surrendered their Dualistic faith. But, practically, the Magian
doctrines and the Magian usages--elemental worship, divination with
the sacred rods, dream expounding, incantations at the fire-altars,
sacrifices whereat a Magus officiated--seem to have prevailed; the
new predominated over the old; backed by the power of an organized
hierarchy, Magism over-laid the primitive Arian creed, and, as time went
on, tended more and more to become the real religion of the nation.

Among the religious customs introduced by the Magi into Media there are
one or two which seem to require especial notice. The attribution of a
sacred character to the four so-called elements--earth, air, fire and
water--renders it extremely difficult to know what is to be done with
the dead. They cannot be burnt, for that is a pollution of fire; or
buried, for that is a pollution of earth; or thrown into a river, for
that is a defilement of water. If they are deposited in sarcophagi, or
exposed, they really pollute the air; but in this case the guilt of the
pollution, it may be argued, does not rest on man, since the dead body
is merely left in the element in which nature placed it. The only mode
of disposal which completely avoids the defilement of every element
is consumption of the dead by living beings; and the worship of the
elements leads on naturally to this treatment of corpses. At present the
Guebres, or Fire-worshippers, the descendants of the ancient Persians,
expose all their dead, with the intention that they shall be devoured
by birds of prey. In ancient times, it appears certain that the Magi
adopted this practice with respect to their own dead; but, apparently,
they did not insist upon having their example followed universally by
the laity. Probably a natural instinct made the Arians averse to this
coarse and revolting custom; and their spiritual guides, compassionating
their weakness, or fearful of losing their own influence over them if
they were too stiff in enforcing compliance, winked at the employment by
the people of an entirely different practice. The dead bodies were first
covered completely with a coating of wax, and were then deposited in
the ground. It was held, probably, that the coating of wax prevented the
pollution which would have necessarily resulted had the earth come into
direct contact with the corpse.

The custom of divining by means of a number of rods appears to have
been purely Magian. There is no trace of it in