ies occur in India. The first of these--_deva_, is said to
signify the bright or shining one, the second--_asura_, the living
one. Now these titles are also found in Persia; but the use of the
terms is different in the two countries. In India both are at first
titles for deity, but by degrees, while "deva" continues to denote
the gods who are worshipped, "asura" assumes a less favourable
meaning, until at length it comes to stand for a second order of
beings, inferior to the devas, and including such powers as are
malignant and hostile. In Persia the fortunes of the two words are
reversed. _Ahura_ becomes the god _par excellence_, the supreme god;
while "deva," the title which in India remained in honour, is in the
Avesta that of evil gods who are not to be worshipped. In this some
scholars consider that we may hear the watchwords of the conflict
which led to the separation of the two religions; there was a schism
between the followers of the Ahuras and those of the Devas, which led
to the entire separation of the two parties. This is the latest form
of the old view which makes Zoroastrianism the outcome of a religious
conflict, of a reaction against the gods afterwards worshipped in
India. There is no direct evidence of such a conflict, and the
difference we have described may be due to the natural development of
the Indo-Iranian religion in different sets of circumstances and
among different peoples. Zarathustra in the Gathas finds the
antithesis fully formed between the good and the evil deities; he
appeals to his countrymen on that matter as one which he does not
need to teach them, but with which they have long been familiar. In
speaking of his date this has to be remembered.

We proceed now to describe from the Gathas the work and teaching of
Zarathustra. The Gathas are poems written in metres which occur also
in the Vedas, and intended, like the Indian hymns, to be used in
worship. The account which they furnish of the mission and the
teaching of the sage are thus clothed in a poetical dress, and do not
narrate bare facts as they occurred, but the facts as interpreted and
treated for religious use. They are in the mouth of Zarathustra
himself; he writes them for use at sacrifice, and remembering how
they are to be rendered, he sometimes puts in the mouth of the
celebrants the words, "Zarathustra and we." These words do not prove
that the hymns are not by him. As explained by Dr. Mills, the hymns
are seen to be v