ama Buddha having been the
ninth. In the East, about six or seven hundred years before the birth
of Christ, not only one savior or prophet but three or four of them
appeared.

Concerning the leader of the reform in Persia there seem to be many
conflicting accounts. The learned Faber concludes that there were two
Zarathustras or Zoroasters, the former being identical with Menu, the
law giver and triplicated deity of India, and who by various writers is
recognized as the Noah of the Hebrews. According to Pliny, the former
lived thousands of years before Christ. Several writers concur in
placing him five thousand years before the siege of Troy. According
to Sir Wm. Jones, the latter Zoroaster lived in the time of Darius
Hystaspes. It is now claimed that in the Dabistan, one of the sacred
books of Persia, thirteen Zoroasters appear. The name of the last great
leader, together with a few of his doctrines, and various scattered
fragments in the Gathas, are all that remain on record of a man whose
personality stands connected with the earliest attempt to reform a
degraded and sensualized religion.

That this prophet was without honor in his own country is shown by the
following lamentation:

"To what country shall I go? Where shall I take refuge? What country
gives shelter to the master, Zarathustra, and his companion? None of the
servants pay reverence to me, nor do the wicked rulers of the country.
How shall I worship thee further, living Wise One? What help did
Zarathustra receive when he proclaimed the truths? What did he obtain
through the good mind? ... Why has the truthful one so few adherents,
while all the mighty, who are unbelievers, follow the liar in great
numbers?"(111)

111) Quoted by Viscount Amberley from Haug's Translations.

Although the prophet Zarathustra and his companion were first rejected,
the fact seems plain that the monotheistic doctrines which they set
forth were subsequently accepted as the groundwork of the religion of
Persia.

In the opening verses of the 5th Gatha appears the following:

"It is reported that Zarathustra Spitama possessed the best good, for
Ahura Mazda granted him all that may be obtained by means of a sincere
worship, forever, all that promotes the good life, and he gives the same
to all who keep the words and perform the actions enjoined by the good
religion....

"Pourutschista, the Hetchataspadin, the most holy one, the most
distinguished of the daughters o