Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. OUR ARYAN FOREFATHERS. In the beginning of the Vendidad, or first of the Parsi collection of sacred books known as the Zendavesta, we are told that the supreme deity Ahura-Mazda created a country full of delights, but difficult of access, and the name of this country was Aryana Vae'jo. So charming was this primitive country that, had it not been made difficult of approach, the whole animate creation would have flocked thither and quite overwhelmed it. But this state of things did not long continue; for Ahriman, or Anramainyus, the spirit of darkness, was the implacable adversary of Or- muzd, or Ahura-Mazda, the spirit of light, and took pleasure in spoiling all his creations. So this death-dealing anemy, with the aid of his daevas, or demons, created a great serpent and brought ten months of winter cold upon the land, so tlmt Arvana Vaejo was no longer a comfortable dwelling-place. The good spirit then created a new home for his people, called Sugdha j but theadversary spoiled which devastates to the cattle, habitat, which Muru; but the this by creating a kind of wasp the fields and brought death hen Ahura-Mazda made a third vas called the high and holy dark demon now whispered evil reports and stirred up strife, until here, too, life became unendurable, and the beautiful land of Bakhdhi, or Bakltria, was created as a fourth home for the children of light. So the warfare went on, until no less than sixteen countries are enumerated as succ Jssively created and made uncomfortable. In the last region of all the complaint is again of cold weather and hoar-frost; but perhaps in coWiparison with all the other plagues this now j seemed endurable. At all events, the account here ends, with the admission that there are also Bother regions and places besides those describ…
