lame, of the limpid
stream, and of the sweet smelling ground, he connects it with the moral
purity which springs from innocence and rectitude, and in his code it is
as reprehensible to pollute the fire by burning the dead, or the stream
by committing the corpse to its waves, or the earth by making it a
burial-place, as it is to cheat or lie or commit an act of violence. The
wonders of Nature furnish abundant imagery for his hymns or his
litanies, and he relies for his cosmogony on the faint traditions of the
past gathered from whatever nation, and reduced into conformity with his
Dualistic creed.

"Zend-Avesta" is the religious book of the Persians who professed the
creed of Zarathustra, known in classic and modern times as Zoroaster.
Zoroaster is to be classed with such great religious leaders as Buddha
and Mohammed. He was the predecessor of Mohammed and the worship and
belief which he instituted were trampled out in Persia by the forces of
Islam in the seventh century of our era. The Persian Zoroastrians fled
to India, where they are still found as Parsis on the west coast of
Hindostan. The religion of Zoroaster was a Dualism. Two powerful and
creative beings, the one good the one evil, have control of the
universe. Thus, in the account of the creation, the two deities are said
to have equal though opposite share in the work. This is indicated by
the following passage--

The third of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda
(Ormuzd) created, was the strong, holy Mouru (Merv).

Thereupon came Angra Mainyu (Ahriman), who is all death, and he
counter-created plunder and sin.

This constant struggle of the two divinities with their armies of good
and bad spirits formed the background of Zoroastrian supernaturalism.
The worship of the Persians was the worship of the powers of Nature, and
especially of fire, although water, earth, and air, are also addressed
in the litanies of the "Zend-Avesta." The down-falling water and the
uprising mist are thus spoken of in one passage:--

As the sea (Vouru-kasha) is the gathering place of the waters,
rising up and going down, up the aerial way and down the earth,
down the earth and up the aerial way: thus rise up and roll
along! thou in whose rising and growing Ahura Mazda made the
aerial way.

The sun is also invoked:--

Up! rise up and roll along! thou swift-horsed Sun, above Hara
Berezaiti, and produce light for the worl