he world
by his fearful daily banquet of the brains of two children. The victory
was a glorious triumph for Thraetaona (Yt. 19, 37):--

He who slew Azhi Dahaka,
Three-jawed monster, triple-headed,
With six eyes and myriad senses,
Fiend demoniac, full of power,
Evil to the world, and wicked.
This fiend full of power, the Devil
Anra Mainyu had created,
Fatal to the world material,
Deadly to the world of Righteousness.

Of equal puissance was another noble champion, the valiant Keresaspa,
who dispatched a raging demon who, though not yet grown to man's estate,
was threatening the world. The monster's thrasonical boasting is thus
given (Yt. 19, 43):--

I am yet only a stripling,
But if ever I come to manhood
I shall make the earth my chariot
And shall make a wheel of heaven.
I shall drive the Holy Spirit
Down from out the shining heaven,
I shall rout the Evil Spirit
Up from out the dark abysm;
They as steeds shall draw my chariot,
God and Devil yoked together.

Passing over a collection of shorter petitions, praises, and blessings
which may conveniently be grouped together as 'Minor Prayers,' for they
answer somewhat to our idea of a daily manual of morning devotion, we
may turn to the Vendidad (law against the demons), the Iranian
Pentateuch. Tradition asserts that in the Vendidad we have preserved a
specimen of one of the original Nasks. This may be true, but even the
superficial student will see that it is in any case a fragmentary
remnant. Interesting as the Vendidad is to the student of early rites,
observances, manners, and customs, it is nevertheless a barren field for
the student of literature, who will find in it little more than
wearisome prescriptions like certain chapters of Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. It need only be added that at the close of the colloquy
between Zoroaster and Ormazd given in Vend. 6, he will find the origin
of the modern Parsi "Towers of Silence."

Among the Avestan Fragments, attention might finally be called to one
which we must be glad has not been lost. It is an old metrical bit
(Frag. 4, 1-3) in praise of the Airyama Ishya Prayer (Yt. 54, 1). This
is the prayer that shall be intoned by the Savior and his companions at
the end of the world, when the resurrection will take place; and it will
serve as a sort of last trump, at the sound of which the dead rise from
their grave