mythology, as Vrittra does in
Indian. Aeshma, later Asmodeus, may be named; he is one of the
Drvants, or storm-fiends. Gahi, an unfaithful goddess, has fallen to
a demon of unchastity; the Pairikas (Peris) are female tempters; the
Yatu are demons connected with sorcery.

The firm organisation of these hosts of spiritual beings, and the
sense of a great conflict in which they are all engaged from the
greatest to the least of them, preserve Mazdeism from the weakness
and absurdity which are apt to creep over religion when the
population of the upper and the nether regions is unduly multiplied.
The faithful never forget Ahura in favour of the minor deities, nor
do they forget that morals and industry are the chief ends of
religion, and that in cultivating these they hasten the coming of the
kingdom. The following is the formula, the "Praise of Holiness," with
which every act of worship begins in the Yasts[4] (liturgies of the
Izeds):

May Ahura Mazda be rejoiced!

Holiness is the best of all good!

I confess myself a worshipper of Mazda, a follower of Zarathustra,
one who hates the daevas and obeys the laws of Ahura.

[Footnote 4: _S. B. E._ vol. xxiii.]

Ancient Testimonies to the Persian Religion.--It is at this stage,
while it is still in a state of vigour, that we hear of the Persian
religion from various quarters in ancient records. The chapters in
the latter half of Isaiah, which so vigorously denounce idolatry,
hail the approach of Cyrus towards Babylon, and claim unity of
religion between him and the Jews (Isaiah xliv. 28 _sq._). He is the
shepherd who is to lead Jehovah's people back to their own land, and
to cause their temple to be rebuilt. And this claim that the Jewish
and the Persian religions were the same, that the Jews and the
Persians were alike worshippers of the one true God, while all the
surrounding nations were polytheists and idolaters, was admitted on
the side of Persia. After his conquest of Babylon, Cyrus at once
permitted the exiles to return to their own land. The Persian
monarchs of the following century, Darius and Artaxerxes, continued
to take a friendly interest in the worship of Jehovah, whom they
apparently regarded as a form of their own god, "the God of heaven,"
Hormazd (Ezra vii. 21). They accordingly took measures for the
rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, and for the introduction there
of the new religious constitution which had been prepared at Babylon.
This co