in with man, and death
with life.

The Attributes of Ahura.--Each of these beings has his retinue. That
of Ahura was formed first; it consists of his attributes. Even in the
hymns the attributes are regarded as persons, inseparable companions
of Ahura; appeals are made to one or another of them, according as
the worshipper seeks help from one side or the other of the divine
being. By a process which frequently occurs in religious thought,
they afterwards come to be more formally arranged and defined; there
are six of them, and each is charged with a province of the divine
economy. They are as follows:

Vohu Mano (Bahman) Good Mind; he is the head and the guardian of
the living creation of Ahura.

Asha Vahista (Ardibehesht), Excellent Holiness; he is the genius of
fire.

Kshathra Vairya (Shahrevar), Perfect Sovereignty; he is the lord of
metals.

Spenta Armaiti (Spendarmat) divine piety, conceived as female, the
goddess of the earth.

Haurvatat (Khordat) health.

Ameretat (Amerdat) immortality.

The last two are a pair, and have charge conjointly of waters and of
trees.

Ahura is himself one of these spirits; thus there are seven supreme
spirits.

Retinue of Ahriman.--Angra Mainyu on his part comes to have a
corresponding retinue of six daevas, each being the evil counterpart
of one of the good spirits. Evil Mind, Sickness, and Decay are the
names of some of them. The whole spiritual world is ranged on the
side of the good or of the evil deity. The Izatas (Izeds) or angels
consist of gods of immemorial worship in Iran, some of whom are the
same as gods worshipped in India; but the title also applies to gods,
heavenly and earthly, of later creation, so that the class is a very
wide and elastic one. It comprises some beings who have been reduced
by the operation of the new ideas from the first to the second rank
of deities, such as Verethragna, who corresponds to the Vedic Indra,
and Mithra, the sun-god. These now appear in the same rank as gods of
the newer style, such as Sraosha, Obedience, and survivals of early
superstition, such as the "Curse of the wise," a very powerful Ized.
Zarathustra himself belongs to this class of deities, a miscellaneous
one indeed. Another class of sacred beings of world-wide extent is
that of the Fravashis spoken of above. If the good spirits are many
and various, so are the evil. Of these are the great demon-serpent
Azhi who plays a great part in Persian