for centuries were handed down orally only. To the European reader it may be somewhat astonishing to hear that such large works as the Vedas could be faithfully and accurately retained in the memory for centuries; but considering that at the present day thousands of Brahmans exist who are able to recite parrot-like with the greatest accuracy, even as to accents, the whole of one of the Vedas, we are driven to admit that the same might have been the case in those early times to which we must trace the origin of the Zoroastrian religion. As long as the language of the hymns or prayers repeated was a living one and perfectly intelligible, there was no need of committing them to writing; but as soon as it had become dead, the aid of writing was required in order to guard the sacred prayers against corruption and mutilation. That was, in all probability, the case already a thousand years before the beginning of our era.

To revert to the supposed Zoroastrian authorship of the whole Zend-Avesta, believed by the ancient Greeks as well as by the modern Parsis, the solution of the difficulty is simple, if we take the name "Zarathushtra" (Zoroaster), not as the proper name of only one individual, but as the general title of the spiritual heads of the religious community of the ancient Persians. That this was really the case the reader will see from the fourth Essay. The founder is distinguished by the name "Spitama." The high-priest of the whole Parsi community was believed to be the successor of the great founder, Spitama Zarathushtra, and to have inherited his spirit. His sayings and decisions, therefore, were listened to with the greatest reverence, and in the course of time believed to be as sacred and divine as those which are with reason to be ascribed to the founder alone. The meaning of the supposed Zoroastrian authorship of the whole Zend-Avesta is that the scripture is the joint work of the high-priests in the ancient Persian Empire and other priests nearest to them in rank, compiled in the course of centuries.

This circumstance throws light upon the fact, that only the Dasturs, or present high-priests, are required to understand the meaning of the Zend-Avesta, and no one who has not thoroughly studied it can be acknowledged as a real Dastur

The texts extant now, and collected for the first time in Westergaard's valuable edition, comprise the following books:-YASNA, VISPARAD, VENDIDAD, and twenty-four sec tions called YASHTS, including fragments of the Hâdôkht Nask (No. 22 in Westergaard's edition) and Vishtâsp Nask (No. 24); to these are added some short prayers of different kinds, called AFRINGAN (3), NYAYISH (6), GAH (5), with some miscellaneous fragments (9), and the SIROZAH (thirty days) or calendar. We shall treat of each of them successively in detail.

IV.-YASNA.

'The word yasna 1 corresponds exactly to the S. yajna, "sacrifice," and does not signify only mere prayers, like the Nyâyish, but prayers referring to sacrificial rites, and includes the performance of the latter. The solemn recital of the Yasna before the fire is always connected with ceremonies, to which several of the prayers contained in the Yasna allude. Thus they require consecrated water (zaothra), a kind of bread (garetem, "food"), butter (gâush hudhao), fresh milk (gâush jîvya), meat (myazda),2 the branches of the Homa plant together with one of the pomegranate (hadhânaêpâta), the juice of the Homa plant (para-haoma), hair of an ox (varasa), and a bundle of twigs (baresma, nowadays barsom) which are tied together

1 Yajishn (sometimes aljishno) in Fahlavi, transliterated into Ijashne in Gujrati; the root is yaz, yas, "to worship by means of sacrifices and prayers;" na forms abstract nouns in the Avesta, and in Pahlavi ishn answers the same purpose.

2 The Dasturs nowadays under

stand it to mean "fruit," which they use when performing the Ijashne ceremony. But originally it meant "flesh," as may be clearly seen from the cognate Armenian mis, "meat," (comp. Sans. mâñsa) being identical with "meat."

by means of a reed. Without these implements, which are evidently the remnants of sacrifices agreeing to a certain extent with those of the Brahmans, as we shall see in the fourth Essay, no Ijashne can be performed by the priest. All these things must be in readiness, except the prepared Homa juice, and placed on a table of marble opposite to the fire of the Dâdgâh, or the common hearth of the temple (not before the sacred fires Adarán or Behrâm), before the Ijashne ceremony can be commenced.

The Yasna at the present time comprises seventy-two chapters, which number (6 times 12) is probably to represent the six gahanbârs, or seasons, during which Ahuramazda is said to have created the world. At all events, the extension of the several sections of the Yasna, called Ha (from Av. hâta), to the number of seventy-two, is not accidental, but was purposely made, as we may guess easily from the fact that several chapters occur twice within the compass of those seventy-two. For instance, the 61st and 72d chapters are the same, and the 18th contains nothing but verses from the Gâtha portion of the Yasna.

On closer inquiry, we find the Yasna really consists of at least two different parts, distinguishable by considerable differences in language and contents. One part we may call "the old," the other "the later Yasna." The old Yasna is written in a peculiar dialect, styled the Gâtha dialect in the second Essay, where its chief peculiarities have been pointed out.

All parts written in this peculiar dialect 1 formed originally a separate book, which was believed to be sacred even at the time of the composition of the other books contained in the present Zend-Avesta. The original name of this collection was, in all probability, mathra speñta, “ bene

1 These are the five Gathas:-Yas. xxviii.-xxxiv. ; xliii.-xlvi. ; xlvii.-l.; li. ; liii.; Yasna haptaṇhaiti (Yasna of seven chapters), xxxv.-xli., and some other smaller pieces, as Yas. iv. 26; xi.

9, 17, 18; xii.; xiii. ; xiv. ; xv. 2, 3; xxvii. 13, 14; lvi.; lviii. All references made to the Avesta, in this Essay, are to Westergaard's edition of the texts, unless otherwise noted.

ficent ritual" (called Mânsarspend in Persian writings), which is several times mentioned in the Vendidad (iv. 44) with the meaning of "Scripture." Its different parts were known by different names, as Gathas or hymns, Yasna haptanhaiti or the Yasna of seven chapters, which are often quoted in the other books, as in Yas. lvii. 8 (where the angel Srosh is said to have first recited the five Gâthas. of Spitama Zarathushtra), Yas. lxxi. 11, 12, 18 (where the Gâthas, the sacrificial prayers, and Yasna haptaṇhaiti, are distinguished, and a collection of all prayers is mentioned besides). In the Vendidad, especially in its tenth chapter, many sacred prayers are quoted, which are all to be found in the old Yasna, written in the peculiar Gâtha dialect.

In the first chapter of the Visparad we find a series of sacred prayers (or rather their angels 1) invoked. This passage being of the greatest importance for the history of the Avesta literature, I shall point out here all that refers therein to this matter. As sacred prayers and sacred literature in general, the following writings are there enumerated:-I. The three most sacred short formulas, viz., Yatha ahû vairyô (Yas. xxvii. 13), ashem vohû (Yas. xxvii. 14), and yênhê hâtãm 2

1 According to Zoroastrian ideas, everything in the good creation, whether animate or inanimate, is presided over by an angel, as the reader will learn from the 11th section of this Essay.

2 These three formulas are very short; it is, therefore, somewhat hazardous to venture upon a translation of them. The words themselves do not offer much difficulty, but the context does. The text of the first has already been given (p. 125); it is usually called Ahuna-vairya, and hence the first Gâtha is called Ahunavaiti, as it is written in the same metre and follows this formula, which may be translated as follows: As a 'heavenly lord is to be chosen, so is 'an earthly master (spiritual guide),

·

(Yas. iv. 26); 2. the Gâtha

for the sake of righteousness, (to be) the giver of the good thoughts, of 'the actions of life, towards Mazda; and the dominion is for the lord '(Ahura) whom he (Mazda) has given

as a protector for the poor.' The Ashem vohú formula, which is even more frequently used than the Ahunavairya, may be translated as follows: - Righteousness is the best good, a blessing it is; a blessing be to that 'which is righteousness towards Ashavahishta (perfect righteousness).' It is to be understood that "righteousness," here and elsewhere where it translates ashem, means "what is right or meritorious" in a ritualistic or materialistic sense, and does not necessarily imply holiness, any more than the Sans. punyam does.

ahunavaiti (Yas. xxviii.-xxxiv.); 3. Yasna haptanhaiti (Yas. xxxv.-xli.); 4. Gâtha ushtavaiti (Yas. xliii.—xlvi.) ; 5. Gátha speñtâ-mainyú (Yas. xlvii.-1.); 6. Gâtha vohukhshathra (Yas. li.); 7. Gâtha vahishtôishti (Yas. liii.); 8. Dahmi vanuhi and âfriti (the Dahmân Afringân, Yas. lx., the principal prayer for deceased pious Zoroastrians, called dahma); 9. Airyama ishyó (Yas. liv., a short prayer now used at the time of the solemnisation of a marriage); 10. Fshushô-mathra (Yas. lviii., a prayer for prosperity); 11. Berezo hadaokhdha (perhaps Yas. xv.); 12. the conversations with and teaching of Ahuramazda, as imparted to the ruler and chief high-priest (Zarathushtrôtemo, "the highest Zarathushtra ") of a whole country, by which a book like the Vendidad is to be understood, as we shall see afterwards.

In Vendidad xviii. 51, three classes of sacred writings are enumerated in the following order :-Gâthas, Yasna (by which very likely the Yasna haptaṇhaiti is to be understood), and a sacred tradition in a conversational form (called paitiparshtô-sravanhem), which appears to have been a work like the present Vendidad.

From these passages we may gather with certainty that the old Yasna, i.e., that part of the present Yasna which is written in the peculiar Gâtha dialect, is the most ancient of the whole Zend-Avesta, being known as scripture. already to the later Yasna, the Visparad, and Vendidad. All other parts of the Yasna, written in the ordinary Avesta language, are evidently of a later date; they may, therefore, be called the later Yasna. We shall first examine the contents of the chief parts of the old Yasna, the Gâthas.

V.-GATHAS.

The Gâthas, five in number, are comparatively small collections of metrical compositions, containing short prayers, songs, and hymns, which generally express philosophical and abstract thoughts about metaphysical sub