental languages, in Paris, chanced one day upon a
fragment of the Persian Bible, the “Avesta.” He had
not the means to transport himself to Persia, but he was
determined to possess the whole work, and also to learn
its language; that he might translate it into his own
mother tongue. Impatient to get away, he enlisted in the
French East India Company, as a private soldier, and
marched with his command through mud and rain to the
port, whence the fleet was to sail. Here he learned that
his government, impressed with his great zeal in the mat-
ter, had ordered his discharge and given him a small
stipend. England and France were then at war, and
there were many delays; so that he did not set sail until I

ta.” The word “Zend” is not the name of an exact lan-
guage ; it is at most only a dialect of Sanscrit. The words
“Avistak va Zend” mean Avesta and translation.

I   shall omit the word “Zend” and use only “Avesta,”
meaning thereby the Holy Book, or Bible, of the Iranians,
and after them the Persians.

•   2 The Jews were carried as slaves, into Babylon, by

Nebuchadnezzar, about 597 years B. C.
 TRANSLATION OF THE PERSIAN BIBLE 9

February, 1755. On reaching India he found the whole
country in an uproar, by reason of the war, and added to
this, he suffered a long spell of sickness. On recovering
he renewed, with tireless patience, his great self-imposed
task. On foot and on horseback he traveled throughout
Hindustan, meeting endless dangers and adventures. To
a mind less resolute, or less on fire with a sublime pur-
pose, these discouragements would have been fatal.
After three years of wandering, struggles and dangers,
he reached Surat, where he found a community of Per-
sis, and their priests. Here commenced another struggle,
not dangerous, but not less disheartening.

The priests were unfriendly; they were neither willing
to part with their books, or their knowledge. They did
not want to teach him the language of the Avesta. But
he persevered and waited, and waited and persevered,
until, at the end of three years more, he won a victory;
not as memorable as Arbela or Waterloo, but one requir-
ing equal courage and fortitude. They not only taught
him their language, but they gave him one hundred and
eighty manuscripts of the Avesta, which he brought back
in safety to Paris, and in 1771 published the first Euro-
pean translation thereof.

It was, at once, assailed as a silly, modern affair, with
stories about demons and angels. There were the names
of trees and plants unknown; for who in Europe had
ever heard of Horn juice or the Bareshnum ceremony, of
gnomes, and the Kinvad Bridge ? Here was a cosmogony
of the world, and how did Zoroaster and those Iranians 3

3   Persia or Iran, Persians and Iranians I shall use as
meaning the same. The word Iran, at one time, meant
 10 THE AVESTA IN CONFLICT WITH GENESIS

know about that? Besides, the Avesta conflicted with
Genesis, and that could not be allowed. But Du Perron
and his work found sturdy defenders, as well as fierce
assailants. The battle for and against the Avesta, among
scholars, raged in Europe for many years; Sir William
Jones, leading the forces against it, and Elenker, a pro-
fessor in the University of Riga, who at once published,
in German, a translation thereof, defending it. But the
more this old forgotten book was studied; the more sun-
light let in, the more certain it became that here was a
long lost monument of a great people, and a great faith.
Jones, himself, after twenty years of opposition, coming
tardily around to believe in it.

The Avesta has now been under the fire and cross-fire
of critics for one hundred and thirty years.

The question, after all this lapse of time and patient
research concerning this book, which the Iranians, and,
after them, the Persians, call Holy, is as permanently set-
tled, that it was composed by Zoroaster and his immedi-
ate followers, as that the Jewish prophets composed the
works ascribed to them. Such scholars as "Max Muller,
Roth, Westengard, Duncker, Professor Geldner, Spiegel,
Dr. Haug, Bunsen, Burnouf, Lassen and Rhode, all
agree that there is not the least doubt that the Avesta
contains the books ascribed in the most ancient times to
Zoroaster.” They possess all the inward and outward

more than Persia proper.- Persis, originally, embraced
only that strip on the eastern side of the Persian Gulf.
They were called Pars—later Persians. Iran and Aryan
once meant about the same. Arya and Aryana, of the
Avesta, are the same.
 THE JEWS AS COPYISTS

11

marks of the highest antiquity, and only prejudice or
ignorance can doubt it.4

§ 3. As Professor Hyde found many analogies and
parallels between the Persian and Jewish Bibles, I will
here mention a few, that the reader may catch a glimpse
of this book, in the pages to follow. A statement that the
Jewish prophets drew their inspiration largely from the
Persian Bible, will no doubt be controverted. But it was
“after the return of the Jews from Babylon that the
devil and demons in conflict with man became a part of
the company of spiritual beings, in the Jewish mythology.
Angels there were before, as Messengers of God, but
devils there were not; for until then an absolute Provi-
dence ruled the world. Satan, in Job, is an angel of God,
doing a low kind of work—a fault-finder, but no devil.
He is critical, looking after the flaws of the saints, but
still no devil. After the captivity, the horizon of the
Jewish mind enlarged, and it took in the conception of
God; as allowing freedom to man and angels; thus per-
mitting bad, as well as good, to have its way.

Then came in also the conception of a future life and
resurrection for ultimate judgment. These doctrines
have been supposed, with good reason, to have come to
the Jews, from the influence of the Great System of
Zoroaster.5

The Jewish prophets, however, carefully concealed, or
at least did not mention the fact that ‘'The word of the
Lord” came to them by way of Persia, for not until the

4   Quoted from Rhode; but the others are equally firm
in their statements. If I err I am in splendid company.

5   J. F. Clark's 10 great religions, vol. 1, p. 205.
 12

THE WORD OF THE LORD VIA PERSIA

exile in Babylon, where they came in contact with Per-
sian thought, do any of the Prophets mention that “The
word of the Lord” came to them. The two religions,
after the captivity, travel oftentimes, nearly the same
road.

The Persians claimed to be a favored race; and, to all
appearances, Ahura-Mazda (God)6 had approved them,
and exalted them, at that period, far above the Hebrews.
The latter were hewers of wood and drawers of water;
in fact slaves, in the worst sense, to their conquerors, the
Persians. The Jews also claimed to be a favored people,
and while it is true that they captured Ai, and leveled the
walls of Jericho,7 and prevailed against the Midianites,
yet to-day they have no place on the map of the world.
Persia herself, afterward, came under the yoke, and yet
it would seem that she has always been more highly
favored than those Jewish wanderers.

§ 4. The Persians and the Jews, each undertook in
their Bibles, to give the cosmogony of the world. The
Avesta mentions sixteen good lands or countries which
Ahura-Mazda created; and that Angra-Mainyu (the
Devil) thereupon counter-created the serpent and sin

6   This compound word was subsequently abridged to
Ormazd, sometimes Ahura or Mazda is used, meaning
God.

7   I have never yet been able to bring myself to believe
that the tooting-of a ram’s horn caused the walls of Jeri-
cho to fall down flat (Joshua, ch. 6), nor do I believe,
as stated in the Avesta, that part of the waters of a river
were made to stand still, and part to flow forward so as
to leave a dry passage for Vistauru. See Aban Yast, § 76
to § 78. Both of these Bible stories are improbable.
 PERSIAN AND JEWISH BIBLES

13

(Vend. ch. i), unbelief and tears and wailings, and sor-
cery and winter (Vend., ch. i.).

In the Jewish Bible when God creates the heavens and
the earth, the serpent is on hand, but there is no mention
of winter. Hu the Avesta, the ancestry of the human race
are Mashya and Mashyoi, and they sprout up from earth,
as we shall hereafter see.8 The word Mashya means
“man.” In Genesis we have Adam and Eve. The word
Adam means “man.” The Avesta gives the Lord six
great periods in which to create the world; Genesis hur-
ries him through in six days, but gives him a rest on the
seventh^ The compiler of Genesis says the Lord “sancti-
fied” the seventh day, but Babylon had sanctified it long
before that, and called it “Sulum,” meaning “rest.”9 In
fact, the Babylonians had “sanctified” it so thoroughly
that they would not even allow their King to take a drive
in his chariot, on their sanctified “Sulum.” rIn both
Bibles, man is the last animal created. Neither Bible
was written by any one man; nor was either produced in
any one age.j, In fact the Jewish Bible, if its chronology
be correct ( ?) covers the long period of nearly seventeen
hundred years, and Moses is the chief figure in its early
pages. The chronology of the Avesta is still more defi-
cient; in truth it can only be tentatively fixed by outside
events. But it is certain that no one age or century saw
its completion ; yet Zoroaster towers on every page. In
the Jewish Bible we have the old Hebrew tongue; later
the Aramaic. The modern Greek does not understand the
Greek of Demosthenes; nor is the language of Chaucer,

8   Ch. 2, Sec. i.

9   Br. Ency. Tit. Babylonia, Vol. 3, p. 191.
 14

THE ARK

that of Tennyson. The older Avesta, is the language of
ancient Iran,—a language so far back that no certain
date can be fixed for it. The Pahlavi bears about the
same relation to it that Aramaic does to Hebrew.

§ 5. In both Bibles the human race (except a few) is
to be destroyed. A great cataclysm of waters is to over-
whelm and drown the world, according to Genesis. In
the Avesta mankind is to be exterminated by the deadly
frosts of winter. In the Jewish Bible we are told that it
“Grieved the Lord at his heart” and that he “repented”
that He had made man,10 11 and would destroy him because
every imagination of his heart was only evil continually.
The Avesta tells us11 that the earth had become so full
of flocks and herds, of men and dogs, and birds, that
there was no room for more and hence (except a few)
they must be destroyed.

The Lord directs Noah to build an Ark, the length to
be 300 cubits, and the breadth 50 cubits; the height thereof
30 cubits.12 Of clean beasts of the field and fowls, Noah
was directed to take into the Ark by sevens; but of those
not clean, by twos—male and female. And Noah and his
family went into the Ark, and the beasts and fowls of the
air, and everything that creepeth on the earth. We are

10   Gen., ch. 6.

11   According to ch. 2, Vendidad, Yima had made the
earth grow larger several times because it had become
too populous.

12   The Hebrew cubit was a little over 21 inches; the
ark was, if we make generous allowance, about 450 feet
long, 75 feet wide, and 3 stories, with one window, with a
door for each story. The window was only one cubit,
or 21)4 inches square.
 AND THE ANIMALS

15

not told how the slow-footed sloth of South America got
there. But if the world was only created about 2000 years
before the flood, then the sloth must have started some
five or six hundred years before its creation, in order to
be on hand in time to be saved; for “all flesh died that
moved upon the earth; all in whose nostrils was the
breath of life”;13 save only Noah, and those in the Ark
with him. The waters, we are told, prevailed upon the
earth one-hundred-and-fifty days. And as we are asked
to believe this fabulous story, let us examine it. In the
first place, the Ark14 is too small to contain one-tenth
of the animals, and their food, for one-hundred-and-fifty
days. How many sheep and goats and oxen would the
carnivorous animals require for food in that time? The
hay and the grain, for the herbivorous animals, where
did Noah get it? But suppose that trouble be tided over,
and the animals all came forth from the Ark, what then ?
Would not the lions and the tigers, the wolves and the
hyenas, the jaguars and the leopards, and the other car-
nivora instantly pounce upon the sheep and the goats, and
the cattle, and exterminate them? If they killed one of
either sex, it would be the same as if both were destroyed.
Even if the cattle and the sheep escaped the teeth of the
flesh-eaters, they would soon perish with hunger, for all
grass and herbage of every kind would be utterly de-
stroyed in one-hundred-and-fifty days. But if we believe
the record, it was not until the eighth month that even
the tops of the mountains could be seen, and it was nearly

13   Gen., ch. 7.

[Prometheus]

14   The word Ark properly translated means box. It
should be Noah’s box.
 16

YIMA, THE PERSIAN NOAH

a year before Noah and the animals went forth.15 Noah
himself, by reason of his long tossing on the deep, must
have become somewhat demoralized; for in celebrating
the fruitage of his vineyard, “he drank of the wine and
was drunken; and he was uncovered in his tent.” Some
enquiring mind might ask if Noah possessed the ability
to construct a boat 450 feet long and 75 feet wide, and
three stories, why was it that he did not build a house
instead of living in a mere tent?

§ 6. In the Persian Bible, Yima, the son of Vivan-
ghat, “at a meeting of the best of Mortals”, is told by
Ahura that a deadly frost and evil winters are about to
fall upon the world, and that deep snow will cover the
earth, even to the mountain tops. That he, Yima, must
make a vara (an underground abode) to shelter man and
animals, lest they all perish. As with Noah, the Lord
gives particular directions. The vara must be two
hathras16 long on every side, and a great stream of water
must be made to flow through it, one hathra long, to
quench the thirst of man and beast. Thither Yima must
bring sheep and oxen, dogs and birds; and dwelling
places must be fixed for man, and food provided for all.
Before that awful winter, Yima is told that the earth shall
bear plenty of grass for cattle. He is not restricted, like
Noah, to one family; but is told to bring the greatest,
best, and finest specimens of men and women on earth:
and the finest cattle of every kind, and the choicest seeds

15   Gen. ch. 8.

16   A hathra is about 1 mile; the vara, therefore, would
be two miles square, more than one hundred times larger
than the Ark.
 YIMA BUILDS A VARA

17

of every kind of fruit. From all these the earth is to be
replenished. But no hunchbacks, no impotent, or lunatic
or malicious one, or liar; no spiteful one, or leprous, or
jealous one, should he bring into the vara.17 'He was told
to make streets in this underground abode, and a door
and a window. (Noah-had one window.) Yima could
not understand how a window would be of service in this
subterranean retreat, and is told that there are created
lights, and uncreated lights. That the only thing missed
there will be the sight of the sun, moon and stars. But
as a compensation for this, men will live such happy lives
that a year will seem only as a day. Streets are to be con-
structed in this subterranean abode; and in one of the
longest of them a thousand men and women are to be
brought; in another, six hundred men and women; and
in another three hundred.18 And that window, self-
shining within, will give them light sufficient to make it
seem an eternal day. Avarice will not be there; and
gluttony will be so far overcome that ten men can feed
upon one loaf and be filled. With all these instructions
Yima was at a loss to know with what material to con-
struct so vast a place; and was told to “crush the earth
with his heel, and knead it with his hands as a potter
kneads his clay.”

The Avesta is silent as to the exact time of exit from
the vara; but they dwelt there in blissful peace for years,
and until a bird was sent from heaven bearing the reli-
gion of Mazda to its occupants.19

17   Vendidad, ch. 2.

18   Fargard, 2 vend., § 30. See also § 32 id.

19   We must not be shocked that they have birds in
 18 NOAH'S DELUGE—A BABYLONIAN MYTH

§ 7. Concerning these two supposed destructions of
life, that of the Noachian deluge was, as it appears, com-
piled with almost literal exactness from two old Babylo-
nian records, and those records are made up from worn
out old legends.

The first is that of Berosus, and is as follows:20
Xisuthrus, the tenth King of Babylon, noted for his piety,
was warned in a dream,21 of a coming great deluge, to
prepare an Ark, thus to save his family and friends. The
Ark is prepared; they embark, and the deluge comes.
When the waters begin to subside, Xisuthrus, at three dif-
ferent times, sends out doves, the same as did Noah after-
wards. The Ark rested on a mountain, after which those
in the Ark disembark, and Xisuthrus builds an altar, and
offers sacrifice. Thereupon he and his companions all
mysteriously disappear. Perhaps they were translated
like Enoch.22 * This flood story seems to have drifted
even to the Ganges. For Manu, who is called the Father
of Mankind, escapes from a deluge by building an Ark.

the Iranian heaven, for in the Jewish heaven they have
lions and horses and birds, and locusts—plenty of them.
See Revelation.

20   Berosus was a Chaldean priest and historian, living
in the time of Alexander the Great. It is known that he
had access to Babylonian records. Hence the value of
his works. Berosus hits Genesis a very hard blow when
he fixes the period before the flood, at 34,080 years.

21   This is the first recorded instance of any one, in
matters of importance, “being warned in a dream" Vol.
7, Br. Ency., Deluge.

22   Gen., 5, 24. God took Enoch, but just how we are

not told.
 A FISH STORY

19

He is warned of the coming flood, and the necessity of a
ship, by a fish. Manu heeds the warning, builds a boat,
and keeps this loquacious fish, which grows to an enor-
mous size. When the flood comes, Manu uses the fish to
tow his craft about; and the fish, being a skillful pilot,
lands the Ark on the top of a high mountain, where it
rests until the waters subside.

§ 8. In the next deluge story, Tamzi, the hero of the
epic, is warned to build a ship or Ark, and put his family
into it, and all animals; as all flesh is about to be de-
stroyed. He was told, as was Noah afterwards, to coat
the seams of his Ark with pitch, within and without.
The ship being ready, the windows of heaven are opened;
the rain flood pours, drowning every living thing not in
Tamzi’s Ark. The waters, after a time, subside, and the
Ark rests upon Nizir, a mountain.24 Thereafter Tamzi
sent out a dove and a swallow, and they returned. Then
he sent out a raven, but the raven came not back. When
dry land appeared, Tamzi, on coming from the Ark, gave
a thank-offering. In this story, Hea, the God of Waters,
intercedes with Bel, the chief deity of the triad of Baby-
lon,25 that the world be not again drowned.

24   The mountain upon which Tamzi’s Ark rested is
southwest of Lake Urumiah. Mt. Ararat is northwest of
that lake. These mountains are about 400 miles apart.
But there have been no floods there for the past 4000
years.

25   Gen., 8, 20. For the Babylonian deluges see George
Smith’s Chaldean account of Genesis, also Br. Ency., Vol.
7» P- 54.
 20

A FEW PARALLELS

Noah, on leaving the Ark, built an Altar and offered
some of the animals, which he had saved from the flood,
as burnt offerings to the Lord, and “the Lord smelled
them ” and promised that “He would not any more curse
the ground.”26 But even these myths of the Babylonians
were not original with them, for they copied an old, worn,
and faded Accadian legend, which was floating around the
world long before there was any Babylon at all. Whence
the Avesta fable, about Yima and his Vara, started, is
more difficult to trace. Possibly it is simply an exaggera-
tion of the Armenian plan of burrowing, during the win-
ter, in the earth. We know that, about four hundred
years B. C., when Xenophon and his Greeks passed
through Armenia, they found plenty of Varas, or under-
ground villages, filled with people who, there, in security,
defied the biting frosts of winter, and this practice is not
entirely abandoned to this day.

r §9. Let us notice a few more parallels: Thraetona,
the descendant of Yima, divided the earth between his
three sons, Selma, Tura and Airia. He bestowed Turan
upon Tura; to Selma he gave Rum (Europa) ; and Turan
fell to Airia. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and
Japhet; and “of them the whole earth was overspread.”
As we shall hereafter see that Zoroaster talks with Ahura,
so also does Moses with the Almighty.

The Persian Bible tells us that Ahura revealed the law
to Zoroaster “on the Mount of the Holy Conversations.”27
The Jewish Bible sets forth that the Lord gave to Moses,

26   Gen., 7.

27   Ormazd Yast, Vol. 23, S. B. E. § 31 and note 1.
 MIRACULOUS BIRTHS OF ZOROASTER'S SONS 21

on Mount Sinai, the ten commandments.28 The New
Testament, the latest part of the Jewish Bible, tells us
that God’s only begotten son, Jesus, came to reclaim
the world and save man from his errors and his sins.
He is said to have been born of a Virgin. This part of our
Gospel was long preceded by the Avesta, which said that
three unborn sons of Zoroaster were to be born of Vir-
gins, at different periods, to renovate the world. They
were to bring immortal life to the race. Soshyans, the
latest born of these sons, is called the Beneficent One;
for it is said, he will benefit the whole bodily world. He
is also called Aastvat-Erata; for he will cause the resur-
rection,—bodily resurrection, the same as the New Testa-
ment teaches.29 But the Avesta was not followed exactly,
in all things, by the New Testament, for the God of the
Avesta has a son Atar 30 and a daughter Ashi-Vanghui,
who is said to be tall formed, and of such intelligence that
she can bring heavenly wisdom at her wish.31 j
As we shall see numerous other parallels further on, I
will only add that the Avesta, after the death of Zoroaster,
was taught everywhere in Iran, and, thereafter, was
written in gold letters on twelve thousand Ox-hides; one
copy of which was deposited among the archives at Per-
sepolis. This copy was burned by Alexander the Great
when he overran Persia; but it had been previously pub-

28   Exodus, ch. 20.

29   Famardan Yast, Vol. 23, S. B. E., Bund, ch. 22;
Dinkard, ch. 14.

30   Zamyad Yt, §§ 46 to 50.

31   Ashi Yast, Vol. 23, S. B. E., §§ 1, 2, and 3.
 22

LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF ZOROASTER

lished in all the seven regions.32 Plato, an hundred years
before this, had studied and admired the simplicity of the
doctrines of the Great Persian, who taught, and Plato
believed, that good thoughts, good words and good deeds
were sufficient to insure a happy tranquillity in the eter-
nal beyond. Does Jesus’ Gospel go beyond this?

32   Dinkard 7, ch. 6, § 12. The Persians divided the
earth into seven Karshvares or zones.
 PART FIRST

“The Word of the Lord” Came to the
Hebrews by Way of Persia
 
 Life and Teachings

OF

ZOROASTER

CHAPTER I.

ZOROASTER, HIS NAME AND BIRTHPLACE.

Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed, each left
such an indelible impress upon the age in which he lived
that millions since their day have taught, reverenced and
believed the doctrines which they proclaimed. The first,
and earliest of these names, Zoroaster, like a distant and
lofty mountain peak, partly obscured by clouds that hang
about it, is somewhat enveloped in tradition. Yet seeing
the top, we are certain the mountain has a base. And
finding numerous records, supplemented by traditions
almost without number, and, from various quarters, we
are sure that Zoroaster lived and was, and is, in truth, a
great historic reality.

There is no more doubt that he lived and wrought a
great work among the people of ancient Iran (Persia)
than that Moses, or Solomon, or George Washington
lived, and left great names; which blaze and sparkle, upon
the historic page. In truth, the foot-prints of Zoroaster
are so trampled into and indented into old Persian legends,
and history, that we might as well undertake to gainsay

23
 24

WAS HE NAMED FOR A STARt

the existence of any other monumental character, as to
controvert his life, or his personality.

§ 2. Much curious speculation, and many wild guesses
have been made concerning the etymologies of this great
man's name. The Greeks called him Zoroastres. In the
Avesta, his full name is given as Spitama Zarathrustra.
In the Pahlavi, he is called Zartust, and Zardust. Some-
times he is designated as the Spitama; and again as the
Righteous. The appellative Spitama comes, probably,
from one of his ancestors, back several generations. His
name may be a compound, “Zoe” life, and “aster” star.
The latter part of his name, “ustra” (camel), may give us
a hint.1 Some writers have endeavored to trace his line
back to royalty; but for our purpose, it makes no differ-
ence whether that ancestor plowed with camels, or wield-
ed a scepter, or was named for a star. Of this we are
certain, that no scholar, however learned and critical, can
with absolute certainty state either the derivation of his
name or its signification.

§ 3. A more important question presents itself just
here. Was Zoroaster born on the bank of distant Oxus,
in eastern Iran, or did he first see the light in Bactria, or
in Ragha, or was Ardibagan, which lies to the west of the
Caspian Sea, his native place? Rival cities, Cyme and
Smyrna, and others, claimed the honor of giving Homer
to the world. It is possible that they were all wrong.
Let an intellectual colossus appear in any age, and, if

1 Burnouf and Casartelli both have urged that his
name, or a part of it, was derived from the word “ustra,”
meaning camel.
 HIS BIRTHPLACE

25

there be a question as to his birthplace, some land, which
was the scene of his activity, will make haste to appropri-
ate him. It was thus in the case of Zoroaster. He did
not, as did Cyrus, marshal armies and establish a king-
dom. His place, for a time, was less conspicuous. He
became the prophet and founder of a religion, which
taught the hosts of light to wage unceasing warfare
against the powers of darkness. He taught that Ahura-
Mazda (Ormazd) was a mighty God, who created
heaven, earth and man. He gave a new religion to an-
cient Iran, to Media, and to surrounding tribes and
nations. Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds,
were the prime factors in his teachings. Can any religion
strike deeper at the root of evil than this? If the mind
be filled with good thoughts; if the tongue utters only
good words; if the hands perform only good deeds, can
the soul’s aspirations mount higher? Did the gentle
teachings of the Man of Galilee reach beyond these three
cardinal points ? They surely did not, because they could
not. All beyond this is exegesis. Thus it appears that
Zoroaster, many centuries before Jesus was born, an-
nounced the very beginning, and end, of every religion.
It was philosophy, logic and religion, all compressed into
one short, pithy sentence. The most ignorant and the
most stupid could follow the reasoning to the end. The
very pillars of heaven can find nothing better, or beyond
this, to rest upon. Nations and distant peoples saw, un-
derstood, believed and appreciated these short, simple
truths. But we shall see how like another great teacher,
many centuries later, he perished in their advocacy. Jesus
suffered on Calvary for teaching “peace on earth and
good will to all” mankind. In other words, for teaching
 26

[Prometheus]

HIS DOCTRINE—GOOD THOUGHTS

men to hold good thoughts, and to utter good words, and
to do good deeds to every one. Zoroaster was slain, his
blood quenching the holy fires, as he worshipped at the
altar. We shall find him all along, to be a man of sub-
lime, undaunted courage, and of unsurpassed patience; a
man of such strength of mind, and such firmness of pur-
pose, that mountains of obstacles could not move him.
No wonder, therefore, that different places should claim
the honor of his birth.

§ 2. The Bundahis2 calls the Daraga river, the chief
of exalted rivers, because the mansion of Porushaspa, the
father of Zoroaster, stood upon its high banks; and it
says, Zoroaster was born there. The locality of this river
is fixed in Airan-Veg. But the Bundahis is, to say the
least, a very uncertain guide. It is a curious old book,
made up from some worn and tattered manuscripts, which
have suffered several recensions, additions, and revisions,
and took its present form about the ninth century A. D.
It is in fact a collection of fragments, purporting to give,
among other things, the history of creation; the conflicts
of the good and evil spirits, and is much longer than
Genesis, and, if possible, is even more unsatisfactory. It
goes into elaborate details about things unknown, to man,
and forever unknowable. But in extremities we must not
Cavil too much with our guide.

2   Chapter 30 of the Bundahis is the end of the original
book. The four other chapters seem to have been added
at a much later date. Chapter 34, on “the reckoning of
the years,” is perhaps the latest interpolation. The whole
four last chapters are probably apocryphal. The Bunda-
his has probably as many recensions as the Pentateuch.
 THE CASPIAN AND OXUS

27

However, let us inquire somewhat as to the location
of this Arian-Veg. According to the Vendidad (ch. i)
it was the first of the good lands created by Ormazd
(God), through which flowed the river Vanguhi Daitya;
and this stream, the Bundahis insists, is in the direction
of Adarbaigan. In Sassanian times, Vauguhi was the
name of the Oxus. The Araxas was also called the same.
Now, if we assume that ancient Adarbaigan is that coun-
try between Lake Urumiah and the Caspian, there are
several rivers, in that confine, to be considered.

If it was the Arraxes (modern Aras), that large
stream whose waters flow down from the mountains of
Ararat, where Noah’s Ark rested, after a very trouble-
some and destructive rainy season, then, indeed, Zoroaster
was born in classical and historic fields, and well might
aspire to write a Bible and found a religion.3 But if we
place him there, must we not fix Vistaspa, Gamaspa and
others of his satellites there also? For those men con-
tinually, after he brought his religion to their notice and
acceptance, were simply satellites revolving around an
attractive center. In this uncertainty it may have been
the Keizel river, farther south, on the banks of which the
prophet of Iran first saw the light.4 Again, there was

3   The Bundahis says, in the direction of Ataro-patakan.
Persian, Adarbaigan. But where was the writer when he
said “in the direction of,” etc. ? He might have been in
Tehran or in Balkh. He does not say the river Daraza

• is in Adarbaigan, nor are we told where Adarbaigan is.

4   I call him a prophet on the authority of Luke, ist,
who says, “there have been prophets since the world be-
gan.”
 28

MANY COUNTRIES CLAIM HIM

an insignificant stream called the Darej, whose source
was Mt. Savalan, about eighty miles south of the Arraxes,
which some writers have sought to make the “chief of
exalted rivers.” Yet there is nothing whatever about
that little sprinkle of waters to make it famous, unless it
be the certainty that it is the Daraga, where Porusaspa
lived, and where his famous son was born.

§ 3. In those early days, we may ask, did Media in-
clude Adarbaigan ? If not, then we have another country,
at once claiming to have given the prophet of Eran to the
world. For the twelfth of the good lands created by
Ormazd, was Ragha (Greek Ragia), of the three races, or
classes, priests, warriors and husbandmen.

Many oriental scholars have placed this Ragha about
ninety miles south of the Caspian, near the present city
of Tehran, and, as a help to this argument, it is claimed
there were two Raghas, one in Adarbaigan, and another
in Media. That Zaratust’s father was of Adarbaigan,
and his mother from Ragha, near Tehran.

But in ancient Persian, Raga means district or prov-
ince (dahya), and there would hardly be the confusion
of two Ragas, in the same province.

§ 4. Persons anxious to fix the Bethlehem of this
early religion think they have surely solved the problem
when they cite us to Yasna, 19, section 18; but if that be
the finger-board to point us the way, it is, to say the least,
a very obscure one.

It mentions four classes and five chiefs in the political
world; the house, the village, the tribe, the province, and
the Zarathrustra chief, as the fifth. These five chiefs are
only necessary in provinces outside of the Zarathrustrian
 IRANIANS AND HINDOOS SEPARATE

29

regency. Ragha had four chiefs only; the house, the vil-
lage, the tribe, and Zarathrustra as the fourth. But
province chief, and the Zarathrustra, being united in one
person does not carry with it the proof, nor even a sug-
gestion, that the prophet was born there. That the Pope
resides at the Vatican is no proof that it is his birthplace.

No doubt Zarathrustra was the head of the order while
living; his exalted character being probably recognized
by uniting in him both the temporal and spiritual power
for a time at Ragha.

§ 5. Bactria now claims our attention. Here the
prophet’s ministry became active and effective. And
here, unless many concurring traditions be wrong, he
suffered martyrdom. We have already seen that the
Oxus and Arraxes were both, in former times, called
Vanguhi; but this is not surprising, for they are fourteen
hundred miles apart, and thirty-five hundred years ago
were in provinces held by different peoples. Bactria was
in eastern Iran, and is an historic spot; for historians,
ethnologists and philologists have agreed that here, or
not far from here, the division and separation of one
branch of the great Aryan race occurred. Here the Hin-
dus and the Iranians (later Persians), children of that
wonderful Aryan family, bade each other farewell.5 The * I

5   Aban Yast, §§ 3, 4 and 5. Farvarden Yast, § 8.

I am aware that there are those who claim that this
refers to the Araxas; but the Araxas is a small stream
compared to the Oxus. The former is only 500 miles long,
and is shallow and fordable in the summer. The Oxus is
navigable more than 1,000 miles, and some of its affluents
are nearly as large as the Araxas.
 30

THE PERSIANS ON THE OXUS

Hindus to cross the mountains linger along the shaded
banks of the great Indus, where they develop their civili-
zation, and write the Veda; the Persians to find a home,
for a time, on that other renowned stream, the Oxus,
until their swelling numbers reach out beyond the Caspian
and until they give law and religion to all the land from
the Tigris to the Oxus, and from the Caspian to the Per-
sian Gulf.6

The Oxus, in its long acquaintance, has borne various
names. In early Persian times it was called Veh-Rud.
The Mohammedans called it El-Nahr; later Jihun. At
present the Asiatics call it Amu-Daria. As the Jihun, it
was said to be the Gihon of Genesis, that figures in the
garden of Eden. In this region many changes in nations,
and great changes in nature, have occurred to make it
remarkable. For when the Avesta was composed, the
Oxus poured its volume into the Caspian. To-day it
empties into the Aral.

The Avesta says “that large river, known afar, that is
as large as the whole waters that run along the earth;
that runs powerfully down to the sea—Voru-Kasha (the
Caspian). All the shores of the sea Voru-Kasha are boil-
ing over when she streams down there.” From this river
flow all the waters that spread over the seven Karshvars.

§ 6. An observation might be made just here, that
the Hindu Bible has an antiquity of probably more than
four thousand years; and yet there are those who say

6   There is scarcely a dissenting voice on this point, at
this day; their language, their race habits, and even their
skulls are similar. The names of their ancient Gods are
almost the same.
 THE PARTING OF THE TRIBES

31

that Zoroaster’s Bible, and his religion were not given to
Iran until about six hundred years B. C.

Were these children of the Indus favored like the
Jews? Were they the chosen people of the “Great I
Am?” and were the Iranians the unfortunate Esau’s of
the ancient Tribes? We know that the Veda was not m
existence at the time of the separation; hence we know
that the parting of the tribes took place more than four
and possibly five or six thousand years ago. We also
know that the Vedic religion, and that of the Avesta
followed the old Aryan system of ancestral worship.
This they carried with them into their new homes; for
the Vedas teach the worship of the Pitris or fathers, and
oblations were offered to them.7 The Iranians were also
zealous in their reverence of the Fravashis or spirits of
their progenitors.

After the separation, there must have been friendly
intercourse between these children of the same family;
for the Vendidad8 tells us that the fourth of the good
lands created9 was the beautiful Bakhdi (Greek Baktra),
with high lifted banners; and that the fifteenth of the
good countries was the land of the seven rivers (the
Indus and its affluents), the lands of the Hindus.

It is possible that it was a religious schism that caused

7   The first Gathas, those composed by Zoroaster, make
no mention of ancestral worship. He was too intent on
the worship of Omazd.

8   Vendidad, ch. I.

9   The Vendidad fixes different periods of time for the
creation of the earth. It does not hold to the creation of
the world in six days.
 32   QUARRELED ABOUT THEIR GODS

the separation, for we shall see, hereafter, how they
quarreled about their Gods and their religions. But it
was only in argumentation, as to whether the Veda or
the Avesta pointed the true way to the shadow-land.

Although the earlier Gathas are undoubtedly the pro-
duct of Zoroaster’s heart and brain, yet they nowhere
fix his native home; and with all the light at the present
day obtainable, it is impossible to determine that vexed
question to a certainty.

Speculation on this point might lead us through several
pages, but in the end we should only have a multitude
of conflicting opinions. Of one thing we are certain,
that the life-work of this great soul was of such magni-
tude and importance that his doctrines and his influence
have crossed oceans and continents and are yet an active
force in the world.
 CHAPTER II.

WHEN DID ZOROASTER LIVE?

§ i. The most learned scholars, for the last twenty-
four hundred years, have disagreed about the period in
which Zoroaster lived. Some place him far back in an-
tiquity ; yet others assign him to a more recent date. One
of the latter, Dr. West, thinks he was born six hundred
and sixty years before Jesus. That argument, it would
seem, is not difficult to overthrow. Dr. West pins his
faith, in this matter, to the 34th chapter of the Bundahis,
which, as we have heretofore stated, is an old work com-
piled about one thousand years ago. To have a better
comprehension of that work, we may add that it treats of
the cosmogony, or beginning of the world, and its crea-
tures, as revealed by the religion of Ormazd (God),
rGood and evil spirits appear at once. Ormazd is su-
preme in goodness, and his region is endless light. He
ever was, and ever will be. Aharman, with desire for de-
struction, and not aware of the existence of Ormazd, was
in the abyss. Both of these spirits are limited and unlim-
ited ; but as to their own selves, they are limited. Ahar-
man, the evil spirit, who is elsewhere called Akemano, on
rising from the abyss, and seeing Ormazd, and the light,
rushed back to his gloomy abode, and there created de-
mons and fiends to assist him in the conflict which he saw
was at hand. Ormazd, who knew the end from the
beginning, thereupon first created Vohu-Mano, the

33
 34

GOOD AND EVIL CREATED

archangel of good thought, afterwards he created others.
The evil one produced Mitoket (falsehood), then Ako-
man, the demon of evil thought, that great father of
wickedness, and after that created others; then the dread-
ful strife began, which is to last until Aharman is over-
thrown; at which time the renovation of the universe
will take place. It is the old story of Genesis, much
amplified; good and evil in fierce, never-ending conflict.J

The original Bundahis, no doubt, ended with the thir-
tieth chapter, which gives an account of the resurrection.
The 34th 'chapter fixes the existence1 of the world, from
its beginning to its end or decay, at twelve thousand
years; three thousand of which was the duration of the
spiritual, when creatures were unthinking, unmoving, in-
tangible. Three thousand years was the duration of
Gayomard and the Ox1 2 in the world;3 when the evil
one rushed in and Gayomard (he was the first man),
after thirty years of tribulation, died. But in dying he
gave forth seed, which was kept in charge of two angels,
and placed in the earth, where, after forty years, Mashya
and Mashyoi grew up from the earth in the form of a
Rivas, which is a vegetable, something like a rhubarb
plant.4 This was the first human pair, the Adam and
Eve of the race, if we follow the Bundahis; and they

1   Dr. West, himself, admits that the 34th chapter of
Bundahis is a late addition, and of doubtful authority.
See Vol. 5, S. B. E. Introduction, p. 43.

2   This primal Ox is supposed to be the progenitor of
all animals, also certain grains. Chap. 4, Bund.

3   It is said that Gayomard was watching for the com-
ing of Zaratust. Bund., ch. 24.

4   Chapter 15, Bund., also Zad-Sparan, ch. 10 and ch.
34, Bund.
 MAN AND WOMAN GREW FROM THE EARTH 35

[Prometheus]

grew up from the earth in such a manner that their arms
rested behind; and their waists were so close together
that it was impossible to distinguish the male from the
female. They were thus fifty years together, but were
not yet husband and wife; but, finally, changed from the
shape of a plant, into the perfect human form, and
breath (nismo, which is the soul), came into them.

The ethnology of the Tibetans is about as sensible as
either Genesis or the Bundahis as to the origin of man.
The three accounts united, and leaving out certain parts
of each, and adding certain things from the others, may
come near the correct solution of that enigma: man’s
creation.

The Tibetans claim (in the legend of Tanjur) to be the
descendants of an ape (sent to Tibet by the deity Chen-
resig) and a female demon. This ape and the demon
became the parents of six children, every one of whom,
as soon as weaned, were abandoned by their parents, .in
a great garden of fruit, there to survive or perish, as best
they might. But they lived, and their numbers multiplied
prodigiously, so that in a short time they increased to
five hundred. The fruits of the garden being all devoured,
they were on the point of starvation, when the Ape, their
ancestor, returned. Amazed at their number, and seeing
their sore distress, he besought Chenresig, for their relief.
That God listens to this entreaty, and promises to become
their guardian and protector. In fulfillment of his prom-
ise, he threw to them, in great abundance, from a lofty
mountain peak, five kinds of grain. Upon this grain the
monkeys fed and fattened; but the eating of it worked
marvels. Their tails began to grow shorter and shorter,
and their hair commenced to drop off. After a time their
 36 MASHY A AND MASHY01 GREW TOGETHER

tails disappeared entirely, and their hair was gone. In-
stead of a wild gibberish, they began to talk, and were
transformed into men and women. They then clothed
themselves with leaves. Adam and Eve, we are told,
made themselves aprons of fig-leaves. The Lord after-
ward, according to the record, clothed Adam and his wife
with the skins of beasts. The poor Tibetans, however,
were not thus highly favored. The Lord did not become
their clothier, nor did Chenresig assist them any further,
but left them to earn their bread in the sweat of their
faces.

§ 2. Those persons who wrote the Bundahis over-
looked the 19th chapter of the Vendidad, which says the
Good Spirit “made the creation in the boundless time.”
Thus, time is not limited to the little span of twelve thou-
sand years. But not to be outdone by Genesis, the Bunda-
his writers set it down that Ormazd (the Lord) appears
on the scene and makes a speech to Mashya and Mashyoi.
In Genesis, the Lord punishes Adam and Eve for eating
of the tree of knowledge, and curses the ground, and
drives them out of Eden, because they disobey Him; and,
lest they get back again, he puts cherubims, with flaming
swords, to keep them out. But Mashya and Mashyoi are
not met with reproaches, and curses, and punishments.
The Lord, in his speech to them, says:   “You are the

ancestry of the world; and you are created in perfect
devotion, by me; perform, then, devotedly, the duty of
the law; think good thoughts; speak good words; do
good deeds, but worship no demons. (Bund., ch. 15.)^

There is another clash at this point, between these
authorities, which must be noticed. Genesis tells us that
the world was created in six days, and that Adam was the
 ADAM CAME ALONE

37

product of the last day. Eve was, as yet, unthought of;
for the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and
then took out one of his ribs and constructed Eve. This
must have been a long time subsequent to Adam, for, be-
fore she came, he had given names to “all the cattle of the
fields and all the fowls of the air, and every living thing”;
and as there were many tens of thousands of “living
things”, it must have taken him years to accomplish this
task. During all which time “there was no help-meet
for Adam” (Gen. 2). The Bundahis makes the time six
thousand and thirty years from the creation to Gay-
omard’s death. His seed, whatever it was, remained in
the ground forty years; then it was fifty years before
Mashya and Mashyoi were changed into the full human
form. It was, therefore, six thousand one hundred and
twenty years when breath came to this Iranian Adam and
Eve. (Ch. 15, Bund.)

But it would seem that even one hundred and twenty
years is a short time for Gayomard’s seed to progress
and develop from a protoplasm into a protozoan, and
thence ascend to the radiates, thence on to the mollusks,
and still higher to the articulates, thence up to the verte-
brates and the full stature of man.

Nature is slow and toilsome in her methods; is never
hurried for time; and had those writers said ten thou-
sand years instead of one hundred and twenty years, or
what is better still, forty thousand years, and many thou-
sands beyond that, they probably would have been more
nearly exact. Dr. James Croll, in his great work on
“climate and time”, puts the age of the earth at sixty
millions of years, and thinks it is probably much older.
Lord Kevlin has furnished abundant proof that the earth
 38

THIS OLD EARTH

has been a solidified body for at least thirty millions of
years. Yet these unscientific Parsee dreamers, and blun-
derers, and those old and unknown compilers of some
ancient and worn out legends concerning Adam and the
creation, ignorant about the very subject upon which
they are treating, write down our globe 5 as a youngster
of only a few thousand years. But it may be said that
chapter 34, Bundahis, only fixes the chronology of the
race after Mashya and Mashyoi make their appearance.
Suppose that be so; how did those writers learn that dur-
ing the first three thousand years creatures were unthink-
ing, unmoving and intangible ? How did they know that
Gayomard and the Ox held sway for only three thousand
years ? How did they know that Gayomard died in tribu-
lation, thirty years after the adversary rushed in? For
he died while Mashya and Mashyoi were yet in the
ground sprouting up, like rhubarb plants. Gayomard,
therefore, could not give this Adam and Eve of the Ira-
nians the word and let them pass it on down to the Bunda-
his writers. We have no proof that the Ox told them,
though we might as readily believe that the Ox did tell
them as to believe that the Ass talked to Balaam. But, if
that Ox was not gifted with speech, how then did they
learn of this wonderful chronology?6 Did they write
it from old and worn out traditions, the same as Ezra and

5   The Jews make our world less than 6,000 years; and
the Parsees make it less than 10,000 years old.

6   In the Iranian Bible the Primeval Bull is even more
loquacious than Balaam’s Ass in the Jewish Bible. For
the Ass, see Numbers 22, for the Bull see ch. 4, Bund.,
p. 20.
 WRITERS OF BIBLES

39

Nehemiah wrote the Pentateuch? How did the writers
of those Bibles learn of the marvelous matters which
they set forth? The answer in each case is the same.
They say they were inspired and the things they write
about are revelations from on High.

§ 3. Instead of trusting to traditions, myths and un-
certainties, let us now take a date that is fixed and un-
impeachable. In the year 585 B. C., the Medes under
Cyaxares were waging war against the Lydians.

It had progressed, as most wars do, with varying for-
tunes, for five years. But on the 28th day of May, in
that year, while a great battle was in progress, the sun
suddenly suffered a total eclipse. The darkness of night
coming on at mid-day, the terrified combatants saw, or
thought they saw, an omen of divine displeasure. In-
stantly the battle ceased, and both sides became anxious
for peace, and peace was at once concluded. They were
not aware that Thales, a Milesian astronomer had calcu-
lated this eclipse and had foretold the same to the day
and hour.7 Here is something that can be disproved or
verified; for God’s laws are uniform and certain. They
are without variableness or shadow of turning. It is a
wonderful science that can reach out into the future and
tell the exact position of the earth or sun, or his satel-
lites, at a certain hour of a certain day. Yet the masters
of astronomy have accomplished this for thousands of
years past, and are doing the same to-day. And on this
28th day of May, 585 years B. C., astronomers, who have
traced backward the path of the King of Day, find that

7   Herodotus 1; 103. Br. Ency., Vol. 18, p. 563; Title
Persia.
 40

ZOROASTER'S FIRST CONVERT

in Asia Minor, where this battle was being fought, there
was a total eclipse of the sun. Here, then, is a reckoning
that is indisputable. Now, if Zoroaster was born only
660 years before Christ, he was exactly seventy-five years
old at the date of the eclipse.

At the age of twenty, we are told by Zad-Sparam, that
Zoroaster, abandoning all worldly desires, and laying
hold on righteousness, went forth on his mission and
commenced his labors by assisting the poor; and it was
ten years before he secured a single convert. This was
Medyomah, his cousin. This leaves him exactly forty-five
years in which to convert the whole Median nation before
this battle with the Lydians. The Medes, we know, pro-
fessed the Zoroastrian religion. But the time here is too
short. Did anything approaching it ever before or since
happen on this earth? The Jews from the time of Moses
down to Jesus, a period of fifteen hundred years, labored
to convert surrounding nations, but did not succeed in a
single instance; and they were, so they said, especially
favored by the Most High.

Who, then, were these Medes, that they so speedily, as
is claimed, adopted the faith of Iran ? They were then a
great people; they were no longer a mere tribe. Genera-
tions before this six tribes became merged into one, and
they called themselves Medes. Their religion, for genera-
tions before this battle, was Zoroastrian. Even before
Zoroaster’s day they sacrificed to the earth, to fire, to
water, to the winds, the sun and the clouds, after the
manner of the Iranians. The latter did not erect temples
or altars; they worshipped in the open air; on high hills
or mountains; and the Medes practiced the same rites.
In fact, the Medes and the Persians were both children
 MEDES AND PERSIANS

41

of the same Aryan family. The Medes were formerly
called Aryans. The Persians wore the Median uniform
in war. The Medes never buried a dead body until it had
been torn by a dog or a bird; the Persians did the same.8

Now how could Zoroaster teach those two nations all
this in forty-five years ? The Medes and Persians of that
period occupied a strip of territory, reaching westward
from the Oxus, more than twelve hundred miles. We
have seen that the prophet was ten years in securing one
convert. How long was it before he captured two na-
tions ?

We shall see further along that surrounding nations
made war on him and his people because of his new reli-
gion. We shall see his armies defeated and driven from
the field; and only at the last rally were they successful,
but at that moment the prophet himself was slain.

It was three hundred years after Jesus' day before Con-
stantine could make the religion of Jesus the national re-
ligion. And even then there were chisms and conflicting
creeds, and bloodshed, and persecutions, before the tumult
ended. And to this day religious factions glare at each
other fiercely. A new religion among a barbarous people,
or any other people, is a plant of slow growth. It would
seem, therefore, that we must search for the epoch of
Zoroaster more than six hundred and sixty years before
the Christian era. Besides this, the Avesta nowhere
speaks of the Persian nation; and the reason is, that it
was composed before there was any Persian nation in
existence. There were only Tribes in that day; and Yasna,

Herodotus i, 140. Ibid. 7, 62.
 42

B EROS US AND BABYLON

33, section 5, speaks of “our tribes”. According to Gos-
Yast, it was the gallant Husravah who united the Aryan
tribes into a kingdom.

§ 4. Now, let us see what Berosus, a Chaldean priest,
bom in Babylonia about three hundred and sixty years
B. C., has to say about this matter. He translated into
Greek a history of Babylon, and there are very many
things in the Jewish Bible so strikingly similar to Berosus’
work that suspicion is aroused that the Jewish writers
drew their inspiration largely from Berosus.

True, his system of chronology will startle staid and
devout believers in the theory that our earth was created
only six thousand years ago; for Berosus makes the rec-
ord of the race four hundred and thirty-two thousand
years old down to the flood, and over thirty-four thou-
sand years since the flood. In connection with his his-
tory he mentions the name of Zoroaster as living a period
twenty-four hundred years before Jesus’ time. Berosus
was not a prophet, predicting the birth of this great teach-
er at some future day. He was simply a chronicler of
facts and events, as he found them stamped in clay or
burnt upon bricks. It happened that Babylonia was over-
run and conquered at that distant period, and Zoroaster’s
name is mentioned in connection with that event. He
must, therefore, have lived before the historian could
write of him.

A still more distant period is set for the prophet by
Aristotle, the teacher of Alexander the Great, and one of
the greatest scholars and philosophers that the world has
ever known, whose masterly mind ought to entitle his
utterances to serious consideration. Aristotle is sure that
 ZOROASTER 6,000 YEARS AGO

43

Zoroaster lived six thousand years before Xerxes. This
carries him back into remote antiquity; back over eight
thousand years; back three thousand years before Gene-
sis. It is a strong utterance, not carelessly made, but
when we consider that this earth is millions, and millions
of years old, and that the Aryans were in Asia, probably
ten thousand years ago, and more likely before that
period, Aristotle’s date for Zoroaster may not seem so
utterly extravagant. Bunson thinks the date set by Aris-
totle is not far out of the way; but adds that whether
the date be set too high cannot at present be answered.

Plato, twenty-three hundred years ago, mentions Zoro-
aster’s religion as being established among the Medes in
western Iran, but does not fix a date for its appearance.
He intended visiting the Medes and Persians to investi-
gate their religious doctrines, but their wars with the
Greeks prevented.

[Prometheus]

§ 5. All the early Greek writers, those living 2000 to
2500 years ago, agree in placing the date of Zoroaster
about six thousand years before the Christian Era. It
is those only, of a more recent period, who claim that the
Iranian prophet came upon the stage only about twenty-
five hundred years ago. It must be noticed that these
late writers seem chained to the theory that the earth is a
recent production, and that man is a late arrival. They
seem to stand in awe of fixing a distant date for the
prophet, lest they collide with Genesis. In some things
Genesis may be right; but its chronology is misleading.

Pliny the Elder (born 23, A. D.), not being thus ham-
pered, speaks of Zoroaster as living and teaching centu-
ries before Moses. In fact, Pliny speaks of two Zoroas-
ters; the first of whom flourished long before Genesis;
 44 ZOROASTER CENTURIES BEFORE MOSES

the latter about the time of Darius Hystaspes. 'Hermip-
pus, who lived 250 years before Jesus, assigns the Great
Persian to a time centuries before the siege of Troy.
Plutarch holds to the same opinion.

Xanthus of Lydia (B. C. 500) thought the great
teacher lived six thousand years before Xerxes. Edward
Clodd, in his childhood of religions, says, we are sure
that Zoroaster lived more than three thousand years ago,
because his religion was established before the conquest of
Bactria by the Assyrians, which took place twelve hun-
dred years before Jesus’ day. Justin makes the direct
assertion that the prophet was a Bactrian priest, and
ruler of the Bactrians. Now, if he is right, then the
Persian antedates, by centuries, both David and Solomon.

It must be admitted that at a very early period Zoroas-
ter’s name had traveled far; for in old Irish history
there is mention of him and of a star, and a strange light
at his birth.9

Ctesias, who lived 400 years B. C., states that Ninus,
with a vast Assyrian army, made war on the Bactrians;
took their Capitol, and that Zoroaster was there slain.
Ctesias, though not always reliable, fixes this event about
nine hundred years before Jesus.

Ancient writers vary considerably as to the period of
the prophet, but they agree in placing him anterior to the
Jewish exile a century before the founding of Rome.
In any event it cannot be considered “extravagant”, as
Dr. West claims, if we place him back to the time, or
even beyond the time, of Moses. For we cannot overlook

9 See Valiancy’s vindication of ancient history of Ire-
land: Vol. 4, p. 202.
 BABYLON AND UR

45

the fact that in recent researches among the rocks and
ruins of the ancient city of Nippur, there have been found
stamped records upon burnt clay, which carry the writ-
ten history of man back beyond Genesis more than three
thousand years.

Old Babylon and Ur, of the Chaldees, are also yielding
up their secrets and telling us of their Gods, their Kings,
and their religions. That part of the world was teeming
with populations more than eight thousand years ago,
and probably more than ten thousand years ago; and is it
unreasonable to suppose that the Great I Am, would, and
did, inspire some devout souls on the banks of the Oxus,
as well as on the Tigris, and the Euphrates, to teach the
Parsees and their progenitors the way to a better life?
The great and renowned leader of that religious throng
was Zoroaster; but for himself he took no "thought of
the morrow”; and so left the world in an eternal contro-
versy, as to the period in which he lived. And to this
day no human being can state the exact time of his
sojourn on earth, although it is highly probable that he
lived before Solomon, and probably before Moses.
 CHAPTER III.

Zoroaster's early years.

It is certain that Zoroaster’s life was one long contin-
ued struggle to build up all that was good; in other
words, to teach his people to hold good thoughts, and
utter good words, and do good deeds to all mankind. But
it is probably a fiction and a myth, as stated in the Vendi-
dad, that Angra Manyu (the Devil), knowing of his
birth, summoned the fiends to assemble at the head of
Arezura—the ridge at the Gate of Hell, because, as he
said, the Holy Zaratust was just born in the house of
Porushaspa.1

Nor shall I write down, as a sober truth, that in his
birth and growth, the waters and the plants rejoiced and
grew, and that all the creatures of the Good Creation
cried out “Hail”. “Hail to us; for he is born the Athra-
ven (priest) Spitama Zarathrustra. He will offer us
sacrifices, with libations, and bundles of baresma; and
there will be the good law of the worshippers of Mazda.
It will come and spread through all the seven zones of
the earth.1 2 Mithra, the Lord of Wide Pastures, will
increase all the excellencies of our countries and allay
all our troubles.”

1   Vend., ch. 20, § 46. We have elsewhere said that
Porushaspa was the prophet’s father.

2   Farvarden Yast, S. B. E., Vol. 23, §§ 93, 94.

46
 ZOROASTER'S MOTHER

47

That other wild statement, that the soul of the Primal
Bull, thousands of years before Zoroaster’s appearance,
obtained a vision of him, is strangely fabulous. So, also,
we must class that later statement, that another gifted
Ox foretold the coming of the prophet.

The safer road to follow is the old beaten path; that
this man was born the same as other mortals; though it
would not be extraordinary if he inherited a predilection
for his future mission. For the tradition is that Dugda-
hova, his mother, was so filled with that divine nimbus,
effulgence, or glory, that her father, thinking her be-
witched, sent her away from home; sent her to the village
of Porushaspa. On her journey thither, as she stands
upon a lofty eminence, surveying with wonder, the beau-
ties of the landscape that stretched out before her, Revela-
tion mentions that she heard voices bidding her go for-
ward. She listened further, and, the voices giving assur-
ance that the village whither she was tending would be
compassionate, she proceeded; and there she met Poru-
shaspa, whom she subsequently married. And this di-
vine radiance, or glory, passed on down to Zoroaster, her
son.3

Another story current among the Iranians at this time
is that the production of Zaratust was caused by his
parents drinking Horn juice, infused with cow’s milk; the
Horn, being a plant or shrub, that grew in the mountains
of Persia, and when pounded and the juice squeezed out
and mixed with milk it became pleasant to the taste. It
was used as a libation in ceremonial worship; and the

3   Dinkard 7, S. B E, ch 2; 7 to 9
 48

DIVINE RADIANCE AT HIS BIRTH

Jews,4 as told in the book of Numbers, probably copied
as to their drink offering from the Iranian Horn juice
worship. But besides pouring “strong wine to the Lord”;
the Jews went beyond this, and poured drink-offerings
unto other Gods.

§ 2. It has been, and will be further noticed, that
there are many parallels and striking resemblances be-
tween what is said of Zoroaster and his religion, and later
moral heroes, and their religions. I shall give dates and
other matters, as far as attainable, that the reader may
judge if one has been, or is, copied from the other.

We may now notice the following: The New Testa-
ment distinctly sets forth that a star came and stood over
the place where Jesus was bom; and that Herod sought
to destroy him. But many centuries before Jesus came
more marvelous things were written and told in the Per-
sian Bible about Zoroaster. For three days before he
was born the whole village where his father lived became
luminous. A divine radiance or light encircled his fath-
er’s house: and the child laughed outright as he came into
the world. Those present, who saw and heard these
strange occurrences, wondered much, and some were
frightened. Thereupon Porushaspa, the father, visited
Durasrobo, an idolatrous priest, hard by, renowned for
his sorcery and witchcraft, and the child was pronounced
foolish. This fatal piece of information so wrought
upon the mind of the father that he gave his consent
that the Karap 5 might at once make way with the babe.

4   See Numbers, ch. 28, V. 7. Jeremiah 19, v. 13.

5   S. B. E., Vol. 47, ch. 3. Those wizards were called
Karaps.
 ATTEMPT TO MURDER HIM

49

Thereat, the wizard sought to compress and twist the
head of the child to cause his death. Instantly an invisi-
ble power stayed his hand—withered it; and it fell
harmless at his side. The Karap, in pain and alarm at
this unknown power, seized the infant and threw him in
front of a herd of cattle that he might be trampled to
death. But an old Ox, at the head of the column, stood
guard over the child while the drove, on either side,
passed him by. A similar attempt was made by throwing
the child in front of a herd of horses, and the leader
stood guard, the same as the Ox. The wizard then un-
dertook to burn the babe, and heaped a great pile of
wood; and put the infant thereon; but the fire would not
bum; thus was the child thrice saved. This story is
many centuries older than that of Herod and Jesus—was
this later story a copy?^

ZOROASTER AND THE WOLF.

§ 3. If the reader can believe that Daniel was thrown
into a den of hungry lions, and there remained over
night, and came out unharmed, it will not be very trying
for him to credit the story of Zoroaster and the wolf.
The Persian legend surely surpasses, if possible, the
Jewish one; both being very improbable. The strange
happenings, above mentioned, have so shattered Poru-

Kavis and Karaps. Of course every one is familiar with
the story that Herod sought to kill Jesus. But outside
of the New Testament there is no mention of Herod’s
order to slay the innocents; nor does history, other than
the Persian Bible or its commentaries, make mention of
this attempt to kill Zoroaster.
 50

FLUNG INTO A WOLFY DEN

shaspa’s mind that he consents that his son may be
thrown into a wolf’s den, her cubs being first killed to
make her more furious. But two angels are on guard,
Vohuman, the angel of good thought; and Srosh, the
angel of obedience; and they close the Wolf’s mouth.6

In the case of Daniel it took only one angel to close
the mouths of a den of lions. But Vohuman and Srosh
did not cease their ministrations with the closing of the
wolf’s mouth; the babe was hungry; and during the night
they brought a sheep, her udder being full of milk, into
the den, and it gave suck to the famished child. At dawn
the mother of the babe ran into the lair, expecting to find
only the bones of her child, but found him safe, and up-
braided her husband bitterly, that the wolf was kinder
to her child than its father.

Here we may consider that if God saved Daniel from
the lions, and if he knows all things, he knew that the
Persian child was born to preach a better religion than
the Karaps and the Wizards were doing. The Persians
being older and a more numerous people than the Jews,
why should they not have a teacher to direct them in
the right paths? The Lord, it would seem, was mindful
of them, surely.

Zoroaster lived long centuries before Daniel, and if
either story is suggested or copied from the other, with
the variations above mentioned, that of the lions is surely
subsequent to that of the wolf.7

Another parallel will be here noticed. Jesus at twelve
is found in the Temple, in the midst of the wise men

6   Dinkard 7, ch. 3, § 16, and Dink., p. 146.

7   Dinkard, Book 7, ch. 3, § 46.
 REVERENCES THE POOR

51

hearing and asking questions.8 Zoroaster at seven years
is engaged in a religious discussion with the Karaps and
declares that he reverences the poor, and the righteous,
but not the wicked. If we may trust the Dinkard, he
early began to manifest wonderful intellectual powers,
and an exalted mind filled with a desire for righteous-
ness.

The same authority speaks of the beauty of his person,
and the grandeur of his character, which fitted him for
the priesthood, or warriorship, and that he was an enemy
to everything vile. Such gifts of heaven, in any age,
stamp their possessor as a born leader of men. If the
warrior spirit predominates, he marshals armies and sub-
dues empires. If devoutly inclined, he remodels and
reforms old religions or establishes a new one.

§ 4. Whether it be true, as stated in the Zartust-Nama,
that Porushaspa placed the future prophet at the age
of seven in charge of a noted teacher for instruction, we
have no certain means of knowing. Educational matters,
at that early period, were highly primitive, and rudimen-
tary; and what he was taught, we can only conjecture.
If he lived only thirty-five hundred years ago it is prob-
able that the learning of Egypt, prior to his coming, had
penetrated to the Oxus, and beyond. As far back as five
thousand years ago the civilization of Egypt was won-
derful. In truth, Egypt was the land of learning, and
her people, as Herodotus mentions, “were excessively
attentive to the Gods.” The Greeks borrowed nearly all
the names of their Gods from the Egyptians. Rome did

8 Luke 2, vs. 42 to 49.
 52

THE SACRED SHIRT

the same. The Egyptians assigned a particular God to
preside over each of the thirty days of the month; the
Iranians, at least in the later Avesta, followed, with
especial care, this example.

It is possible, nay, it is probable, that Zoroaster’s in-
structor may have been a learned Egyptian scholar; for
he could not be very learned, unless he knew much of
that extraordinary people. But that matter will be con-
sidered further along; it being only necessary to here
add that Zoroaster, after the age of seven, like other
Parsee children, was allowed to wear the sacred shirt.
This was a loose tunic, of white, with short sleeves; the
body of it reaching below the waist. Jews, Greeks and
Romans, afterward adopted this form of dress, except
that they made them much longer. The Dinkard calls it
“the Star spangled garment.” At the age of fifteen,
young persons tied it on with the sacred girdle, in token
that sin was ended.9

Whether the putting on of the sacred shirt was in
vogue before Zaratust’s time, is not so clear; but we are
sure that the religious formula of the girdle (Kusti) was
known and practiced long before the separation of the
Hindu Aryans, from the Aryans of Iran.10 The Hindus
called it the sacred cord; the Iranians the sacred-thread
girdle. The former wore it over the left shoulder and

9   Dinkard, Vol. 37, S. B. E., p. 474; also Dadistan, ch.
38, § 22. Isaiah, ch. 59, v. 17. Put on a garment of
vengeance.

10   That separation took place more than 4,300 years
ago.
 THE SACRED GIRDLE

53

tinder the right arm; the Iranians passed it three times
around the waist.

After Zartust brought the good religion the girdle was
put on with a solemn religious ceremony, and was worn
as a sign of worship. The man or woman about to as-
sume the girdle, recites a prayer: “May Ahura Mazda be
Lord, and Aharam (the Devil) be unprevailing, smitten
and defeated. May the demons, fiends, wizards, Kavis and
Karpans, tyrants, sinners, apostates, and enemies, be
smitten and defeated. May enemies be confounded. Or-
mazd is the Lord. I renounce all sin, all evil thoughts,
evil words, evil deeds. For sins of thought, word and
deed, do thou pardon. I am penitent. I have scorn for
Aharman. Righteousness is the best good, a blessing it
is. Perfect rectitude is a blessing. Come to my protection,
O! Ormazd! A Mazda worshipper am I. I praise the
Mazda religion, the best and most excellent of things. I
profess (Ashem-vohu) holiness is the best of all good.” 11

11   The prayer is quite long and I have abridged it
somewhat, but have omitted only repetitions. See p. 383,
Dadistin. The girdle consisted of six strands; each
strand having twelve fine white woolen.
 CHAPTER IV.

[Prometheus]

ZOROASTER FROM FIFTEEN TO TWENTY YEARS.

§ I. When Zoroaster had attained the age of fifteen
his brothers 1 demanded of Porushaspa, their father, their
portions. And among the goods there was a girdle, and
instead of wealth the future prophet wound the sacred
girdle about himself, in token of his devotion to the Lord.
If the other brothers demanded a girdle there is no record
of it, and even if they sought one the luster and halo
that surrounds the great name of their illustrious brother
so overshadows them that they are left in dark obscurity.

Such things as risking himself to assist some aged
people across a swollen and treacherous river, and in
feeding the famine-stricken beasts of burden from his
father’s crib, are blazoned forth as indicating a heart
touched with sympathetic emotions. Those unknown
brothers may have joined him in those generous acts, but
history and tradition pass them by without mention.

We next catch a glimpse of him when, at the age of
twenty, abandoning worldly desires, and seeking only
righteousness, he leaves home without the consent of his
parents, and goes forth filled with compassion to assist

1   We are told that he had two brothers older than him-
self, and two younger. These were not children of
Dugdhova. Polygamy, then, was common; and Poru-
shaspa must have had at least three wives, one of whom
preceded the mother of the prophet.

54
 PERSIANS TRUTHFUL

55

the poor. That which is most favorable to the soul, he
says, is to nourish the poor, give fodder to hungry cattle,
keep the holy fires burning, and to reclaim the wicked.2

There is one matter which concerns the whole Iranian
people, that ought to be here mentioned. Their love of
truth-speaking was cultivated to such an extent as to
cause Herodotus, who wrote four hundred and forty
years B. C. to make special mention of it.3

He says that to tell a lie is "considered by them as the
greatest disgrace. Beginning at the age of five, they in-
struct their sons in three things only: to ride, to use the
bow, and to speak the truth.” The teaching of this
ancient people, in the matter of truth-speaking, no doubt
proceeded from the prophet; for we shall further along
see that he fought the lie-demon, during all his mature
life.

§ 2. There is a tradition that has floated along for a
thousand years, that the prophet lived in a desert or wil-
derness, twenty years, on cheese. This is so highly ques-
tionable that we dismiss it, by asking where he obtained
this peculiar diet? Or was the cheese brought to him
that he might eat it there? He may have fasted some-
what; Jesus fasted; John the Baptist lived in the wilder-
ness on locusts and wild-honey; Buddah fasted until he
nearly perished. The Jews, later on, and yet, have their
periods of fasting; and it is not improbable that Zoroas-
ter fasted for a time. But the statement that his diet, for
twenty years, consisted solely of cheese is absurd; and

2   Zad-Sparam, Vol. 47, S. B. E., ch. 20, § 7 to § 16.

3   Herodotus-Clio, 1, 138. He was bom 484 years B. C.
 56

HOLY MOUNTAINS

only crept into history through one of the fables of the
Zartust-Namah.4

Another tradition is that in the beginning of his
career he lived in solitude, in a cave, on the top of a high
mountain, the Persian Sinai. This was the “mount of the
Holy Questionings”; where he held communion, it is said,
with the Most High. The mountain quaked and flamed
and burned up, but the prophet escaped without harm.
Is chapter 19, Exodus, copied from this; or is this a weak
imitation of Moses at Sinai?

The Lord, we are told, descended upon Sinai in fire,
and “the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a fur-
nace, and the whole mount did quake greatly. And the
Lord came down upon Mt. Sinai/’ Now, the Parsees
believed, and the remnant of them yet stoutly insist, that
the Lord talked with Zoroaster “on the Mountain of the
Holy Questionings.” They persistently believe that the
Lord, there, taught their prophet the good religion, and
that he was the Divine Instrument to teach it to the peo-
ple. They insist that the Avesta—their Bible—is the
inspired word of God.5

The compilers of Exodus may have read the Avesta;
and, on the other hand, the Iranian sage may have known
of the teachings of Moses. This much, however, is cer-
tain ; they both taught that there was one God, the Crea-
tor and Ruler of the Universe. But which of those

4   Zartust-Namah is a fabulous life of the prophet, writ-
ten in the thirteenth century A. D. It is a grain of wheat
to a bushel of chaff.

5   The Christian Church will not admit this; nay, it
dare not, lest it go to pieces.
 WORSHIPPED ON MOUNTAINS

57

great souls, Moses or Zoroaster, antedates the other, who
can tell? We are, however, certain of this: that high
mountains, the wilderness, deserts and caves, have, in the
history of the race, played conspicuous parts. At the
period when the earth was supposed to be flat, a high
mountain was thought to be nearer heaven, and the Gods
did not have so far to travel, and could make the journey
to the earth more easily.

§ 3. The Iranians canonized their holy mountain in
a hymn of praise. They say “We worship the mountain
that gives us understanding of the law. We worship it
with offerings and libations by day and by night.” “We
worship all the Holy creations of Ahura.” “We worship
Ahura, who smites the fierce Angra Mainyu.” “We wor-
ship Thee, Omarzda, who will give life in the blissful
abode of the Holy Ones.” “We come to Thee for help,
O, Lord, Ashem-Vohu, Holiness is the best of all good.” 6

There has been much discussion as to which of these
mountains shall have precedence, as to those marvelous
sayings about them. The reasoning is as follows:

The separation of the Hindu Aryans, from those of
Iran, took place forty-three hundred years ago, and pos-
sibly before that date. Now, if the Iranian mountain
episode or tradition had been prevalent before the separa-
tion some mention of it would probably be found in the
Rigveda. But concerning this matter, it is absolutely
silent. Therefore, the Zoroastrian Sinai (the Mountain

6   Ormazd-Yast, § 31, etc., S. B. E., Vol. 23. The name
of this mountain is Osdastar, and it is in Seistan. It is
the Sinai of the Iranians. Ahura there revealed the Law
to Zoroaster.
 58 IRANIANS OLDER THAN THE HEBREWS

of the Holy Questionings), and all that is said to have
happened there, is perhaps later than four thousand three
hundred years ago. But the separation above mentioned
was at least eight hundred years before Moses led those
Hebrew slaves out of Egypt. The Iranians are, there-
fore, an older people than the Hebrews. They were in
Bactria, and along the Oxus, at least eight hundred years
before the Hebrews fed upon manna in the Wilderness.

§ 4. The period of Moses, at the time of the happen-
ings at Sinai (if such things really did happen), and if
the Chronology of the Jewish Bible is correct, was about
fifteen hundred years B. C. Was Zoroaster in existence
at that time? Did he live before that date, or subse-
quently? These questions cannot be safely and surely
answered, either in the affirmative or the negative. Of
course, those writers who stand in dread of Genesis, will
reply that Zoroaster was a Persian, living about six hun-
dred years B. C.

While this late date for him is certainly wrong, it may
be that his period is not so far back as the alleged date
of Moses. But the date and supposed writing of Moses
are assailed. We are told that he did not write the Penta-
teuch, and that Ezra and Nehemiah, about five hundred
years B. C., compiled some old Jewish legends and what
records they could find, and thus gave us the books cred-
ited to Moses. We are cited to Second Kings, chapter
22, where Hilkiah, the high priest, about six hundred and
twenty years B. C., says he found the book of Deuter-
onomy in the House of the Lord. If Moses wrote that
book, it lay hidden about nine hundred years. If written
on paper or papyrus, the folios would be rotten in five
hundred years. If on cowhides, the ink would fade long
 ZOROASTER’S MARRIAGE

59

before nine hundred years. The “find” was, therefore, a
recent production. Then arises the question: If Deuter-
onomy was not written until six hundred years B. C.,
when were the other books of the Pentateuch produced?
Were they not all written long subsequently to thirty-
four hundred years ago? Regarding both of these state-
ments about the mountains, and the fire, and the conver-
sations with the Lord, if a person writing to-day were to
make such assertions, he would be discredited at once.
We can readily believe a legend that has consistency
about it, one that is not so utterly at variance with all our
experience; but when a legend, or the record of one, about
the improbable is given us for a sober verity, we have a
right to be suspicions and to question it.

The legend that when Zoroaster wished to get married
his father went in search of a wife for him, and that the
son insisted that the young lady should show her face
before the espousals, is not hard to believe. It is pre-
cisely what any sensible young man would wish to see
before the ceremony. Our credulity is not, in such a
case, taxed.

Marriage, however, must have been a pleasant condi-
tion for him, as we are told that he married three wives;
and they were all living in his life time. We frown upon
this; but polygamy with the Iranians, as with the Jews,
was not only tolerated, but it was approved. David had
numerous wives, and Solomon, not to be surpassed, took
seven hundred, and for good measure, added three hun-
dred concubines.7

7   ist Kings, XI, 3. Solomon alas had so many wives
that “they turned away his heart.”
 60

HIS CHILDREN

§ 5. Zoroaster, by his first wife, had one son and three
daughters; by his second, two sons; and by Hvovi, no
earthly children were born.8 But here again, legend
comes in, to say that Hvovi shall become the mother of
three sons: Hushedar, Hushedar-mah, and Soshyans; all
of the seed of the prophet. The angel Neryosang, it is
said, took charge of this seed, and a myriad of guardian
spirits are protecting it; and by these sons, who are to be
born at later and different periods, the renovation of the
world will be accomplished. Hushedar is to be born
first, and will bring in the first Millennium, at which time
the renovation of the universe will take place. He will
have a conference with the Lord; and when he comes
away from that conference he will far surpass Joshua.
For he will say to the swift horse, the sun, “stand still,”
and the sun will stand still ten days and nights. And
when he cries “Move on,” the sun will move on; and
all mankind will then believe in the good religion of
Mazda.9

8   Bund., ch. 32, § 7, and note.

9   The reader will smile at this foolish nonsense; for he
will know that the earth is traveling around the sun at
the rate of about 1,580,000 miles each day. Now Joshua
halted it only one day. He was kind enough to let it
move on during the night. He only wanted it to stop
long enough for his people to avenge themselves on their
enemies. (Joshua X, 13.) Hushedar, evidently, desires
a miracle for the purpose of “getting all mankind to be-
lieve in the good religion.” Bundahis, pp. 231 and 232,
Vol. 5, S. B. E. Part 1. Of course, both of these legends
are so utterly false and untrue that comment is unneces-
sary.

Shakespeare would say, “a plague on both of your
houses.”
 CHAPTER V.

Zoroaster’s vision.

§ i. How long and how deeply Zoroaster pondered
the great problems of the future destiny of the human
family, before he commenced his crusade against the idol-
atrous practices which he everywhere saw around him,
we cannot definitely state. But if we rely upon those two
uncertain guides—Zad-Sparam and Zartust-Nama—he
was between fifteen and twenty years old before he be-
came definitely fixed in his opinions, and determined on
his course of action.

We recognize at once that he is a man of unsurpassed
courage, patience, and determination; for he labors ten
years before he secures his first convert. This was his
cousin, Medyomah. Perhaps some of those ten years
were passed in seclusion, on the mountains already re-
ferred to. He may have wandered about the country
preaching and teaching the doctrines which he, subse-
quently, emphasized in the Persian Bible. But we cannot,
for a moment believe that in one of those journeys he
passed through a sea whose waters receded and fell back
to allow him a dry passage. This foolish statement, made
in the Zartust-Nama, is probably copied from Second
Kings (chapter 2d), where Elijah smote the waters of
the Jordan with his mantle and they parted hither and
thither, so that he went over on dry land. But if it be
found difficult to credit the story of the parting of the

61
 62

AN ARCHANGEL MEETS HIM

waters, how shall we credit that which is about to fol-
low? We are told that at the age of thirty, while walk-
ing in a solitary plain, he caught a vision of Medyona, at
the head of a mighty concourse of people, coming from
the North. This was a cheering omen to him, that the
good religion would yet attract all mankind.

He was then on his way to the river of conference (the
Daitu), which he crossed; but this stream did not part
its waters for him. He waded it. And just at break of
day, as he came up from the water, and was putting on
his clothes, he caught sight of the Archangel, Vonu-
Mano, approaching him. He was not startled at the
vision; for it was in the human form; handsome and ele-
gantly dressed in silk, though it was nine times larger
than man.1 The angel seems to have been aware of the
toils, the aspirations and hopes of the Prophet, and has
come to show him the splendors of the Eternal Presence.
“Whom mayest thou be, and what is thy great desire ?”
the angel asks, and the Prophet replies: “I am Zartust
of the Spitamas : righteousness is my chief desire, and
my wish is to know and do the will of the sacred beings,
as they show me.”

The angel directs the Prophet to lay aside his mortal
vestments, his body; that they may proceed to the assem-
bly of the just and confer with the Almighty. This being
done, they go forward on foot, for the record is, that
Vohumano walked as much in nine steps as Zartust did
in ninety. The Iranian heaven has doors, the same as

1   We must not be surprised at this, for Isaiah saw the
Lord sitting on his throne, high and lifted up. Isaiah, ch.
6. Sacred Book of the East, Vol. 47, p. 156.
 THEY VISIT HEAVEN

63

the Jewish heaven; there are also windows in the Jewish
heaven. But the Jewish heaven further surpasses the
Iranian, in that it has horses of different colors.2

§ 2. As the Angel and the Prophet approach the Ira-
nian heaven the brilliancy of the Archangels becomes so
great that there is not a shadow in that glorious abode.
Ormazd is there, presiding. Zartust offers homage to
Him and to the Archangels, and takes a seat among
them. Here he is initiated into all the mysteries and mar-
vels that will greet the ecstatic soul on the eternal shore.

The Prophet questions the Almighty as to the perfec-
tion of the Saints; and Ormazd makes answer, that the
first perfection is “good thoughts; the second, good
words; and the third, good deeds.” And he admonished
him, that the carrying out of the commands of the Arch-
angels, is the best of all habits. Then the Lord explained
to Zaroaster that the evil spirits practice iniquities, be-
cause they love darkness; and their thoughts, words, and
deeds, are in eternal divergence and conflict from those
loving the light.

Zoroaster is favored with three audiences by the Om-
niscient One the same day. The Archangels, thereupon,
expressed a desire to test his faith by having him walk
through fire, which he did, and was not burned. They
then poured melted metal upon his breast, and he was
unharmed. But this was not enough. They slashed his

2   Gen., 7. The windows of heaven were opened, etc.
Rev., 4, St. John saw a door, and behold it was opened.
Rev., 6. He saw horses, red, white and pale, etc. The
Iranian heaven is located in Iran. Vol. 47, S. B. E., p.

!57’

[Prometheus]

64

HIS FAITH TESTED

abdomen, in a vital part, with a knife, so that the blood
gushed forth; but the supposed mortal wound was in-
stantly healed by rubbing the hand lightly over it.

Shall we inquire whether these startling, marvelous
and incredible statements precede, or are they faint re-
flections from those other marvelous sayings in the book
of Daniel (ch. 3) where Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-
nego are bound, in their coats and hats, and flung into a
fiery furnace, heated seven times hotter than it was wont
to be heated? And, did those three persons really come
forth from that furnace with not a hair of their heads
singed, or their garments burned?

Respecting these extreme tests mentioned in the Iranian
scriptures I will add that they are set forth to prove that
the religion of Ormazd is the true one. So, also, was the
furnace-story of Meshach written to prove that the God
of the Hebrews was the only true God. For the same
reason St. Mark (ch. 16) states that a believer in Jesus
may drink any deadly thing, and he shall not be harmed.3

The careful reader will at once detect contradictions in
this Iranian legend; for let it be borne in mind that
Vohumano told Zoroaster to lay aside his body4 so that
he might confer with the Lord. While at that conference
the angels tested the Prophet by pouring hot metal on his
chest, and by wounding him with a knife, until the blood
gushed forth. That writer overlooked the fact that a
disembodied spirit hath neither flesh nor blood.

3   But the test in Mark seems never to have been made.
It is too dangerous to be attempted.

4   The Dinkard says, Vol. 47, S. B. E., p. 49. Deposit
this one garment, meaning the body, the vesture of the
soul.
 A VISION OF ANGELS

65*

Of course, no sane mind will believe that Zoroaster
actually obtained a personal audience with Ormazd, and
received by word of mouth from him directions and in-
structions as to establishing his religion. Did he, like St.
John on the Isle of Patmos, in the spirit see these mar-
vels above mentioned? St. John says he saw a throne,
and one that sat thereon; and he saw four and twenty
seats, and four and twenty elders, clothed in white, sit-
ting upon those seats. He saw, also, seven angels. Now
the Iranian Bible has seven amshaspands (angels). Per-
haps St. John saw the amshaspands themselves.

§ 3. The earlier Gathas, those believed to have been
actually composed by the Prophet, do not go to the ex-
travagant length of St. John in Patmos, or the writers
of the Dinkard. Those Gathas are exhortations and
prayers, in meter, repeated again and again, of a strug-
gling Saint, who seeks to know how he may approach the
Good Mind more devoutly. And the nearest approach to a
conference found in them is where the Prophet speaks of
the Herald sent to him by Ormazd, and the Herald asks
what he most desires?5 But if we turn our backs upon
the Dinkard, the Bundahis, Zad-Sparam, and other like
records, we shall have an imperfect picture of early Ira-
nian times, and perhaps of the Prophet himself. If we
take the middle ground between an actual conference with
Ormazd, and a vision, or trance, whereby the mind sees,
or seems to see, objects intangible and invisible to the
natural eye, we may well suppose that the Prophet’s

5   Yasna, 43, § 9.
 TUR, THE SCANTY GIVER

elysian of joy came to an abrupt end when his enraptured
soul returned to his body. For he found that the real
battle of life was now to begin.

He was, it must be remembered, thirty years of age,
and with great earnestness 6 he began inviting all man-
kind to the religion of Ormazd. His methods are aggres-
sive; and he boldly announces that he declares doctrines
‘'till then unheard7 and he prays for a “Mighty King-
dom, by whose force he may smite the Lie-demon.” He
called unto all the world to extol righteousness, and to
resist the demons. The demons here mentioned are the
Kigs and Karpans, unbelievers and heretics. But when
he invited them and the nobles of the realm to the reli-
gion of Ormazd, they clamored for his death.

But Tur, called the scanty giver, the ruler of the Prov-
ince, would not allow the Prophet to be harmed; though
neither the “scanty-giver” nor any of his nobles or follow-
ers would lend an ear to the hew religion.

Zoroaster, in rebuke of his treatment, exclaims on go-
ing forth: “I tell thee, thou Tur, and scanty-giver, that
thou art a stricken and smitten supplicant for righteous-
ness ; a producer of lamentation, worthy of death.” 8

§ 4. He had made the mistake of commencing the ref-
ormation of the Iranian religion, by preaching to princes
and nobles; they spurned him and thrust him out. Jesus,
walking by the sea of Galilee, and seeing two fishermen,
Simon and Andrew, casting their nets, said:   “Follow

me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And straight-

6   “With a loud voice.” Dink., 7, ch. 4, § 2.

7   Yasma, 31, § § 1 and 4.

8   Dinkard, 7, ch. 4, § 20.
 HIS FIRST CONVERTS ARE THE POOR

67

way they followed him. The common people, the poor
and the humble are the first to embrace any new-born
faith. The nobles and the rich patrician Jews held to
Saduceeism long after the masses had changed their faith
and become Pharisees. Methodism started in an obscure
corner, neither princes nor plutocrats were there. It was
born among the poor.

Patrician Romans persistently clung to Paganism gen-
erations after the lower classes had become Catholic.
Luther, on foot, and on his way to Augsberg to combat
Tetzel, and his indulgences, and later leaving by stealth
to escape capture and imprisonment, is but a picture
made some thousands of years later of Zoroaster escap-
ing with his life from Tur, the scanty-giver. From Tur,
the Prophet trudges wearily towards Vadevost, a rich old
Karap, who clings to his wealth with all the tenacity of a
Morgan or a Rockefeller. Vadevost is living in luxurious
splendor, and is the owner of vast herds of cattle and
horses. Slaves come and go at his bidding; streams of
wealth, from various sources, are pouring in upon him.
His rent roll is no doubt large. He is the prototype of
the Goulds and the Vanderbilts, of a later period. Zar-
tust asks a gift of some of this wealth for Ormazd; and
promises Vadevost further splendor and glory if he com-
plies. With the arrogance of a newly-fledged American
Nabob the Karap shouted back, “there is no opulence
for me in that. Besides my flocks and herds I have
many droves of a thousand swine;9 I am more opulent
than Ormazd himself.” For this insolence a retribution,

9   He would, to-day, say “there is no money in that.,,
Vol. 47, S. B. E., ch. 4, §§ 24 and 25.
 68

KARP AN S WOULD DESTROY HIM

which was to be meted to him after death, was pro-
nounced against him, and he was left for the present with
his vanity and his riches.

Thence Zoroaster journeyed to Seistan, on the borders
of Afghanistan, and presented himself before Parshad,
another provincial chief, and besought him to praise
righteousness and resist the demons. To this he con-
sented, but by no insistence would he accept the religion
of Mazda. Here, again, the Karpans sought the Prophet’s
destruction, but he saved himself by chanting the Ahun-
avair.10

10   Yatha-ahuna Vairyo (Ahunavair), “The will of the
Lord is the law of righteousness. The gifts of Vohu-
Mano, to the deeds done in the world for Mazda, etc.”
This prayer was thought to possess great efficiency in
thwarting evil-doers.
 CHAPTER VI.

MORE VISIONS, CONFERENCES AND TEMPTATIONS.

All religions deal in the marvelous. It is a marvel if
God talked to Moses and Abraham. It is marvelous that
the Angels ate Abraham’s calf.1 It is amazing if Elijah
could smite the waters of Jordan with his mantle and
compel them to roll back hither and thither, so that he
could pass. It is a marvel that Jesus could walk upon
the waters, and another marvel that after his crucifixion
his body could rise up into the sky; that is, if it did ?

It is as great a marvel that Zoroaster talked with Or-
mazd as that Adam and Moses and Abraham talked with
God. But preternatural things and preternatural beings
make up the volume of all religions. Now, if we brush
these all aside, do we not make a great rent in the world ?
If angels really did appear, and lend a helping hand to
the Hebrews, is there any reason why they should with-
hold their good offices from Zoroaster and his people?
It would seem that the Karpans and heretics of Iran
needed reformation, as well as the idolatrous Jews. The
Iranian Scriptures tell us that Zoroaster had six other

1   They not only ate his calf, but they ate his milk and
butter. Gen., ch. 18, v. 7 and 8. The angels did not
come away without their dinner, for it was in the heat of
the day when Abraham sat in his tent; so it must have
been noon when they approached him.

69
 70

ANGELS DIRECT HIM

conferences with the angels, besides the one already men-
tioned. The first was with Vohumano, who instructed
him as to the care and protection of animals. The next
conference was with the angel Asha-Vahista, who en-
joined him to guard the sacred fires and places of wor-
ship. Then came the angel Shatvar, who directed him as
to the preservation of metals, that he might have domin-
ion over them. Spendarmad, the female Archangel, who
is also called “Bountiful Devotion” and has charge of
the earth, and virtuous women, advised him as to their
care.

In the sixth conference, the Spirits of the Seas and
Rivers came to instruct him. Lastly, the Spirits of Plants
came to him and told him of their care.

These several conferences were held when the Prophet
was between thirty and forty years of age. They ended
when he was forty, and the places of meeting, of the
last ones, were near the southern extremity of the Cas-
pian.2

These archangels admonished and warned Zoroaster
that the idolaters, the Kavi, Karpans, and skeptics, deaf
and blind to the truths he was about to proclaim, would
beset his path, and that at every turn the demons would
seek his ruin. But the angels gave him assurance that
whenever the demons made their assaults he could in-
stantly shatter their schemes and put them to flight by
chanting aloud the Ahunavair.3

2   The Daraga river is mentioned, but the locality of
that stream is uncertain.

3   See note at foot of preceding chapter.
 REFORMS ALWAYS OPPOSED

71

§ 2. People to-day, and all along the centuries, as to
their religion, are, and have been, very much like the
Kavis and Karpans in that far-off period. Any innova-
tion upon established methods was objected to and was
fought to the bitter end. Luther met a similar opposi-
tion. Jesus undertook a great reform, and was nailed
to a tree. Wyckliffe (B. 1320 A. D.), for preaching and
teaching ecclesiastical reforms, died before he could be
executed. But after he had lain in his grave thirty years
a Catholic council ordered his bones dug up and burned.
John Huss, the great Bohemian reformer, for the same
reason, as late as 1415 A. D., was publicly burned at the
stake, and his ashes were thrown into the Rhine. John
Calvin, that blood-thirsty old Presbyterian, about three
hundred and fifty years ago, caused Servetus to be cre-
mated on a pile of faggots because he disbelieved in the
Trinity.4 Even up to this hour schismatics are punished
by the churches; but the stake and the faggot are super-
seded by censure and expulsion. Need we, therefore,
wonder that Iran’s great teacher, in those earlier and
more savage times, encountered a fierce and deadly oppo-
sition ?

§ 3. If we may believe the Vendidad, the Archangers
premonition and promise were soon put to the test; for we
are told 5 that Angra-Mainyu (an actual personal devil)
sent Biuti, one of his demons, to kill the Prophet, and that
the Prophet, to save himself, chanted the Ahunavair.

4   If that old bigot were alive to-day, and was to engage
in that line of business, he would be obliged to have
numerous bonfires.

5   Ch. 19, Vendidad.
 72

ANGRA-MAINYU TEMPTS HIM

Biuti, on hearing of this, rushed, dismayed away, and
reported to Angra-Mainyu, the superior arch-fiend, that
the glory of Zartust was so great that it was impossible
to kill him.

The same chapter (19) is a riddle of perplexities; for it
tells us that the Prophet went forward, swinging stones
in his hand, as big as a house, which Ahura-Mazda gave
him. Whereat, the devil asked him, “Why dost thou
swing those stones? The Prophet answered: “To smite
the creations of the devil; to smite idolatry; and I will
smite it until the victorious Soshyant shall come up to
life.” 6 When this threat is made the Devil replies: “By
thy mother I was invoked,” 7 and he begs Zoroaster not
to destroy his creatures and promises him that if he will
renounce the good religion of Mazda he will make him
the ruler of nations for a thousand years.8

This intended bribe is spurned by Zoroaster, who de-
clares, “That not for my life, even should my body be
torn, will I renounce the good religion.” The Devil is
not yet satisfied, and asks, “By whose word and with
what weapons wilt thou smite my creatures ?” The Saint
replies, “O, Angra-Mainyu, evil-doer, the good spirit

6   Soshyant is the unborn son of Zoroaster, who is to
come bringing resurrection and the restoration of the
world.

7   This sentence plainly implies that Zoroaster’s reli-
gion was different from his mother’s. His was a re-
formed belief.

8   That is, he should gain such a boon as Vadhagnd
gained, who ruled one thousand years. Vend., 19, § 6.
(20) This temptation of the Devil precedes Jesus by a
thousand of years.
 OTHER TEMPTATIONS

73

made the creation. He made it in the boundless time.
The sacred cups; the Haoma; the Word; these are my
weapons. By these will I strike and repel thee.” 9 10

§ 4. It must be borne in mind that the Vendidad was
composed after Zoroaster’s period. Our Gospels were
likewise composed long after Jesus’ death, and they are
supposed to reflect what happened to their great actor.1®
Now, as to Zoroaster, if anything is certain, it is that
he speaks in the Gathas; and they bear the same stem
impress of what is said in the Vendidad. However, these
lines from the Iranian source must not be passed lightly
by. That temptation there set forth is the great proto-
type and pattern of others that have followed. These
others are believed to be copies, dressed up a little, to
meet changed times and conditions; yet they are written
in books, and hundreds of millions of people believe and
trust in the copies, but not the original.

Let us see as to this. About five hundred years B. C.
Gautama, the Buddha, who lived centuries later than
Zoroaster, started out to lead a life of penance, fasting
and prayer. He had not gone far when suddenly Mara,
the evil one, appeared, hovering over him, in the sky.
This devil, seeming to know the purpose of Gautama,
called out to him, saying, “You are a prince of earth;

9   The followers of Jesus use the sacred cup, with wine,
for their Homa; and St. John’s mention of the Word
finds its antecedent here in the Parsee religion, long be-
fore Galilee, and the crucifixion were heard of.

10   The first Gospel composed after the death of Jesus
was written A. D. 90, and one hundred years elapsed
before we had any such Gospels. The truth is three of
the Gospels were written in the second century.

[Prometheus]

 74

MYTHS AND LEGENDS

do not go away and lead the life of a mendicant. If you
will return to your father’s palace, I will, in seven days,
make you a Monarch. You shall rule over four great
continents.” The bribe or temptation failed, and Buddha
led a life of sanctity. Thus the truth or legend of the
Vendidad had traveled along with passing generations,
keeping step with the ages, and was finally written as a
fact into Hindu records. To-day more than three hun-
dred and fifty millions of people believe in this trans-
planted legend.

§ 5. But myths and legends lose nothing by lapse of
years. This same legend, slightly varied, looms high in
the New Testament.11 Let us, for a moment, carefully,
and with reverence, examine it. We are told that uJesus
was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the Devil.” We are not told who led him up. Did
the evil one? Now, he was led up on purpose to be
tempted; but what was the purpose of this temptation?
Was it to see if he would lapse and* abandon his high
mission, or was it to set an example for all time that
men should resist, when tempted?

After forty days of fasting the devil, knowing that he
was weak and exhausted from his long vigil, came and
took him up into the Holy City and sat him on a pinna-
cle of the temple. A pinnacle, we know, is a slender
turret, or cupola, elevated above the rest of the building.
How the devil got Jesus up there we are not told. Did
he climb a ladder? Did he carry him? He may have
dragged him; he may have coaxed him; he may have
seized him; and hustled him through the air. But when

11 Matthew, ch. 4.
 MORE TEMPTATIONS

75

he got him up there, he sat him on the pinnacle. How
long he sat there we are not tpld. It was at least a very
prominent place to be sitting. Did any one see him sit-
ting there? It was at a dangerous height. Somebody
must have observed this strange performance. *There sits
Jesus, at that dizzy height, on the pinnacle of the temple;
but as he was a carpenter he may have climbed to such
awful elevations before. Zoroaster, we are told, went
forward swinging stones in his hands, as big as a house,
to smite the wicked one.12 It must not be overlooked
that all these devils are represented as living, acting, and
talking. It is plain that Zoroaster possessed a more war-
like spirit than did Jesus; for he would smite the devil;
but Jesus merely said, "Get thee hence, Satan.”

When Buddha was tempted, angels came to his assist-
ance, and frightened the fiends away. In the temptation
of Jesus, the devil is not yet satisfied; for he takes him
from the pinnacle of the temple up into an exceeding high
mountain, and shows him all the Kingdoms of the World,
and he offers them all to him if he will fall down and
worship him.

Now, here are three supposed great temptations, to
three great religious teachers. Worldly possessions, ex-
travagantly great, are offered in each instance. Zoroas-
ter is offered a thousand years' rule; Buddha could hold
the scepter over four great continents, and Jesus was
offered all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of
them. The Parsees, millions of them, have believed that
Angra-Mainyu (the Devil) offered Zoroaster a thousand
years of worldly dominion. Millions of Buddhists are

12 Ante, § 2.
 76

ALL RELIGIONS HAVE DEVILS

certain that Mara (the Devil) offered Buddha the rule
of four great continents; and millions of Jesus’ followers
believe that the Devil offered him all the Kingdoms of
the World. But the Christians do not believe that Angra-
Mainyu held the above dialogue with Zartust; nor do
they think that Mara proffered to Buddha four great
continents. On the other hand, the Buddhists are sure
that Mara actually appeared in the sky, to Gautama, with
that tempting bait. In short, neither of these peoples
believe the creed of the others. Their own, in their opin-
ion, is the right one; every other is a heresy. Now, if
majorities count in this matter, the Buddhists hold the
correct views; for they outnumber the others vastly.13
and they are steadfast in their faith.

Are there not grave improbabilities against the actuali-
ties of all three of these legends? We are careful not
to affirm that they did happen; nor shall we say they did
not happen. The credulous, in each of these religions,
will follow their own creed, and dispute and reject all the
others. But while we must admit that the poets, who
wrote these things, allowed a loose rein to their imagina-
tions ; yet, are not the lessons they taught, that we must
ever resist temptation worthy of a place in all religions?

13 The Buddhists number about 400 millions. The
Christians, including Catholics, about 150 or 160 mil-
lions.
 CHAPTER VII.

ARYAN CUSTOMS AND RELIGION.

Having now reached that point where we find Zoroas-
ter devoting his life to the religious instruction of his
people, it is important that we make brief inquiry into
their lives, habits and customs. And as his struggle is
to establish a new religion, we ought to know something
of that which he sought to displace. The certain facts
are meager, but it is undisputed that he came from that
great prolific Aryan family which for thousands of years
has ruled and mastered all the other races upon the earth.

At Zoroaster's period the Aryans in Iran and Bactria
were no longer nomads. They lived in houses and led
settled lives. They were further advanced than Abraham,
who lived in a tent, and was a wandering nomad; and
this, at a time when the Iranians were cultivating their
fields. The Aryans owned cattle, and horses, pigs, and
fowls. And having passed beyond the nomadic period,
to that of tillers of the soil, they thought themselves more
noble than roving nomads. In fact, Arya, in Sanscrit,
means noble; and the word Iran, is simply a later name
for Aryan, which probably came from the root Ar—to
plow. It was more than one thousand years after Abra-
ham's day that Isaiah mentioned “the young Asses that
ear the ground"; that is plow or Ar the ground.1

While it is probably true that a great share of the

1 Isaiah, ch. 30, v. 24.

77
 78

THE ARYANS 7,000 YEARS AGO

wealth of the old Aryans consisted in herds of cattle, yet,
at the time of the Prophet, the pastoral was secondary to
the agricultural life. They had surely progressed be-
yond Genesis (ch. 4); for Abel, "a keeper of sheep,” was
approved above Cain, a tiller of the ground. The Aryans
held “the thrifty toiler in the fields in higher esteem than
the keeper of flocks.”

It is plain that those Aryans, six or seven thousand
years 2 ago, were further advanced than Adam in his day.
Geology and Philology join hands in proof of this. They
had houses with doors; they plowed the fields; they were
clothed; and they made pottery. Glue and pitch were
known to them. They made their bread with yeast.
They had wagons, and hammers, and anvils. They had
stone mortars, in which to pound their grain. Later on
they had iron mortars. We know this, because they used
words which mention, and describe all these things. But
they lived at a time when law and order were not as well
established as to-day.

We smile at their childish superstitions, which led them
to believe that, in the gloom of night, witches and ghosts
swarmed in the air, and that demons stalked abroad with
evil intent.

§ 2. The sun dispelled that gloom; and what more
reasonable than to give thanks to it. The Aryans, like
Joshua, believed that the sun, instead of the earth, moved;
therefore the sun had life.

The waters in the rivers were moving; the clouds above
were drifting across the sky; the sun traveled all day
long; in short, they all moved; and as the Aryan could

2 Yasna, 31, § 10.
 THEIR EARLY DEITIES

79

move, because he had life, he reasoned that they, like
himself, must be living things. They were believed to be
persons, infinitely greater than himself; and in his time
of trouble, and hour of need, he addressed them for help.
They were deities; and he prayed to them as such; but
among them all, the sun was the supreme or highest God.
He called him Dyaus, the shining God, or God of Light.
The Greeks, later, called this God Zeus. The Veda men-
tions him as Dyaus-pater or Heaven-God. It is but a
step beyond this Heaven-God, to say Heavenly Father.
In the later Avesta, this Dyaus is called Mithra, the
Lord of wide pastures, who hath a thousand ears, and
ten thousand eyes. He knows the truth, and he seeth
all things; and the wretch who would lie unto him would
bring ruin upon the whole country. He is called, also,
the undying, shining, swifthorsed sun; and the Aryans
believed that if he should not rise up, then the Daevas
(devils) would destroy all things, and the angels or good
spirits would not be able to withstand them. Sacrifices
and libations were offered unto this “Lord of the wide
pastures”; for he was the first of the heavenly Gods who
lit up the beautiful summits of Hara, and “from thence,
with a beneficent eye, looked over the abode of the
Aryans.” 3

Now, if this later Avesta was written about six hun-
dred years before Jesus’ day, the Jews were similarly
engaged; for they were “burning incense unto Baal; to
the sun; and. to the moon and the planets; and to all
the hosts of Heaven.” But Josiah, with great rigor,

3 Mihir Yast, § 13.
 80

ARYAN WARS AND SLAVES

punished the Jews for their idolatry. He slew the priests,
burned the images, and burned the bones of the priests,
on their overturned altars. Nevertheless, with all his
murderous cruelty and barbarity, he performed one pious
act; for he destroyed Tophet, in the valley of Hinnon,
that no man might thereafter cause his son or daughter
to pass through the fire to Moloch.4

§ 3. Those early Iranians were merely the antetypes
of all the tribes and nations to this day. Man is a quarrel-
some, fighting animal; and if the dark side of this story
must be told, the Aryan tribes and clans often engaged
in bloody, cruel and desolating wars. It was with them,
as with later peoples; until such time as it became profit-
able to retain prisoners of war as slaves, they were bar-
barously murdered. In truth, this old earth has been
cursed with slavery almost from man’s day of coming.
The inspired word of God, directed the Jews to purchase
their bondsmen, from the heathen round about them.5 If
we may really suppose that to be a direction from Heaven,
and the Aryan ignorantly followed it, they of course did
no wrong. Now, if Zoroaster lived about the time of
this Leviticus order, he probably saw its fulfillment many
times over. The ancient Aryans, however, either origi-
nated or copied a system of tyranny, which followed on
down to the days of Rome. In each family a petty des-
potism prevailed. The house-father held the keys of life
and death. He possessed the power to sell his sons and
daughters; to banish them; to marry them to whom he
wished, or to destroy them at will. If the house-father

4   2d Kings, ch. 23.

5   Leviticus XXV., 44.
 CLOUDS WERE COWS OF THE SKY

81

was worshipped, it was probably two or three genera-
tions back; far enough at least for time to have erased
all memory of his tyrannical acts.6

The old Aryans were gifted with fervid imaginations,
and from them have sprung all the great poets and
writers of the world. They saw the clouds, like creatures
of life, flying across the heavens; and they named them
the cows of the sky; for they dropped their milk (the
rain) to the earth, which made the woods and hills green
with verdure.

If the clouds did not appear, and the earth became dry,
parched and barren, they fancied that the evil one had
imprisoned them in some corner or mountain fastness.7

The cow, as one of the means of honorable support to
the Aryan family, was held in high esteem. This love of
that animal traveled west, penetrated Syria, and there,
on the top of the pillars of a great temple, was sculptured
more than twenty-five hundred years ago the recumbent
form of a cow.

It may seem childish that the Aryans should sacrifice
to the cows of the sky, but mankind, all along the cen-
turies, has been following the myths, fictions and fables
of his imagination, or worshipping idols made by his

6   The Jews, in the fifth commandment, are directed to
“Honor their fathers and mothers, that their days may
be long in the land.” Exodus, 20, 12.

7   This same old fable was carried across the mountains
to the Indus, and when I come to speak of Buddha, and
his religion, it will there be seen that Indra, one of the
Hindu Gods, destroyed the monster Vritra and released
the cows.
 82

HOM-JUICE

own hands. The Jews prostrated themselves before
Aaron’s golden calf; and the leaven of that lump seems
to have permeated, to this day, the whole family of man.

The old Aryans did not lack for deities; they had multi-
tudes of them. Haoma, a creature of their own hands,
was one of their earliest. Far back, beyond the days of
Zoroaster; back before the Rig-Veda was composed;
back more than five thousand years ago; in that distant
age, while yet the future Hindu and the future Iranian
were one people, they brewed from a vine or plant, a
liquor, called Haoma, which wrhen drank, produced a sort
of exhilaration or ecstasy.

§ 4. The Hindus, after the separation, called it Soma.
It was made from the Horn plant, a small bush or vine
somewhat resembling the milk bush of India.8

It is probable that the drinking of Horn-juice produced
more than mere ecstasy; for the Hindus, subsequently,
used this beverage on going into battle, as a stimulant to
their courage. Our estimation of it may not be very
exalted, but the old Aryans considered it of great virtue
and efficacy. They used it in religious rites and cere-
monies, and called it “the Holy One, driving death afar.”
All other intoxicants, they said, “go hand in hand with
rapine of the bloody spear; but Homa’s stirring power
goes hand in hand with friendship.”

Zoroaster did not believe in this; for he prayed Mazda
and asked: “When will men drive hence this polluted,
drunken joy, whereby the Karpans with their angry

8   In ch. 3, § 1, we have seen that Zoroaster was pro-
duced by his parents drinking cow’s milk and Hom-juice
infused.
 WE TAKE WINE—NOT HOM-JUICE

[Prometheus]

83

zeal would crush us? and by this inspiration the tyrants
of the provinces hold their evil rule.” 9

We ask, do the professed Christians of the present day
copy, in the Eucharist, this ancient Homa usage? It
was in the world as a thanksgiving feast, long centuries
before the Lord’s Supper was instituted. Did Jesus and
his followers copy this old Aryan custom?

9   Yasma, 48:10. The Karpans or Kavi, we have seen,
were unbelievers in Zoroaster’s gospel. They were his
bitter enemies all his life; and one of them finally slew
him. Dinkard, B. 8, ch. 35, note 3.
 CHAPTER VIII.

VISTASPA—ZOROASTER IN PRISON.

§ i. As we shall hereafter see Vistaspa’s name fre-
quently mentioned in connection with Zoroaster’s, it may
be well to here notice some of the foolish legends con-
cerning him. In the Persian Bible, Vistaspa is frequently
called a king; but he was not a king of any noted prov-
ince or realm. He was at most only a petty chief, or king
of a small tribe or clan. This is all that can be rightly
claimed for him; and even this rests upon sandy founda-
tions, unless we believe Lactantius, who makes him an
ancient king of Media, centuries before the founding of
Rome.

Persian history does not mention him. Median history
is silent about him; and it is only the colossal figure of
Zoroaster that rescues him from oblivion.

Now, if we allow that the Prophet’s time was coeval
with the Rig-Veda, we must place Vistaspa and Frashos-
tra, and others mentioned in the Gathas there also. If
Vistaspa lived in Seistan, down on the borders of Af-
ghanistan, or at Bactria or Media, then Frashostra, and
Gamaspa, and the Prophet were there also.

Tradition tells us that when the Prophet presented
himself at the court of Vistaspa, he encountered every
possible kind of opposition. First, he had a long debate,
lasting two or three days, with the most learned of the
realm, about his new religion. They propounded thirty-

84
 STILL IN PRISON

85

three questions to him; and he, having come off vic-
torious, his antagonists scheme and plot against him until
he is thrown into prison and left to starve. This part of
the story has many duplicates and counterparts, even
down to a late period; for innovators, upon old creeds
and beliefs, have always found the Karpans and Tetzels
arrayed against them. The seer had now been at Vis-
taspa’s court two years; laboring zealously for his con-
version, but evil influences had overborne him vastly.
He was condemned and in prison, for righteousness’ sake.
But no angel came at night, as in Peter’s case,1 to loose
his bands and lead him forth. Even Vohu-Mano seems
to have neglected him. His sufferings in prison, in heavy
fetters, and from starvation, are so great that his hearing
grows dull, his vision becomes impaired, his legs refuse
to bear up his wasted body, he is so tortured with hunger
and thirst that he is ready to collapse.1 2

It would look as though the end were not far off; but
now comes a miracle by which he is released. Vistaspa
owns a beautiful horse, whose legs, at this time, are so
drawn up to his body that it is impossible for him to
move. In some way the Prophet, in his cell, learns of
this and sends word to the King that he will, on four
certain conditions, restore his charger. The King, anx-
ious about his favorite, inquires the terms, which are:
that one fore-leg will be released, if he will accept the
new faith. This agreed to, Zoroaster fervently prays for
the restoration of the horse, and the fore-leg immediately
comes down. The next stipulation is that Isfander, the

1   Acts, 12.

2   Dinkard 7, ch. 4, § 67.
 86

RELEASED—SUPPOSED MIRACLE

King’s son, shall do battle for the new religion. This
agreed to, one of the hind legs is healed. For another
leg, the prisoner stipulates the conversion of Hutaosa, the
Queen. Lastly, the Prophet demands the names of his
false accusers, and that they be punished; which, being
done, the horse is instantly restored.

This story, which may be one for casuists to consider,
and probably reject, hath, at least, as much semblance of
truth about it as that concerning Peter, when he was
escaping from prison; that the gates thereof “opened of
their own accord” and let him out.3 Either the imagina-
tions of the poets, who detailed these adventures, had
much to do with the escapes of Peter and Zoroaster, or
angels, truly, must have assisted them. The reader,
learned or unlearned, will have no difficulty in deciding.

§ 2. Immediately after Zoroaster’s release from pris-
on, we are told, that Mazda, the Lord, sent three Arch-
angels, Vohuman, Asha-Vahista and Burzhim-Mitro (the
angel of fire) to Vistapa to encourage him, or as it were,
to brace him up in the new faith. The radiance or efful-
gence of these angels is so astounding that the king and
all his court are shaken with fear. Seeing his trepida-
tion, Burzhim-Mitro bespoke his assurance that the an-
gelic envoys were not sent to do him ill; but to promise
him a long life and a prosperous reign on condition that
he shall push forward the faith preached by Zoroaster.
“But,” added the angel, “thou must chant the Ahunavair;
thou must not worship demons; thy reliance must be
upon the new religion. We promise thee an immortal

3   Acts,12, io.
 ANGELS' VISITS

87

son, Peshyton, who shall be hungerless and thirstless;
predominant both here, and with the Spirits. We will
give unto thee a long sovereignty of one hundred and fifty
years. But if thou wilt not praise the good and pure
religion, of the righteous Zaratust, we will not convey
thee up on high. Vultures will devour thy body; the
earth shall drink thy blood.”

Now, these angels either finding that the prince spread
an elaborate table, or that he must be further admonished,
conclude to take up their abode with him.4

Ormazd, knowing that this acceptance of the religion,
by Vistaspa, will provoke an invasion of his realm by
Arjasp, and the Khyons, sends the angel Neryosang to
draw aside the veil of the future, and allow the prince to
catch a glimpse of his own glory and the discomfiture of
his enemies. This oriental picture is not yet complete.
Marzda sends Asha Vahista, the foremost angel in holi-
ness, who bears a most beautiful saucer, the finest that
can be made for royalty, and this is filled with a magical
nectar, fit for the Gods, which Vistaspa quaffs. His vis-
ion thereby is instantly so amplified that he is enabled to
see the rapturous spot set apart for him in Paradise.
Nor are his family and court overlooked. They are either
endowed with universal wisdom or they are made in-
vulnerable to the assaults of their enemies.

§ 3. One of these pledges, we know, did not come
true; for Isfander, Vistasps’ son, at this princely and
angelic gathering, sought to have his body made invulner-
able to the shafts of the enemy, that he might do battle

4   Dinkard 8, 11, 3. Dk. 7, 4, 76 to 86.
 88

DEFICIENT CHRONOLOGY

more effectively for the new religion. For that purpose
he was given a drink of Pomegranate. But the angelic
promise, and the Pomegranate, both failed him in dire
time of need; for he was afterward slain, as we shall see,
while doing valiant battle for the new religion, which he
had so heartily espoused.

If asked the dates of these supposed angelic visits, I
am totally unable to make answer. For the Avesta, and
in fact all ancient Iranian writings, are lamentably defi-
cient in chronology. It is difficult to account for this,
except on the theory that the people of Iran were, as were
the authors of Veda, deficient in their organs of eventual-
ity.5 Or it may have been that no great event or epoch
in their history furnished a starting point from which to
date their records. In fact, the ancient Persians kept no
dates; even their Holy Book, the Avesta, their Bible, is
silent as to when and where it was composed. Nor does
it mention the birthplace of Zoroaster, its great and
world-famous apostle.

The Jews, more considerate of Abraham, their own

5   The Rig-Veda is an old record, having an established
antiquity of 4,100 to 4,300 years, and perhaps even be-
yond that. It is, in short, the Hindu Bible. The word
Veda means knowledge, and the Hindus claim that their
prophets, or seers, heard (Sruti) the words there written
as uttered by Brahma (their God). It dates back beyond
the flood. In fact, when Noah was gathering the animals
into the Ark ( ?), the Hindu priests were composing their
Bible. The Hindus being a religious people, there was
no occasion to drown them; for they were worshipping
God the best they knew. The flood, therefore, did not
reach India, nor did it touch Egypt.
 LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF ZOROASTER

89

first great teacher, tell us of his birthplace; they mention
his ancestry, and they follow him with considerable par-
ticularity from Ur of the Chaldees, to the closing scene
in the field of Ephron. Zoroaster was not so fortunate,
hence the interminable disputes, as to when and whence
he came.
 CHAPTER IX.

ZOROASTER READS THE AVESTA TO VISTASPA. SOSHYANS TO
BE BORN OF A VIRGIN, AND TO BRING ON THE RESSUR-
RECTION OF THE DEAD. THE FOOD OF THE RESURRECTED.

§ i. In the preceding chapter many marvelous and
questionable things are related about the conversion of
Vistasp. But, shall we call it marvelous, if Persian rec-
ords mention Zoroaster in the same manner that the
Pentateuch speaks of Moses? Now, the Persians say
that God taught their Holy Book, the Avesta, to their
Prophet. They insist that God said to Zoroaster: “Go
and read to Vistasp this Sacred Book, that he may come
unto the faith. Keep all my counsel, and repeat it word
by word to him.”

In obedience to this command Zoroaster went to the
court of Vistasp, where he called down a blessing upon
him. He said: “I bless thee, O, Man ! Lord of the coun-
try, I pray thee to live a good life, an exalted life, that
thou mayest live long. May sons be bom unto thee!
Mayest thou have a son as wise as Gamaspa;1 may he
bless thee! Mayest thou be glorious and strong, like
Keresaspa, wise without fault; rich in cattle, and rich in
horses. Mayest thou be holy, beloved by Mazda, and
reverenced by men. Mayest thou follow the law of truth,

1   Gamaspa was Prime Minister, and had early em-
braced the new religion.

90
 HEAVEN PROMISED

91

conquer thy foes, have fulness of welfare, and be freed
from death, like King Khosrav, who went alive into the
blissful abode of the Holy Ones.” 2

The Prophet then read to him the Avesta, and said:
“Learn its truths, and walk therein. If thy desire is
towards its laws, thy abode shall be in the Paradise of
heaven. But if thou turnest away from its command-
ments, thou wilt bring down thy crowned head to the dust.
God will be displeased with thee, and thou wilt surely be
overthrown, and at the last thou shalt descend into hell.
Listen, then, O King, to the counsel of the Almighty.” 3
Thereupon, Zoroaster offered up a sacrifice by the river
Daitu, with Homa and meat, and baresma4 and liba-
tions; and “with words rightly spoken,” that he might
bring the Kavi (King) Vistaspa to think and speak and

2   King Khosrav, like Enoch and Elijah, got into heaven
without dying. Three very fortunate ones. But, did
they? If so, then we take our bodies to heaven.

3   Vol. 23, S. B. E., Vistasp-Yast.

4   The Baresma ceremony of purification, when a man
or woman had become unclean, through contact with
the dead, or other defilement, differs, somewhat, from
the purification ceremony in Leviticus; but the object is
the same. The Persian priest cut a handful of twigs,
from a dry clean part of the earth, and while holding
them in his hand, recited parts of the liturgy; during
which he washed the twigs and tied them together with
the Kusti or girdle. The unclean person was then
sprinkled on the head and jaws; then the right ear, then
the left, etc. It was a silly ceremony, and on a par with
the foolish cleanings in Leviticus. There the tip of the
right ear was touched with the blood of the slain lamb
(Leviticus, ch. 14) ; then the thumb of the right hand;
 92

ZOROASTER, A MAN OF SORROWS

act according to the law of the Lord.5 He offered a
similar sacrifice for the conversion of Hutaosa, Vistasp’s
queen, and prayed that she might spread the Holy Maz-
dean law throughout all the world. These sacrifices
were most probably offered before Zoroaster visited
Vistaspa; or about the time he set out on that dangerous
and trying mission. One thing is certain; that he faced
a long and arduous struggle in establishing his creed.

We have seen that he encountered such fierce opposi-
tion, that it was ten years before he secured Medyomah,
his cousin, as a follower. One convert in ten years was
surely a severe test of his courage, his zeal, and his
patience. That he was a “Man of sorrows and acquaint-
ed with grief,” none who will ponder his words, will
dispute. Listen to his mournful plaint. It is the voice
of one crying in the wilderness:   “To what land shall

I   turn? aye, turning, whither shall I go? On the part of
kinsman, prince or peer6 none to give offerings; none
to help my cause; nor yet the throngs of labor; still less
the evil tyrants of the provinces. How, then, O Lord,
shall I establish the faith? My following is scant, there-
fore, I cry unto Thee, O Lord, desiring helpful grace.

then the great toe of the right foot But the Jewish
priest got a dinner from the meat offering (Leviticus,
ch. X, 12). Which of these foolish ceremonies preceded
the other? Will the reader answer?

5   Was the river Daitu in Bactria ? If so, it helps to
fix the birthplace of the prophet. Abah-Yast, § 105;
Gos-Yast, § 25; S. B. E., Vol. 23.

6   He had married Frashostra’s daughter, and Fra-
shostra was a peer of the realm; but had not yet em-
braced the faith.
 SONS TO BE BORN OF VIRGINS

93

When is the Savior, Soshyans, with his lofty revelations,
and plans for the renovation of the universe, to appear ?”
These are words of gloom and waning hope; but in a
moment the spirit of resistance comes; for the Prophet
was a man of courage, and did not scruple to use force,
to overthrow or destroy those hostile to him. He lived
in perilous and warfare times. The authorities were
against him and his creeds; and he exclaims: '"Whoever
will hurl the evil governor from power or from life,
makes for the general good.”

§ 2. As to this Soshyans, mentioned above, a word
must be said. According to the later Avesta, the Din-
kard, the Bundahis, Zad-Sparam and other works; Husa-
dar, Husadar-Mah, and Soshans, are three unborn sons
of Zoroaster; and a myriad of angels are protecting his
seed. Wonderful fictions are told of what these sons are
to do and perform. They are to be born of virgins; and
Husedar and Husedar-mah are to appear at different
times, or millenniums, to renovate and restore the earth.
But in the fullness of time, Soshans is to appear. He
will be born of a virgin, the same as Jesus. Her name
is Eredat-Fedhri.7 She bathes in the sea of Zara, in
Seistan, conceives, and Soshans is born.

“He will make glad the whole world. He will be called
Astvat-Erata; for he will make bodily creature rise up.
He will restore the world, which will, thereafter, never
grow old and never die, but ever increasing. Creation
shall grow deathless; the Drug (the devil), though he
may rush on every side to kill the holy beings, yet he

7   Yast 13, § 62, and note 2.
 94

RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

and his evil brood shall perish. It is the will of the
Lord.” 8

§ 3. The resurrection of the dead is of such stupen-
dous importance that it eclipses all other questions. It
demands, therefore, from every one the most serious con-
sideration.

Zoroaster taught that all good thoughts, good words
and deeds, will reach Paradise;9 that all evil thoughts,
words and deeds drag the soul toward the abode of the
demons. And he prayed: “O Mazda! Most beneficent
Spirit! Maker of the Universe! How shall I free the
world from the Drug, that evil doer? How shall I drive
away defilement? And the answer came: “Invoke my
Fravashi (Spirit), whose soul is the Holy Word.” 10 11

The final happiness of the just, and the discomfiture
of the wicked, is repeated again and again, all through
Zoroaster’s writings; but he does not, in direct and un-
equivocal language, teach the resurrection of the body.
That senseless and fallacious doctrine is a plant of later
growth. But the resurrection of the body is plainly and
distinctly taught by later Persian priests. “The dead,”
they say, “shall rise up, and life shall come to the bodies;
and they shall keep the breath.” All the bodily world
shall become free from old age and death, from corrup-
tion and rot, forever and forever.11 Soshans, by order
of Ormazd, will give to every man the reward and
recompense of his deeds.12

8   Farvadin Yast, § 129, S. B. E., Vol. 23, p. 220; Zam-
yad Yt., § 89.

9   Westengard fragments, p. 247, Vol. 4, S. B. E.

10   Vend. Fargard, 19, §§37 and 38.

11   Zend, fragments, p. 253, Vend.

12   Bund., ch. 30, § 27

[Prometheus]

 RESURRECTION CONTINUED

95

It must be admitted that if the dead are to be resur-
rected, with the stomach and internal parts as they now
are; the eternal bread-and-butter question will confront
the resurrected world; and it did confront those Iranian
writers. They saw the dilemma, and solved it, as fol-
lows:   They said in the Millennium of Hushedra-Mah,

the strength of appetite will diminish, so that men can
remain three days and nights in superabundance, with
one taste of food. That by dieting down from meat to
milk, and milk to water, they can, even before Soshans
comes, remain ten years without food and not die.13

The Jews in Jesus’ day did not all believe in the resur-
rection. The Sadducees said there is no resurrection,
neither angel nor spirit. The Pharisee confessed both.14
But Jesus said, “the resurrected are the children of
God”; and that those accounted worthy of resurrection,
do not marry; neither can they die any more; they are
equals unto the angels.” 15 But if only those “accounted
worthy of resurrection” are to be resurrected, is there
not a very plain implication that the unworthy will re-
main in the gloomy underworld? The book of Wisdom
(ch. 2) tells us that death came into the world through
envy of the Devil. But whence came this great consoling
thought, that mankind will escape the darkness and the
eternal silence of the grave? The answer is ready:   It

came from the Persians, and it was taught them by the
founder of their religion, Zoroaster. We leave this mat-
ter here for the present, to be further considered in a
subsequent chapter.

13   Bund., ch. 30, §§ I to 5.

14   Matt. 22, 23; Acts 23, 8.

15   Luke 20, v. 27 to 36, plainly implies that only the
just shall be resurrected.
 CHAPTER X.

THE KINVAD BRIDGE.

§ i. The evils which Zoroaster’s enemies would bring
upon him and his followers, he prays may be borne back
against them, and that no help shall keep them from
misery. This would seem to be the law of “an eye for
an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” But directly the good
mind possesses him, and he asks how he may adore the
Bountiful Lord; and with what words he shall teach the
people. He makes bold the promise that the man or
woman who will teach the words of life he will lead on,
even to the Judge’s Bridge. And that when they ap-
proach that Bridge, the believing ones will go forth
firmly with him as a guide. But the Karpans and Kavi
(heretics and unbelievers), whose lives are loaded with
evil deeds, their own souls and consciences will meet
them at the Bridge, and will there condemn and decry
them. They shall miss the path and fall; and “in the
Lie’s abode shall their habitation be.” But for the peni-
tent, there is hope; “even their former foes, the tribes
and kith of the Turanians”; if they will accept the faith,
shall not fall from the Bridge; “but with the Lord, they
shall dwell in joyful peace.”1

The Kinvad Bridge, or Judge’s Bridge, being the
final assize of the departed soul, deserves especial notice.

1 Yasna 46, S. B. E. Vol. 31.

96
 BRIDGE AND HELL BENEATH IT

97

The Iranians believed that the first mountain that rose
up out of the earth was Alborz;2 and from the top of
this mountain, which they supposed reached around the
earth, stretched the Kinvad Bridge. The span reached
from earth to the eternal shore.

The Iranians believed that in this life all wicked
thoughts, wicked words and wicked deeds, were charged
up by the angels against the offender, and as a balance
or offset against these sins he received a credit in the
book of accounts, for all good thoughts, good words and
good deeds; and if the balance was found in his favor
he could pass the Bridge in safety.3 Dogs were there to
tear the wicked. The Jewish or English Bible also has
dogs outside for the same purpose.4 But Matthew has a
gate, with a narrow way, leading up to it; and only a
few can find the gate. The way to destruction, however,
has a broad road and a great, wide gate, “and many there
be who go in thereat.”5 At Kinvad Bridge Angels
watched at the earthly end to welcome the souls of the
just. In the middle of this Bridge, and beneath it, was
the gate of Hell. Demons lurked there to snatch their
own.6

2   The same a Hara Berezaiti; supposed to be the moun-
tain range south of the Caspian Sea.

3   The Egyptians copied this.

4   Revelation 22, 14 and 15.

5   Matt. VII, 13 and 14. The writers of the Gospels
and Revelation, probably copied from the Avesta, and
changed the Bridge into Gates.

6   It is probable that some of these sayings about this
Bridge were grafted into the Persian Bible after Zoro-
aster’s day. His punishment was mental, as we shall see.
 98

SOUL OF THE RIGHTEOUS

When one of the faithful departed this life, his soul,
for three days and nights, was believed to linger near
the body, singing the Gathas,7 meanwhile tasting as much
pleasure as the whole living world could taste. At the
end of the third night the soul of the just, amid plants
and flowers, and sweet scented zephyrs, reached, at
dawn, the all-happy mountain Alborz and the Bridge.
Here his own conscience, advancing in the form of a
beautiful maid, fair as the fairest of earth, met him.8
She addressed him thus: “O thou Youth, of good
thoughts, good words and good deeds, I am thy own con-
science. Thou didst love the good religion. When thou
didst see a man deriding holy things, or engaged in idol-
atry, or shutting the door in the face of the poor, then
thou didst sing the Gathas, and didst worship Atar, the
son of Mazda (the Lord)9 and didst rejoice the faithful
from near and from far.

The Bridge for the righteous widens to the length of
nine javelins; that is, about forty-nine feet; and the
happy soul, in safety, passes to the land of the leal. Here,
Vohuman, the angel of good thoughts, the doorkeeper of
Paradise, greets him. The righteous one, the perfume
of whose soul makes devils to tremble, thereupon takes
up his abode with the angels forever more.

We need not smile at this, for our own Heaven hath

7   The Gathas are chanted, and are somewhat similar
to the Psalms of the English Bible.

8   Yast XXII, S. B. E. Vol. 23.

9   In the Persian Bible Mazda has a son, Atar, but he
also has a daughter, Ashi-Vanguhi. Yast, 17, p. §. 2.
 THE WICKED SOUL

99

doors, windows and gates.10 11 Daniel wanted to be a door-
keeper in the House of the Lord, and Nathan told David
he was a murderer, for he killed Uriah, the Hittite, in
order to get his wife (2d Samuel, 12), and David did
not, at last accounts, become a doorkeeper.

§ 2. With the wicked it is the reverse of all this.
When he dies his soul, for three nights, lamenting, cries
out: “To what land shall I turn? Whither shall I go?
And on that night his soul tastes as much suffering as
the whole living world can taste. At the end of the third
night, when the dawn appears, it seems to the unfaithful
one, as if he were brought, amidst snow and stench,11
and as if a wind were blowing from the north, foul
scented, which he sorrowfully inhales.

The Arda-Viraf has it that the soul of the wicked is
met by a horrid old woman, who is, in fact, his own mis-
shapen, perverted conscience. She is naked, decayed,
profligate, lean-hipped and ugly beyond measure. She
is hideous, noxious and filthy, and she bars his way. She
confronts him. “Who art thou ?” the wicked one asks:
“than whom I never saw an uglier or more horrid look-
ing creature, of Ahriman (the Devil) than thy hideous
features present.” With a hateful leer, the drab makes
reply:   “I am thy bad actions; I am hideous and vile;

but I am thy evil thoughts, thy evil words, thy evil deeds.
Thou wast a worker of iniquity. When thou sawst

10   Doors. Psalms 84, 10. Doors. St. John 10, 1.
Gates. Matt. VII, 13. “The windows of heaven were
opened.” Genesis VII, 10 and 11.

11   The Persian hell was in the North; but some place
it in the center of the earth.
 100

THE PERSIAN HELL

those of the good religion in the service of God, thou
didst practice the will of the demons. Thou wast ava-
ricious, and didst shut the door in the face of the poor.
Though I am wicked, abandoned and unholy, I have
been made more frightful by thee. I am sent to the
Northern regions of the demons, but thy evil thoughts,
and words, and deeds, have driven me to a farther verge.”

The soul of the wicked one, now raging fiercely, pre-
sents itself at the Kinvad Bridge. A concourse of de-
mons, at the gate of hell, are on the watch. The dogs
snarl at him, and tear him. The drab continues to chide
him, and as he enters the way of the Bridge, it shrinks
and narrows to a razor’s edge. He hesitates; he falters;
the awful chasm below terrorizes him; hideous, frightful
forms leer at him. Faint with fear, he drops into the
awful abyss, where the demons seize him and drag him
to their dark abode.

This is the lowest or worst hell.12 The Dadistin (ch.
33), divides hell into three grades. In the first, or easiest
hell, the sins have not been very grievous, there having
been some good thoughts, and good words, and good
deeds; the soul is held in a dark, ill-smelling place. In
the second hell, the sins have been of a deeper hue, with
very few good thoughts to balance against them. This
place is not only dark and stenchy, but the demons are
there, and the sinner gets neither peace nor comfort.
The third hell is where the sins have been excessive, ter-
rible and awful, with no good thoughts or works what- * V.

The Jews had, also, “the lowest hell.” This may
have been copied, in part, from Deuteronomy, ch. 32,

V. 22,
 HAMISTAKEN

101

ever, and he goes to the most gloomy, the deepest and
darkest abode of all.

§ 3. But there was a place called (Hamistaken) ever
stationary, where the soul, whose good words and works
just fairly balanced the evil; such a soul was halted at
the Bridge, and is to remain there until the renovation
of the universe.

These hells seem terrible and startling; but did not
Jesus describe a more fearful place? He says he will
send forth his angels and “gather all those who do in-
iquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire, and there
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” The angels
shall sever the wicked from among the just, and shall
cast them into a furnace of fire.lz The righteous shall
then shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their
father. In the Persian Bible the righteous pass to the
golden seat of the Lord.13 14

This hell of Jesus seems to be more of a material hell
than the Iranian pit; for he speaks of “the gnashing of
teeth”; and a soul, or spirit, as we understand it, will
hardly have such things as teeth. Or does he mean that
he casts the material body, teeth and all, into the furnace
of fire? Now, a furnace of fire would soon reduce the
body, including the teeth, to dust and ashes. It is cer-
tainly noteworthy that the two heavens are exactly alike,
the hells only being dissimilar. But of the two hells, the
Persian is, by far, the more humane and merciful, for a

13   Matt. XIII, 42 to 50. See Deut. 32, 22, for the low-
est hell.

14   Vend. 19, 32.
 102

THE RENOVATED WORLD

dark, stenchy place, however horrible, must be greatly
more tolerable than to roast in a furnace of fire.

Besides this, the later Persians believe that the world
will be renovated; that the metal in the hills will melt
and run like a river, and that all mankind, living and
dead, will pass into that metal for three days. To the
righteous, it will seem as if he were walking in warm
milk, but the wicked will suffer as though in seething
metal. By this process all evil thoughts and sins will
be purged from the souls, and they will become purified.
Even the stench and pollution of hell are wiped out.
There is no longer any sin; for the sinners have become
righteous, deathless, and free from stain.

The Persian and the Jewish Bibles run close parallels
here, for Peter says our earth shall melt with fervent
heat; that the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved,
and the earth and all its works shall be burned up.15 * *

However this may be, the Persian dogma is much less
fiendish than that taught by St. John; for he says that
whoever is not found written in the book of life shall be
cast in to the lake of fire; and he adds: “he that is unjust,
let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be
filthy still; and if any man worships the beast (the
Devil) he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in

15   2d Peter, ch. 3, v. 10. I write this down, not that I
believe that Peter and the authors of the Bundahis and

the Dadistin knew anything more about the renovation
of the world, or the melting of the metals, or that the
earth shall melt with fervent heat, than anybody of the
present day. Who told Peter and the Bundahis people

about those things?
 TWO HELLS COMPARED

103

the presence of the angels and the Lamb; and the smoke
of his torment ascendeth forever and ever.16

The molten metal burned away the stain of sin from
the wicked Persian; but the Hebrew lake of fire failed,
and fails, to purge and cleanse the sinful Israelite.

The Persian gospel being much older than Matthew
and Revelation we may inquire: Did the writers of the
Hebrew text have before them the Avesta; and did they
consider the Persian hell not sufficiently terrible; that,
therefore, they must add to its rigors ? Or, if we mistake
here, did the Bundahis and Dadistan writers have the
New Testament before them, and did they conclude
that a burning lake of fire and brimstone, and a furnace
of fire, forever and ever, were so fearfully horrid that
they ought to be mitigated, softened, and assuaged?
Did those Persian writers ask themselves: “If the Lord
of heaven, is filled with tender mercy, will he punish, so
fearfully, the sins and follies of man? Did they reason
with themselves that if God punishes the wicked in so
terrible a manner, he puts himself on a level with the de-
mons? For how could the fiends of hell do any worse
than to burn people in a furnace of fire, for all eternity?
If it be true that “God’s mercy is everlasting, then, why is
it that he hath no mercy on the hundreds of millions of
people who, according to the New Testament, are at this
moment being railroaded into hell, where they are burn-
ing in a lake of fire and brimstone, or roasting in a blaz-
ing furnace? The truth of this matter is that the ortho-
dox hell is so fearful and unreasonable that a generation 18

18 Rev., ch. 14, and Rev., ch. 22.
 104 LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF ZOROASTER

hence only a few silly people will believe in it. The sensi-
ble ones, like Zoroaster, will insist that future punish-
ment, if there be any, is mental and not bodily. And
even this will be mitigated and softened to such a degree
that it will be seen that God’s mercy does endure for-
ever;17 18 and that he will be merciful to the unrighteous,
and their sins and their iniquities “He will remember no
more.” 18

17   One hundredth Psalm.

18   2d Hebrews, 8, 12.

[Prometheus]

 CHAPTER XI.

THE ALLEGORY OF THE KINE. THE DOCTRINE OF
DUALISM.

Every tribe and every people in the infancy of the race
seems to have been freebooters, murderers and plunder-
ers. It is a sad commentary, made still more gloomy be-
cause it is true.

The stealing of herds and flocks, rapine and cruelty,
were not uncommon, down to a much later period than
Zoroaster. The Aryans, in the Prophet’s day, we have
seen, were tillers of the soil; but they possessed numer-
ous herds of cattle; and these were strong allurements
to the Turanian robbers and plunderers. Marauding-
chiefs, with their armed followers, often made desolating
incursions against their honest neighbors. It was so in
Abraham’s time; they plundered Lot; drove off his cat-
tle, and carried him away as a prisoner. The same law-
lessness prevailed in Zoroaster’s day; but with keen in-
sight, he seized upon the forays and robberies, not only
to illustrate his doctrines, but to draw the people nearer
to his cause.

He composed an allegory:   It was, in truth, an alle-

gory and something more. It was an eloquent, prayerful
protest, against cruelty, and especially against cruelty to
the cow, one of the chief means of honest support of
home and family. The wail of the kine becomes the
voice of the people, and cries out, “O Lord! for whom

105
 106

THE CHOSEN LEADER

didst thou create me? The assaults of wrath, insolence
and violence encompass me about. None other can I
look to, but thee! Teach me the good tillage of my
fields” (that is, teach me the way of salvation). The
Creator, hereupon, asks Asha (Personified Righteous-
ness), “whom he had chosen to hurl back the fury of the
wicked ?” 1 Who is the chosen leader in this great battle
for righteousness, who can bring law, order, and peace?
Asha replies, “that a leader who is himself without hate,
and who is able to smite back the fury of the evil-doers
cannot be obtained.” And he adds, “that evil permeates
in some degree, all beings, but it is not permitted to be
known, even to the angels, why this is so.” His reply is
tantamount to questioning why the Almighty, if all pow-
erful in heaven and on earth, does not at once and for-
ever abolish evil?

On these matters the Prophet, somewhat yet in doubt,
but with hands outstretched in entreaty, prays Ahura,
that the righteous may not meet destruction with the
wicked. That is, that the robbers may first seize the
cattle and effects of the unbelievers; and that the right-
eous may have a blessing in being saved from pillage.
Religion, it is claimed, saves in the next world; but the
man who can save those Iranian flocks and herds will
thus assist the honest tillers of the soil. Such a man is
certain of leadership. Zoroaster, now, adroitly names

1   Asha is one of the Amshaspands of Archangels to do
and carry God’s commands to the Iranians. God speaks
to Zoroaster on request. But he talks to Moses (?) with-
out asking.
 TEACHINGS OF ZOROASTER

107

himself as a heaven-appointed leader, to protect the kine:
that is, the people.2

There must have been objection to the Prophet by
some; for directly, Ahura says:   '‘This man is found

for me here who, alone, has hearkened to my words. He
will announce my doctrines.” 3

§ 2. Zoroaster, lamenting his feebleness, prays to
Ahura for wisdom and strength for his task, that he may
acceptably carry forward the purposes of heaven. But
he wages no war against the old Aryan Gods; he simply
passes them by without mention. His purpose is to teach
his people to believe in Mazda, alone. Yet he begs the
Bountiful Immortals4 to help on his cause, in both
worlds, the corporeal and spiritual, that the faithful may
finally reach the Holy Mount, and pass Kinvad Bridge,
to their happy reward.5

We see frequent and repeated mention in the Gathas
of the good mind, and the benevolent mind of God. In
fact, Yasna 23 is devoted by the Prophet to supplications
for grace; and that he may have wisdom to teach his

2   The record says (Yasna 29, §§ 5 and 6) the Lord ap-
pointed him; but I take it that the Lord will never do
for man what he can do for himself.

3   Whether Ahura really did say this I do not know.
He probably said it in the same way and manner that
“The Lord said unto Moses.”

4   Bountiful Immortals—the seven Amshaspands or
Archangels; Vohumano, asha-Vahista, etc., etc.

5   This mention of the Holy Mount leads me to suspect
that these words in Yasna, 28; 5, are an interpolation;
for we shall see that Zoroaster’s punishment was mental,
not physical.
 108

WHY DOES EVIL EXIST

people, not what is best for time alone, but that which
will help them when the final rewards are given. He
sees evil in the world; the righteous in distress, often
wanting bread; the wicked flourishing and ruling with a
high hand. Well might he exclaim “Defend me from
those who rise up against me. For lo! they lie in wait
for my soul.,, 6 But he reasoned beyond this. His mind
is both observing and philosophical; and seeing the just,
without apparent reason or cause, often in the toils of the
wicked, he asks: “Why is this ?” If Ahura is a being of
infinite and Almighty power, why does he not strike
down evil, and end its reign? It is probable that gifted
minds before his day had asked the same question. How-
ever that may be, the Gathas, with his name, make the
earliest known record of it.

The question itself reaches back to Infinity; to the very
beginning of things.

§ 3. Zoroaster saw this, and, impatient to know, asks
Ahura to teach him from his own spirit, that he may ex-
plain to his waiting people, by what laws the moral uni-
verse is governed.* 7 Philosophers and thinkers, of all
ages and all nations, have since followed him in the vain
attempt to solve satisfactorily this mysterious problem.
Just how much time he gave to meditation upon this mat-
ter, and whether he debated it with his friends, or whether
it had been mooted before his day, we shall never know.
But the conclusion he reached has since been accepted and
followed by nearly all religions. Sometimes the copy is

• Ps. LIX.

7   Yasna 28, 12.
 TWO PRIMEVAL SPIRITS

109

not exact, but the family resemblance is there in all of
them.

He announced that there were, and are, a pair of inde-
pendent primeval spirits: Ahura-Mazda, the good, and
Aharman, the bad. And he exclaims: '‘Hear me with
your ears; it is a decision as to religions; man for man,
each individually for himself. Between these two, let the
wisely-acting choose aright. Awake ye to the great
emergency. I pray that ye do not choose the evil.” 8 He
now explains that when two spirits (not bodies) came
together “to make life and its absence,” 9 and to deter-
mine the finality of things, the wicked were assigned or
given the worst life; the holy, the best mental condition.

It is noteworthy that the wicked are not assigned to hell, '
but to 'the worst life.” Hell is not mentioned; furnaces
of fire, and lakes of fire, are later arrivals. No retribu-
tion or punishment for the wicked is here set forth, save
only the worst life. But when those spirits had finished,
each his part in creation, each chose his favorite realm.
Aharman, the evil-minded, chose the worst life; Ahura,
the more bounteous spirit, preferred righteousness.

Empedocles, a Greek philosopher, centuries later, fol-
lowed Zoroaster in this, although he named those forces
or spirits differently. He held that there are four pri-
mary divinities, or ultimate things: earth, air, fire and
water. That from these four divinities, or elements, all
organic and inorganic structures are produced. These

8   Yasna 30, §§ 2 and 3.

9   This is a peculiar phrase: “to make life and its ab-
sence; it does not say death. Through envy of the devil,
death came. Wis. Solomon, ch. 2, v. 24.
 110

LOVE AND HATRED

four elements, he says, are eternally brought together,
and eternally separated, by two divine beings or powers.
Instead of naming them Ormazd and Aharman, he calls
them love and hatred, or good and bad. Love is the
attractive force; hatred is repellent; and these two forces
pervade the whole universe.

The different proportions, in which these four elements
are combined, determines the character of man and ani-
mals. The rocks in the mountains., and the verdure of the
valleys are fixed by the same unvarying, eternal rule.
Who makes up this combination? That is the question.
If fixed by .those powers, Love and Hatred, when and
where is the combination decided upon ? Who rules, and
who overrules, in this matter? There is some love and
some hate in all men; but in some men the elements of
love greatly predominate; in others, hate seems to hold
full sway.

In Zoroaster, in Buddha, and in Jesus, love ruled them
and controlled them. It made their lives a fragrance.
In Arjasp, in Herod, in Nero, hate held them in her awful
grip to the last. Who mixed the ingredients that pro-
duced these widely differing characters? Did the God of
Love preside, or rule, when the first three were being
formed; and did the God of Hate control, in the other
cases? Or are these divinities both present in all cases,
and mix their ingredients as best they can?

§ 4. The later writings of the Parsis have fixed up
another theory about this matter. They say that in the
beginning Mazda and Ahriman were both created by
Zerana Akerana, an all-wise, eternal, omniscient, absolute
being. That when created, Mazda and Ahriman were
both wise, sinless, and divine. That Mazda, by remaining
 THE GREAT STRUGGLE

111

true to Zerana Akerana, became the God of the just; but
Aharman, having proved false and treacherous, found
himself in endless darkness.10 Instantly the great strug-
gle between these two master spirits began. The world
became one vast contending field of strife. The battle
still rages; and the prize fought for is the soul of man.
The combat will not slacken until Mazda or Ahriman is
absolute victor. Milton’s battle, in Paradise Lost, where
the angels and demons plucked the seated hills, with all
their loads, rocks, waters and woods, and hurled them at
each other, is but a sharply drawn picture of this world-
struggle between good and evil for the mastery.2

2   Fargard, 19, Vend., § 46, the Fravashi of Mazda is
worshipped. This would seem to sustain, slightly, the
theory of the text. See, also, Yast. 13, § 80, which holds
the same.
 CHAPTER XII.

DUALISM FURTHER CONSIDERED.

§ I. If there really do exist two beings, or spirits, in
the world, called Ormazd and Ahriman (God and the
Devil), they are either created or uncreated beings. Now,
if they are uncreated spirits (that is, if they have existed
from all eternity), what right has the good spirit to slay
or kill the bad one, any more than a good man has to
slay or kill a bad man? And the same rule applies if they
are created beings or spirits. Again, if they are, or were,
created by Zerana-Akerana, or some other superior being,
he must have created them for a purpose. Did he create
Ahriman on purpose to make a fuss, and, for a time, to
turn things upside down in the world, to be finally thrust
into a pit, or fiery lake? Or did He create him not
knowing that he would go astray? If so, He was not all-
wise. Or if He knew he would go astray, then He created
him for a bad purpose. Was it known to the “Great I
Am/’ in the beginning, that Ahriman would seduce many
from their allegiance to Ormazd? Who can answer?1

Perhaps he came from an infinitesimal nucleated cell,
and evolution carried him forward to his present “bad
eminence.” Perhaps, like Topsy, he “just growed.” But,
that want and misery, and wickedness and sin are here,
cloven-footed, none will deny. Theologians, for hundreds

1 See § 3, chap. 15.

112
 TWO CREATORS

113

of years, have strenuously tugged with this question;
but they have not gone a single step beyond the Persian
prophet. He tells us in a sentence, that “two spirits came
together to make life and life’s absence.”2 Farvardin
Yast says that “two spirits, the good one and the evil one,
created the world,” 3 and that Ahriman “broke into the
creation of the good.” Even Genesis shadows forth two
or more personages at creation; for God said, “Let us
make man in our image; after our likeness.” (Genesis i,
XXVI.) Moreover, after Adam had eaten of the for-
bidden fruit, God said, “Behold the man is become as one
of us; to know good and evil.” (Genesis 3, 22.) Do
those words indicate a plurality of Gods, at the Creation;
or was God soliloquizing? Was the Persian devil there,
gifted with the power of speech, talking to Eve, in the
form of a serpent; but not yet crawling on his belly, for
he had not yet been cursed by the Lord ?4 In the Persian
mythology he is the creator of evil; in our mythology,
he is the polluter, or destroyer of the good.

“My garments,” said Aharman, “are dark, evil
thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds, are my food, and I
love those whose thoughts, words and deeds are evil.”5
How, then, let us ask, if the Evil One is gifted with, or
possesses the faculty of love, can he punish those he
wins or loves? Will any being, good or bad, injure or

2   Yas. 30, § 4, Vol. 31, S. B. E.

3   Yas. 13, § 76, Vol. 23, S. B. E., p. 198.

4   The serpent while talking with Eve must have stood
on his tail for he did not have to “go on his belly” until
after the Lord cursed him. (Genesis 3, 14.)

5   Dink B. 9, ch. 30, § 6.
 114

WAR BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL

punish those he loves? The logic of the churches is, that
God punishes the wicked, because “He is angry with them
every day.” 6 But, if he sends them to Hell, will not
Satan make it easy on them, because he loves them?7

In reply to these words of Ahriman, Ozmazd says, “The
sky is my garment; good thoughts, words, and deeds, are
my food; I love those whose thoughts, words and deeds
make for righteousness.”

Whether true or false, this is dualism; plain and simple;
and this shifting, or carrying back Ormazd and Aharman,
to their Creator, does not dispose of it. If they possess
full rein, without hindrance, what matters it to man,
whether Zerana-Akerana exists or not? However, the
Great Iranian does not stop to argue about zerana-
Akerama. He finds the demons of wrath, contending with
Ormazd, for the love and allegiance of man; and Ormazd
leads in the battle for the good.

§ 2. This matter of dualism, however, cannot be dis-
posed of by a simple waiver of the hand. If you say that
evil (Aharman) is only a principle, and not a personality,
then it may be replied, that this principle possesses most
extraordinary vitality. If Aharman is simply a principle,
that principle is so active, combative and real that it
exhibits all the traits, characteristics and qualities, though
of an opposite character, to those possessed by Ormazd.
If it be said that Ahura is an actual, living, spiritual
existence, how can it be claimed that he is waging a

6   Psalms 7, n. But he does not stay angry only a
moment. Psalms 30, 5.

7   If Satan should do this, would not the Lord be frus-
trated, or outflanked?
 THE DEVIL AS A LINGUIST

115

[Prometheus]

ceaseless conflict against Ahriman, a non-existent or noth-
ing? Is he waging battle against empty space?

Was it a principle only that met Ormazd to ‘'make life
and its absence?” Was it a principle that approached
those Iranians, and asked them to choose him? 8

Battle presupposes a conflict between opposing and con-
tending forces. Living, existent spirits do not wage war,
as we believe, against non-existent things. A syllogism
would run thus: He who wages a conflict must have an
opponent to contend against. Ormazd is waging battle.
Therefore he has an opponent, which he is contending
against.

The Iranian Bible makes frequent and repeated men-
tion of this evil spirit. Zoroaster names him as a demon
God; as the Worst Mind; as the Demon of Wrath; as
the Demon of Falsehood; as the Harmful Lie; as the Lie
Demon, and as the Evil Spirit.

The Jewish Bible is full, from Genesis to Revelations,
about the serpent, and satan, and the Devil; the Tempter,
Beelzebub, the Dragon, etc. Those devils of Iran and of
Israel seem to be expert linguists. They understand the
languages of the peoples. For the Jew Devil talks
Aaramaic to Jesus;9 and Satan, when he wants to afflict
Job, speaks Hebrew to the Lord.10

Was it simply a principle or an actuality that took Jesus
“up into the Holy City?” Was it a principle that offered
to bribe him, when the Devil took him up “into an

8   Yasma 30, § 6.

9   Matthew, ch. 4.

10   Job, ch. 1.
 116

NUMEROUS DEVILS

exceedingly high mountain?” 11 How is this? At one
of Zoroaster’s gatherings, while the people were debating
whether they would accept his religion, or hold to their
old Gods, the Worst Mind came, that “he might be
chosen”; and he won; for, “thereupon, they rushed to-
gether unto the Demon of Fury.”11 12 But those Iranians,
while not approved for rushing over to the Demon of
Fury, were hardly as wicked as the Jews, who “sacrificed
unto Devils and not to God.” 13 They went beyond that;
they sacrificed ‘their sons and their daughters unto Dev-
ils.” 14 Even the Lord himself (if the record be not false)
made use of a lying spirit to get Ahab slain.15 The Lord
found Satan standing by Zachariah and an angel, and
the Lord rebuked Satan. We might ask how the millions
of other worlds all around our own were progressing
while the Lord was there talking to Satan? A similar
observation might be made when the Lord gave Zoroaster
an audience.

§ 3. This idea of a personal devil has been long in the
world. It has traveled far. It has crossed mountains and
seas. It has invaded nation after nation, until every land
in the whole earth has its devil. The New Testament
caught the infection from the Persians and the Old Testa-
ment, and pictures this monster with cloven hoofs, with
horns, and with hideous features. Children see pictures
of his Satanic Majesty to this day. Holy writ tells us that

11   Matthew 4.

12   Yasma 30, § 6.

13   Deuteronomy 32, 17.

14   Psalms 106, v. 37.

15   1st Kings 22, v. 22.
 IF THERE WERE NO DEVIL t

117

when this devil is caught, and locked in the bottomless pit,
he can only be kept there one thousand years, and then he
must be turned loose.16 How are the nations to rid them-
selves of this engorged fiend, when pulpit and press main-
tain that “the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seek-
ing whom he may devour”?17 Suppose Satan should die,
would the churches wither? Suppose this hateful myth,
or being, should beat a retreat, with all his battalions, and
withdrew from the earth, and make a tour of some of
the other of the millions of worlds around us, would
Christianity collapse? No, it would not collapse. It
would sing a song of victory. What else would follow?
Our literature would have to be reformed. Our ideas of
business would have to be reformed. Many of our laws
would be useless. In fact, we should scarcely need any
laws. Justice and mercy, sympathy and love, would so
prevail “that the world would be restored.” 18 Eden would
be regained, the Millennial Year would be at our very
doors. Is this a wild dream?

Now, who is to blame that this Elysium of Bliss is kept
from us ? Who must be charged with getting a personal
devil into our Bibles, into our thoughts, into our literature,
into our very lives ? The answer is not far to be sought.
For if there be not, truly, a personal devil, active in the
affairs of the world, if all our ideas about this evil one
are merely creatures of the imagination, then our old ac-
quaintance, Zoroaster, must be charged with all the mis-
chief. But, if there truly exists an active wicked spirit in

16   Rev., ch. 20, v. 3.

17   1st Peter, ch. 5, v. 8.

18   Yast 19, § 90, S. B. E., Vol. 23.
 118

THE UNDER WORLD

the world, polluting the lives of men, then this great Ira-
nian teacher and preacher is entitled to the patent of dis-
covery. He taught it to the Persians, and he taught it
persistently and effectively. He hammered it into their
very lives. He told them that there were two master
spirits, or Gods, in the world, Ahura-Mazda, and Ahar-
man.19 That Mazda was the God of righteousness, that
his thoughts were good; that he ought to be worshipped
for his goodness; that he was beneficent, and that he loved
man. That Ahura was the good mind that spoke within
the soul; that he would give weal and immortality to all
such as followed his commands; that his home was in the
endless light, and that all his followers would find that
blissful seat. In truth he promised a never-ending life of
heavenly bliss to the just. All of Aharman’s thoughts,
words and deeds, he said, were evil; his worshippers were
seeds from the evil Mind; that sin binds a heavy penance
upon them; that there is a long wounding for the wicked,
and the blow of destruction would surely fall upon them.20
Their home, he said, would be in silent darkness. In short,
he pictured a hell for them; but there was no fire or brim-
stone in his hell. It was a place of darkness, a gloomy
abode in the under world.   *

§ 4. These two spirits or Gods were creative each in
his own realm. Anaxagoras and Plato, many centuries
later, followed Zoroaster in this, except that they said
there were in nature two principles—one active and one
passive. How was Zoroaster led into this line of reason-

19   This compound word, Ahura-Mazda, was afterwards
abridged to Ormazd. I write it either way.

20   Yasma 30 and 31, Vol. 31, S. B. E.
 JEWS FOUND THEIR DEVIL IN BABYLON 119

ing? Unquestionably it was because he saw so much in-
justice, sin, suffering and evil all about him, and he could
account for these things only as the work of an evil deity.
He had not read Isaiah, chapter 45, where God says: “I
create evil.”21 He reasoned that Ahura was merciful,
sympathetic and loving, and that he would, if he had the
power, abolish this sorrow and suffering at one swoop
and forever. This line of reasoning, he supposed, relieved
Ahura, a just God, from all responsibility in the matter.

Whether this doctrine be true or false, Iran believed in
it, adopted it, fought it, and spread it from the Oxus to
Media, where it was likewise approved and became the
national belief. From Media it traveled west to Babylon.
Here this duality-doctrine about the year 597 B. C. met
Nebuchadnezzar, a conquering King returning from the
overthrow of Jerusalem. The fallen King, and Ezekiel,
and Ezra, and Jedediah, and Daniel, and thousands of the
principal citizens of the captive city were prisoners in the
King’s train. They were kept in bondage for a long gen-
eration—nearly seventy years. Their priests and scribes
meanwhile studied Zoroaster’s doctrine of a good and
evil God. They embraced it. Perhaps they could ac-
count for their captivity in no other way than that an evil
God had delivered them into the hands of their enemies.

When Cyrus22 finally sent them back to their native
land they carried Zoroaster’s theology with them. Angels
and devils at once appear in the Hebrew Bible.

21   “I form the light and create darkness; I make peace
and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.” Isaiah,
ch. 45; 7-

22   If Cyrus was the anointed of the Lord, the Lord
 120

EZEKIEL'S VISION

Daniel, on the banks of Ulai,23 has a vision of the angel
Gabriel, similar to Zoroaster’s on the banks of the Daitu,
where he meets Vohu-mano, except that Daniel was
frightened at the apparition, and fell down flat on his face,
but Zoroaster did not flinch, although Vohu-mano seemed
to be forty-nine feet tall. Daniel, also, seems to have been
impressed with Zoroaster’s doctrine of the resurrection,
for in chapter 12 he makes explicit mention of it. In the
second verse of that chapter we read, “that many of them
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting con-
tempt.” At that time Michael, Jewish angel, will stand
up, and there will be a time of trouble, but every one shall
be “delivered who is found written in the Book.”

§ 5. Ezekiel, another of the exiles, while yet in Baby-
lon, has a vision of a valley full of dry bones. They are
the bones of exiles who have perished there. He hears
a noise, and a shaking of the bones, and they come togeth-
er, bone to bone, and flesh comes upon them, and skin
covers them, and breath comes to them, and they live and
stand upon their feet. And the Lord said to Ezekiel:
“Prophesy and say: ‘the Lord will open your graves and
bring you into the land of Israel, and will put his spirit
into you, and will place you in your own land.’ ” 24

uses some miserable wretches to accomplish his ends.
For Cyrus was cruel and barbarous. He murdered his
prisoners; some of them by burning.

23   See Vol. 47, S. B. E., ch. 3, of Book 7, p. 48; Daniel,
ch. 8, v. 16.

24   Ezekiel, ch. 37, v. 1 to 14. This was soothing to
those poor exiles, but none of them ever came up out of
their graves.
 EZEKIELS RESURRECTION

121

We observe that Ezekiel is specific about the manner of
the resurrection. He goes into details about it, whereas
Zoroaster tells us that the souls of the righteous shall
have safe passage across Kinvad Bridge.25

The great Iranian does not teach the resurrection of the
body. He is entirely silent about it. What is said in sec-
tion three, chapter nine, is a later doctrine from the Ven-
didad.26 Zoroaster says: “I am delivering up my mind
and soul to reach the heavenly Mount,27 whither all the
redeemed must pass.” He sees that if the soul passes
the Bridge in safety, it has reached the home of the Good
Mind. It is in heaven. It would, therefore, need no res-
urrection. Nowhere in Zoroaster’s teachings does he an-
nounce that the soul goes into the grave. Job said:
“When I go to the land of darkness, and the shadow of
death, I shall not return.” 28 Of course no sensible person
believes that after his body goes into the grave it will ever
come forth again. Why should it come forth? It goes
down into the grave, blasted by age, or eaten by disease,
or torn in battle, or wrecked by some of the thousand
calamities that befall the race. If the body be resurrected
it must be the same that went into the grave. Was not
the vision of Ezekiel simply a happy consolation, offered
by the poet to those suffering exiles, that although their
bodies might be buried in Babylon yet the God of their

25   See ch. io, § i, ante as to Kinvad Bridge.

26   Westengard’s fragments, in the Vend., p 247: The
Bundahis followed Ezekiel as to the resurrection of the
bodies.

27   Mount Alborz, at the heavenly end of the Bridge.
See ch. 28, § 5, Vol. 31, S. B. E.

28   Job X, 21.
 122

NO JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH

Fathers would bring them up out of their graves and
take them back to “their own, their native land”?

The Persian did not teach justification by faith, but
that every man was his own Saviour. That good
thoughts, good words and good deeds would land every
soul safely in the home of the Good Mind.
 CHAPTER XIII.

THE IRANIAN BELIEF: IT LEADS TO A DIVISION OF SENTI-
MENT, THREATENING WAR. ZOROASTER’S PRAYERS.

§ I. In the Persian belief there was no remission of
sins. Every man made his own atonement for his own
offenses. His sins were, as we have seen, charged up
against him, but it was in his power to overbalance them
by good thoughts, words and deeds. He knew nothing
about salvation by faith. God would give him blessings
in His Holy Realm “in reward for good deeds.” 1 No
Saviour up to Zoroaster’s time had ever died for the Per-
sians. Thus each one by himself, and for himself, with-
out any intercessor, fixed his own destiny. He worked
out “his own salvation” himself, and thus made expiation
for his own misdeeds.

Zoroaster did not teach his people, as did Moses the
Jews,1 2 to catch two goats and cast lots upon them, one
for the Lord and one for the Scape-Goat, and upon the
goat upon which the Lord’s lot fell, sacrifice him for
their sins. The other goat, with the sins of all the people
on its poor head, was thrust forth into the wilderness.
It is possible, nay, it is highly probable, that if those
Iranians had heard of Aaron and his goats they would
have occasionally roasted one and thus have made the

1   Yas. 43, § 16, Vol. 31, S B. E.

2   Leviticus, ch. 16, v. 5 to 10.

123
 124

SIN'S PENALTY

passage across Kinvad Bridge not only easy but an abso-
lute certainty.

A vastly different doctrine was, however, taught them.
They were told that “the smallest sin brings its penalty.” 3
that this doctrine, unheard of before, would deliver the
people from the Lie-Demon.

It was an indubitable truth, but it was a question which
concerned the soul. “O, ye listening men,” exclaimed the
Prophet. “Let not a man of you lend a hearing to the
evil-doers. And ye vile, long life shall be your lot in
darkness.” 4 But Ahura will give both weal and immor-
tality to the Righteous order. “To the wise,” he added,
“these things are clear.”

The promulgation of these doctrines provoked so great
a strife, and it raged so fiercely, that Zoroaster found
himself like Paul, not only wrestling against flesh and
blood but against principalities and powers. The chief
men in high places became implacable foes.

He who would not reclaim his life, he who would de-
spoil the honest tiller of his herds and flocks, he who
would give ear to the Lie-Demon, against such he urged
his followers “to fly to arms and hew them all with the
halberd.” It was not only a spiritual warfare but an
actual hand-to-hand conflict that confronted the seer and
his followers. His enemies were offering devotions to a
false religion, and if they secured power would deliver
home, village and province to ruin and death. All such

3   Yasna 31, § 1 and § 13.

4   Yasna 31, §§ 20, 21 and 22. Darkness is not as ter-
rible as to burn.
 GOOD AND EVIL CLASH EVERYWHERE 125

[Prometheus]

were seeds of the Evil Mind, and their deceits are found,
he said, in all the seven zones of the earth.

§ 2. With what words the opponents of Zoroaster an-
swered this severe arraignment we are not told. We can,
however, infer that these charges were met by counter-
charges which were fast leading up to blood. One Yima
Vivanghusha is pointed out as an evil teacher, a wretched
being, full of crime, who was perverting the minds of the
people. This man, Zoroaster declares, is filled with deceit
and is scheming to establish the Kavis (idolaters) in
power. Thus he would destroy the religion of the faith-
ful.

Although a warrior of note, “wielding a glittering
blade of iron,” 5 he yet was of that pestiferous class found
in all ages who will stoop to open bribery to gain advan-
tages where force cannot prevail. But this did not abate
the great reformer’s zeal, for he threatens to yet drive
hence the Kavis or Karpans and their followers.

Long after this, in a distant land, a similar scene was
enacted between Elijah, the prophet, and Ahab, the wick-
ed King of Israel. In both cases the prophets and their
adherents prevail. Ahab is slain, and the Karpans, after
a long struggle, as we shall see, were also overcome. But
not until the idolaters, in both Iran and in Israel, were
put down did the troubles of the faithful cease. This
threat to drive the Karpans hence exhibits a plain phase
of Zoroaster’s character. He is not only religious, but he
is stubbornly religious. He is willing to fight for his
religion rather than yield it. Hence, to visit vengeance

5   Yas. 32, § 7.
 126

FEARLESS FOR THE RIGHT

upon evil-doers was not thought to be inconsistent with
his duty or his religion.

He saw that the Karpans were even then planning open
hostilities against him and his followers, and, not possess-
ing the gentle, non-combative spirit of the Man of Galilee,
he would oppose them with force. Less cruel than Moses
and Joshua, for they were murderers and plunderers;6
his religion allowed him the easy latitude of all subse-
quent religions. He abjured evil, but the Lord had “not
given him the spirit of fear.” 7 In the same breath in
which he besought Ahura for blessings on the Kine (the
people) he denounced his enemies with unsparing tongue.
While this is true, it must be said of him that he was the
very buttress of the whole religious arch, and with his
absence or death his great reform would have dwindled,
withered and fallen. He knew this, and he knew also that
his arch-enemy, Yima Vivanghusha, was able at any mo-
ment to hurl his mace at him 8 and forever end his career.
Paul suffered in prison for years because of the religion
he taught; Zoroaster, centuries before Paul’s day, became
not only a “gazing-stock” for the wicked,9 but finally
gave his life in the cause of his people. Both of these

6   Moses caused all the Midianites to be murdered, ex-
cept the little girls, who were kept for a shameful pur-
pose. Ch. 31, Numbers. Moses also murdered the Egyp-
tian; Exodus, ch. 2, v. 11 and 12. Joshua plundered
Jericho and murdered all the people, both young and old,
except a harlot. Joshua, ch. 6, and he did the same with
the city of Ai, Joshua, ch. 8.

7   2d Timothy, ch. 1, v. 7.

8   Yas. 32, § 10.

9   Hebrews, ch. 10, v. 33.
 RELIGIOUS ITAtfS

127

men were great moral heroes who sought the betterment
of the race.

§ 3. A religious war in Iran was impending, and like
all religious wars since the dawn of history, it was to be
cruel and desolating. It was preceded by persecutions and
lawlessness, and perhaps murders, of which we know but
little. If Zoroaster had named one of his devils the De-
mon of Intolerance; that fiend would have been aptly des-
ignated, for Intolerance, if it be not a demon; this may
be alleged against it. It has reddened many a field; its
victims fill millions of graves. In fact, in some quarters
of the globe, even at the present day, it rears its monster
head. It was numberless ages before any herald appeared
proclaiming “Peace on earth, and good will to man.” And
if the angels really did bring those sweet words from the
skies, mankind has not very diligently pondered them.

Zoroaster was not heralded by any such heaven-born
sentiment. He lived back nearer to the birth of the race,
and, therefore, in a more cruel period. The spread of his
gospel, like all new faiths or beliefs, wherever it reached,
called forth discussion, opposition and controversy. It
went beyond this and culminated in open war. The gos-
pel of Galilee, a thousand years and more after its great
founder perished, brought upon the land of its birth in-
vasions and wars as cruel as any that ever devastated the
earth. No mortal struggle ever surpassed in fierceness
and hate, the religious wars of the Crusaders. In truth,
a religious war, seems filled to the brim with malice and
all the dregs of evil. It was the same in this war waged
against the religion taught by the great Persian. And in
 128

ZOROASTER'S PRAYER

order to be successful in the impending strife each party
invoked the higher Powers, for help.10

§ 4. Zoroaster’s Prayer:   “This I ask of Thee, O,

Ahura! that thou wilt send mighty destruction among our
enemies. Wilt Thou deliver the Lie-Demon and his fol-
lowers into the hands of the Righteous Order? O, Lord!
when the two hosts shall meet, to which of the two wilt
Thou give the day ? Lord, we smite for the protection of
Thy doctrines. Draw near with Thy good mind and sup-
port those who strive for weal and immortality. Tell us,
O Lord! how we may proceed to that consummation. And
to our deluded foes, the daeva-worshippers, have they
ever reigned worthily ? The Karpans (heretics) are given
to rapine and slaughter. They are of the Lie-Demon, and
have never brought waters to the fields of the Righteous
Order. They have never given tribal wealth or blessings
to the Kine. They are recreant to Thy Law. O, Lord!
knowing well their doom at last, let Thy conquering ho$ts,
with gifts of Grace, triumph in the coming strife. Who
but Thee hath sustained the earth from beneath}1 and the
clouds above, that they do not fall ? Who but Thee holds

10   It was the same in our civil war, when I was in the
army forty-three years ago. Our chaplains were wont to
pray fervently for the defeat and destruction of our ene-
mies. And the confederate divines (as I have since heard
and read) put up equally fervent petitions to the Almighty
for our defeat. Suppose they could have mustered a few
more battalions, would the Lord have heard them? We
know that “time and chance happeneth to all.” Eccle.
9, ii-

11   He had not yet learned that the earth is round, and
that there is no “beneath” to it.
 VISTASPA'S SACRIFICES

129

the sun and the stars in their course ? Who but Thee, O,
Great Creator! yokes the storm-clouds to the winds? O,
Ahura, Lord! use us, Thy people, as instruments to keep
those deceitful and those harsh oppressors from reaching
their aims. Let, O, Lord, that holy faith and piety, which
are of all things best, go hand in hand. And in the final
striving, for the sake of Thy Righteous Order, may Thy
Grace prevail.”12

If we were to follow the later Avesta we would see
Vistaspa offering sacrifices of one hundred horses, one
thousand oxen, and ten thousand lambs, with libations
that he might overcome, in battle, Tatherevant, of the
bad law; that he might put to flight AstaAurvant, of the
brazen helmet; and that he might slay the Hyonian mur-
derer, Arjasp; that he might slay the Hyonians by the
hundreds, by the thousands, and by the myriads.13 Hus-
ravh, he who united the Aryan clans into a kingdom, and
others of the faith offered similar sacrifices, and begged
the boon that he might kill the Iranian murderers.14
Perhaps they had heard of Exodus, where none must
appear before the Lord empty handed.

§ 5. But this praying and sacrificing was not15 all
done by the Aryans, for the same record sets forth that

12   I have here given the substance of the Prophet’s peti-
tion, which runs through Yasma 44, Vol. 31, S. B. E.

13   Gos Yast, § 29 and § 30; also Aban Yast, § 108 and
§ 109, Vol. 23, S. B. E. But these Yasts are of a later
period than Zoroaster. They, however, have crept into
his history.

14   Exodus, ch. 23, v. 15. None must appear before the
Lord empty handed.

15   This later Avesta was written after the days of Zoro-
 130

HERETICS OFFER SACRIFICES

the Turanians, Arjasp and his brother, Vandariman, of-
fered up sacrifices of one hundred horses, a thousand
oxen, and ten thousand lambs to Arda Sura Ananita (the
goddess of waters) and besought the boon that they
might conquer Vistaspa and his army, and that they might
smite the Aryan people by hundreds, by the thousands,
and by the myriads.16

It is possible that these sacrifices were offered, but
Zoroaster does not mention them, nor does it appear in
the Gathas that he offered any. The Gathas are mostly
made up of exhortations and prayers, including some
sharp denunciations of the wicked.17

The Prophet, instead of killing oxen and lambs to gain
the favor of the Almighty, falls on his knees: “Tell me,
O Lord! the end, for Thou dost know. Tell me, O Thou
Good Mind! and thus increase my strength and courage
before the encounter comes. Tell me, Lord! the future of

aster, yet these sacrifices may have been offered, for the
whole world was then likewise engaged. Solomon, we
know (2 Chron., ch. 7), offered up 22,000 oxen and 120,-
000 sheep at the dedication of his temple, a building in no
wise extraordinarily large or beautiful.

16   These Turanians were a barbarous, warlike people,
who lived near the southern extremity of the Caspian.
Their place in history is somewhat indistinct. Some schol-
ars believe their home was not far from the Jihun (Oxus).
Others identify them with the Hyonians or Chionites, and
locate them west of the Caspian.

17   Balak, king of the Moabites, also sacrificed that he
might conquer Israel. Did Balak learn this from Arjasp,
or had Arjasp heard of Balak, and did he follow him?
The sacrifices are very similar.
 ZOROASTER PRAYS AGAIN

131

the struggle. I will hope and pray, though I know not
the issue. But, O Lord, let not the evil gain the day, but
in accordance with Thy will, let the righteous prosper and
rule. They will grant us pleasing homes while we live.18
Do Thou, O Lord, let the demon of rapine be cast down.
We hold fast to our sacred refuge in Thee. Thy strug-
gling servant, with changing lot, who toils for Thy King-
dom, how shall he beseech Thee for victory? What is
the potent prayer to bring on the Holy reign ? How shall
I seek to spread Thy Righteous Order while I live?
May Piety ever be present, and may she, through the
indwelling of the Good Mind (Holy Spirit), give us bless-
ings in reward for our struggles in Thy cause.” 19

Is not this idea uppermost in all our prayers and in all
our religions? We want a quid-pro-quo, an equivalent,
for all we say and do for the Lord. We do not thank
Heaven for life. We came without our asking. We shall go
hence without our requesting. We come; we go; we
ebb; we flow; and that great mysterious Ocean, called
Time, swallows us up and we are not.

Did that something, which we call soul or mind (for
they are inseparable), live beyond the struggle which
shortly laid the Prophet’s body in the grave? That is
the question. Who can answer ? No one hath come back
to tell us.

18   The reader will notice all along that the Turanians
seem to be free-booters and plunderers. The righteous,
as Zoroaster calls them, were law-abiding.

19   Yasna 43, §§ 14 to 16, and Yasna 48, Vol. 31,
S. B. E.
 CHAPTER XIV.

THE BATTLE. DEFEAT OF IRAN. THE ARMIES. BENDVA

AND THE PROPHET. THE KARPANS. THEIR MISDEEDS.

It is probable that before any contest arose with the
surrounding tribes or nations about the new religion there
were many sharp controversies among and between the
people of Iran. Blood flowed at Jerusalem and there-
abouts before the Gospel reached any foreign land. Even
one of Jesus’ friends smote the ear from off a disbeliever.1
There were envyings and strifes, and divisions rag-
ing among the elect.1 2 No doubt Zoroaster saw the same
divisions and strifes in his own ranks. The unbelievers
were denounced as heretics, as enemies, and as the seed
of the Evil Mind. But those very disputes, in Bactria, or
wherever they occurred, served only to publish far and
wide the faith and creed of the Prophet.

It did not, therefore, fall still-born; they talked about
it; there was much wagging of tongues; much shaking
of heads. There were believers and disbelievers. Even
Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him.3 And he was
obliged to remain for a season in Galilee, lest the Jews
might kill him.

In the more desperate and savage times of the Persian
he, without question, ran many such chances. He stood,

1   Matt., ch. 26, v. 51.

2   1st Corinthians, ch. 3, v. 3.

3   St. John, ch. 7, v. 5.

132
 THE WAR OF THE RELIGIONS

133

as it were, upon the outer battlement, conspicuous, defy-
ing all the Goliaths of the Turanians. And he stood thus
for more than fifty years.4

The storm, long gathering, was about to break. Arjasp,
the Turanian leader, was marching an army to invade
Iran.

It has been said that the cause of this war was the
failure of Vistaspa to continue to pay Arjasp the tribute
agreed upon as the result of a former war. Possibly this
may have been mixed up in the controversy, yet the great
moving cause of the struggle was the differing religions.
In fact, this war was called “The War of the Religions.” 5

The battle resulted in a sore defeat to the Iranians,
and if the improbable story of the Bundahis be true, they
were only saved from destruction by a part of a mountain
breaking loose and sliding down into the plain, thereby
sheltering them from their victorious enemies. The Ira-
nians call this mountain Mount Madofryad, which means
“come to help”. Zachariah says that the Mount of Olives
shall cleave in the midst thereof, and half of the moun-
tain shall remove toward the South, and half toward the
North. Did he copy, or did the Iranians ? 6

The exact location of this battle cannot be stated. It
may have been far down on the borders of Afghanistan,
or it may have been nearer Bactria. But it is certain that
the Iranians were routed,7 for Zoroaster, to encourage his

4   Ch. 23, § 8, Vol. 47, S. B. E.

5   Bund., ch. 12, § 33; see also ch. 4, § 77, Vol. 47,

S.   B. E.

6   Zachariah, ch. 14, v. 4.

7   Bund., ch. 12, speaks of “come to help”, as the place
 134

EXTRAVAGANT NUMBERS IN BATTLE

followers, tells them that though the battle is lost all is
not yet lost.* 8 Mazda, he said, would yet save and protect
them against their unbelieving foes.

§ 2. If the Shah-Nama, founded upon extravagant
and careless tradition, has given the numbers of the con-
tending forces correctly, then there were potent causes
for Iran’s defeat, for her 144,000 were met by Arjasp with
300,ooo.9 But these numbers seem wild and improbable,
for if this battle, with such numbers, was fought even as
late as six hundred years B. C. there would be some men-
tion of it in history outside of the Avesta and works
copied from it.

[Prometheus]

On the other hand, if Zoroaster’s period is back fifteen,
or even ten centuries before Jesus’ day, no such Turanian
force could be assembled, nor could the Iranians put their
alleged one hundred and forty-four thousand into the
field. Arjasp was simply a border-chief, and his army
did not, probably, reach one-tenth of the numbers above
mentioned.

Now, an army of twenty thousand10 men and four
thousand horses for a campaign of four months would
require about six thousand tons of food and forage. Those
Turanians were invading an hostile country, and not a very

where Vistaspa routed Arjasp, but the same text says
there was confusion among the “Iranians” and they
were saved as above stated. If the mountains had to save
them, how could they be victorious?

8   Yasna 49, §§ 3, 4 and 5.

9   The Shah Nama mentions that Vistasp was in Bactra
when he received envoys from Arjasp about the tribute.

10   My experience in our civil war leads me to flatly
controvert the wild statement of the Zartust-Nama.
 THE WAVERING DESERT HIM

135

fertile one at that. It is simply impossible that they could
transport supplies for three hundred thousand men.

§ 3. Benda, another border chief, who had ever op-
posed the Prophet and his religion, about this time gained
such an advantage that there was much wavering among
Zoroaster’s followers. The Prophet himself says: “Band-
va is most powerful and would crush my strength while
I seek to win back the disaffected.” 11 In truth, he even
caused Zoroaster to hesitate, and ponder, whether his
course of reform was the wisest that could be adopted.
Whether Bendva assisted Arjasp in gaining the victory
above mentioned is not certain, but it is not improbable
that the two forces acted together, for both of those lead-
ers were seeking the same end, namely, the overthrow of
Zoroaster and his doctrines.

Religion, whenever necessary to gain its 'ends, has
never scrupled to use the torch and the sword. Moses
and Joshua, in the name of the Lord, burned cities and
slew the people thereof with a fiendishness and savagery
never yet surpassed.11 12 Even while I write these lines
the armies of the world are in China making war on the
people there. Religion and plunder are at the bottom of
the whole thing.

In religion, a thesis or creed is announced, and woe be
to the man who controverts it. Bendva, no doubt, be-

11   Yasma 49, § 1.

12   Moses sent his armed men against the Midianites
and destroyed them. Numbers 31. He also drove out
the Amorites and took Bashan. Numbers, ch. 21; 32 and
33. See Joshua, ch. 6 and 8, where the people of Ai and
Jericho perished.
 136

KARPANS WERE PLUNDERERS

longed to that class who held to the old faith. Perhaps
one of his main objections to the new creed was that there
were not two primeval creative spirits or beings.13 He
may have antagonized the Prophet on the ground that
there was no such crossing or place as the Kinvad Bridge.
He may have ridiculed the idea that there was an evil
God. He may have held to the doctrine of the Sadducees
that there is no resurrection of the dead. Whatever that
old belief was, he was willing to fight a battle to maintain
it. Evidently it was a full-fledged creed with numerous
followers. But if the inquiry be made, what was that
old faith? No exact, explicit answer can be given. We
search in vain for a single direct statement of what it
was, and can only gather an idea of it, here and there, by
what the Prophet alleges against it.

§ 4. We know that good thoughts, words and deeds
are the foundations of the Zoroaster structure, and we
reason that Bendva, Arjasp and the Turanians must have
held to the contrary.

Repeatedly the Prophet charges that the Karpans are
destroyers; that they neither bring harvests to the fields,
nor food to the Kine. That their teachings and deeds
lead to the House of the Lie, bringing only woe and deso-
lation.14

Of this we may be reasonably certain, the Karpans were
not friendly to the tillers of the soil; for the Prophet cries
out: “O, Great Creator! I ask of Thee two blessings for
Thy followers. Grant Thy protection over our gathered
wealth, and give us those spiritual blessings promotive of

13   See Dualism, ch XI, § 3.

14   Yas. 51, §§ 12 to 15.
 ZOROASTER'S DUALISM

137

our worship of Thee. I speak for all who are guided by
Thy Law. Yea, I cry aloud to Thee, for all these assem-
bled here. And they ask: Where is the Lord ? Will He
show us mercy, and save us from these dreaded dangers ?
It is the tiller of the earth who asks this of Thee, O,
Ahura”.

The Prophet himself says he asks all this that he may
discover how he can gain to himself the Sacred Kine;
that is, the love and help of the people. Now, if the Kar-
pans did not, or would not, cultivate the fields, but de-
stroyed the fruitage thereof, and plundered the herds, then
here is a plain dividing line between “the two striving
sides”; Zoroaster being a strong tower of defense against
these misdeeds. We have here the manifest reason why
the miscreants sought to destroy his life.15

There is nowhere an explanation or denial of these
serious charges against the Karpans, and the inquiry
arises: Whence came the instigation for these misdeeds?
Was old Aharman (the devil) right there urging them
on, or is man prone to evil ? I know that Isaiah, in chap-
ter 45, says: “The Lord created evil”; and Job, in chap-
ter 2d, hints the same way. But I question whether the
Lord really did create evil. Is it not rather inherent in the
very nature of things? Or is Zoroaster’s dualism, or
theory of a good God, and an evil one correct? The reader
can make his choice.

15   Yas. 51, §§ 2 to 12. Yas. 31, § 3, has it, “two bat-
tling sides.”
 CHAPTER XV.

SECOND BATTLE. VISTASPA'S VICTORY. THE SPREAD OF THE
FAITH. SECTION 3. IS THERE A DUALISM?

The defeat of Zoroaster’s followers, as mentioned in
the preceding chapter, did not break their courage. For
Vistaspa rallied his scattered forces and gave battle again,
and this time he achieved a great success. But his own
household suffered sorely, twenty-two of his sons being
slain. This number seems extravagant, but is in keeping
with the foolish statement that Zarir, the brother of Vis-
taspa, repeatedly hewed down ten Khyons at one blow.
Zarir himself finally falls, pierced to the heart by a spear,
but not until Arjasp’s army is defeated with terrible
slaughter.1

How much time elapsed between these two battles
cannot be stated. The Shah-Nama says two weeks, but if
in the first engagement there was such confusion among
the Iranians that they were only saved by part of a moun-
tain sliding down into the plain, and thus sheltering them
from their enemies that time is too short.1 2

1   The Shah-Nama says Arjasp lost 100,000 slain in the
two battles. That work greatly tries my patience by its
foolish exaggerations. It mentions that in both wars
Vistaspa lost thirty-eight sons. If so, he must have been
a very industrious man, as well as wise sovereign.

2   I was with a great defeated army under McClellan,

138
 A COMPLETE VICTORY

139

The victory, however, is complete, for Arjasp is driven
back to his own country, so humbled, that Zoroaster makes
progress with his religion for several years before his old
enemy appears again to break the peace.

By this victory Vistaspa becomes at once the arm and
support of Zoroaster’s cause. The later Avesta sets forth,
exultingly, that he found religion standing bound, and
took her from the hands of the Kyans, and established
her high, ruling, holy and blessed with plenty of cattle
and pasture.* 3 The same authority states that he drove all
his enemies before him, conquered them, and thus made
wide room for the holy religion. Some of these enemies
are mentioned, and among them Arjasp, as being particu-
larly fiendish and wicked.4

Peace now reigned for a season, and Vistaspa, to em-
phasize and extol his victory, sends his son, Isfander, to
surrounding tribes and nations to proclaim the tidings
thereof. There is a tradition that Vistaspa also founded a
fire-temple and placed Jamasp, as high priest, in charge
of it. But this is surely an error, for neither the Iranians
nor the Persians, their children, worshipped in temples.
They had their mountain of Holy Questions; their Sinai,
where Zoroaster talked with Ormazd ( ?) ; and they be-

in 1862, when he was driven from the front of Richmond
and fled to the shelter of the gunboats on James River,
and I there learned that two weeks is much too short a
time for a routed army to recuperate and recruit its ex-
hausted strength.

3   Zamyad Yast, § 86, S. B. E., Vol. 23.

4   Arjasp is often called Argat-Aspa, but I prefer the
shorter cognomen.
 140

VICTORY HELPS THE FAITH

lieved that the tops of hills and mountains were nearer
to Heaven, and they worshipped there. '

§ 2. This last battle and victory gave a very great im-
petus to Zoroaster’s creed. “From near and from afar” 5
people came seeking knowledge of the new religion. Evil
beliefs, he said, are the overthrow of the wicked. And he
repeats to them that when the world’s two first spirits
came together the More Bountiful thus spake to the Evil
One:   “I do not think what thou thinkest, for I think

what is good, and thou thinkest what is evil. Neither our
beliefs, nor our deeds, nor our consciences, nor our souls
are in harmony.”

The sage then declares that all who will not obey the
righteous Mazda their life shall end in woe. But they
who follow the Good Mind, striving within their souls,
shall reap weal and immortality. Blessings to the right-
eous, but woe to the wicked, these things hath Mazda
established throughout his realm. The demon Gods must
be opposed, thwarted, defeated. But the bounteous Lord
of Saving Power, who gives weal and immortality, jnust
be adored, honored, obeyed. “He is our brother; yea, he
is more than brother. He is father to us; Mazda, Lord.
And he will bestow rewards beyond this earth.”6

§ 3. It will be noticed that here, again, is mentioned
“the world’s two first spirits.” Did Homer, who lived
nine or ten centuries before Jesus, catch the thought from
the Iranian Seer, and by changing the original slightly,
paint this picture?

5   Yas. 45, § 1.

6   Yasma 45; also Yas. 30, § 4. and Yas. 46, § 19. See
also ch. 12, § 1.
 HOMER AND ZOROASTER

141

“ Two Urns by Jove’s high throne have ever stood,

The source of evil, one; the other good.

From thence, the cup of mortal man he filis,

Blessings to these, to those, distributes ills.

To most, he mingles both.” Book 24. Iliad.

It must be conceded that Zoroaster, so far as known,
brought into the world this idea of two contending spirits;
the one good, the other evil. The poet makes one God
(Jove) the author of all our ills, sin and misery. Which
of these great souls is right? Here are two systems or
theories, and men have taken opposing sides since the
Iranian Seer first announced his duality. Possibly some
other great thinker, even before his day, had stumbled
against this unanswerable enigma. We leave this matter
here with this question:   If there exists a duality, and

behind these a unity, or creative power, which controls
them; then, against Zerana-Akerana, or whatever that
unity may be named, must be charged the responsibility
for all the evil and sin in the world. For with such lim-
itless power, He can make and unmake worlds and myr-
iads of worlds. Hence how easy for Him at one stroke
to smite and destroy sin with all its ugly brood.7 Or is
this theory true? Does the Great I Am rule this planet
by His vicegerents ? Possibly angels are delegated to act.

In the Desatir this question is answered in this wise:
God is the immediate Maker of the Angels. He used the
medium of no instrument in bestowing existence on them,
but in regard to all other existences he used Media or
instruments.8

7   See § 1, ch. 12.

8   Desatir, published at Bombay, 1818, Vol. 2, p. 125.
 142 PREACHERS CLAIM THEY ARE CALLED

We know that every orthodox minister, and some who
are not orthodox, claims that God has called him to act
as a helper. Is it true that the Divine Being, we call God,
is simply the vicegerent of some higher and more mighty
power? Thomas Dick, the devout astronomer, in his
great work, says, there are nine thousand millions of visi-
ble worlds about us. Our world is only as a grain of
sand on the seashore. Yet it took millions of years to
build it; and if it required Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, and
multitudes of other, to labor in the moral vineyard, why
not some colossus to superintend the whole? This prob-
lem did not escape Zoroaster. Its germ is in the Avesta,9
but the Seer did not elaborate it. Dualism served his
purpose. Moreover Dualism was easier for his people to
understand. But who shall say there is no Zerana Aker-
ana?

9   Farvardin Yast, § 80, Vol. 23, S. B. E. Also Far-
gard 19, Vendidad, § 46, Vol. S. B. E.
 CHAPTER XVI.

MIRACLES. THE ROOF OF A TEMPLE PARTS FOR ZOROASTER.
TWO SCOFFERS SENT UP IN THE AIR. ELISHA AND THE
SHE-BEARS. ZOROASTER HEALS THE BLIND. MOSES
BRINGS DOWN MURRAIN AND HAIL. VISIONS OF THE
PROPHETS. JOSHUA AND THE SUN. IN ZOROASTER'S
VISION HE SEES HEAVEN AND HELL.

Around every great historic name myths and legends
gather, and the greater the name the more the myths
and legends seem to multiply about it. The marvelous,
with some, is more pleasing than the real. With those
the Arabian Knights and the Travels of Gulliver are en-
chanting. That class will here find mental pabulum to
their liking.

In one of Zoroaster’s crusades against unbelievers a
great multitude was gathered to hear him. Royalty,
gorgeously appareled, princes and peers were there. A
mighty temple was packed to overflowing. The audience,
on tiptoe with expectation, was waiting and watching his
coming. Suddenly, to its amazement, and almost terror,
there was a great snapping and cracking over their heads,
as if the building were about to collapse and fall. But,
instead, a rift appeared in the roof. It parted asunder,
hither and thither, by some invisible agency, and the
prophet, holding a great blazing ball of fire in his hand,
came down through the rifted roof. The fire did not
burn him, and the roof swung back into its place without
mortal help and without so much as a splinter falling.

143
 144

INDIA AND PERSIA IN DEBATE

This startling exhibition of supernatural power was, to
the waiting throng, a certain proof that his person was
sacred, his mission divine.

At another time he chanted his revelation in the home
of Vistaspa with such pleasing power that not only the
people who heard him were filled with righteousness but
even the cattle of the fields, and the beasts of burden
danced with joy. Meanwhile the fame of the Seer had
penetrated India, where his creed ran counter to the Rig-
veda. There lived at that time one Cangranghacah, a
learned Brahman, a great philosopher, scholar and teach-
er, who proposed to come to Balkh (Bactria) and over-
throw Zoroaster and his creed. He set out with a large
retinue of distinguished persons, scholars versed in the
lore of Veda, together with disciples anxious to listen to
the great debate. Ormazd gives the Prophet full pre-
monition of all the questions Cangranghacah will ask,
and the answers he shall make to them.

To each interrogatory of the Hindu the Seer reads a
chapter from the Avesta in full answer and refutation.
The audience is astonished, and the Brahman confounded.
He is not only confounded, but he is then and there con-
verted to the Iranian creed, and returns home with the
Avesta, prepared to teach its doctrines to the dwellers on
the Indus and the Ganges.