which
they had wandered, in company with other nations of the same origin as
themselves, in that cradle of the Aryan peoples, Aryanem-Vaejo. Modern
historians at first placed their mythical birthplace in the wilder
regions of Central Asia, near the Oxus and the Jaxartes, and not far
from the so-called table-land of Pamir, which they regarded as the
original point of departure of the Indo-European races. They believed
that a large body of these primitive Aryans must have descended
southwards into the basin of the Indus and its affluents, and that
other detachments had installed themselves in the oases of Margiana
and Khorasmia, while the Iranians would have made their way up to the
plateau which separates the Caspian Sea from the Persian Gulf, where
they sought to win for themselves a territory sufficient for their
wants. The compilers of the sacred books of the Iranians claimed to be
able to trace each stage of their peregrinations, and to describe the
various accidents which befell them during this heroic period of their
history. According to these records, it was no mere chance or love of
adventure which had led them to wander for years from clime to clime,
but rather a divine decree. While Ahuromazdao, the beneficent deity
whom they worshipped, had provided them with agreeable resting-places,
a perverse spirit, named Angromainyus, had on every occasion rendered
their sojourn there impossible, by the plagues which he inflicted
on them. Bitter cold, for instance, had compelled them to forsake
Aryanem-Vaejo and seek shelter in Sughdha and Muru.* Locusts had driven
them from Sughdha; the incursions of the nomad tribes, coupled with
their immorality, had forced them to retire from Muru to Bakhdhi, "the
country of lofty banners,"** and subsequently to Nisaya, which lies to
the south-east, between Muru and Bakhdhi. From thence they made their
way into the narrow valleys of the Haroyu, and overran Vaekereta, the
land of noxious shadows.***

* Sughdha is Sogdiana; Muru, in ancient Persian Margush, is
the modern Merv, the Margiana of classical geographers.

** Bakhdhi is identical with Bactriana, but, as Spiegel
points out, this Avestic form is comparatively recent, and
readily suggests the modern Balkh, in which the consonants
have become weakened.

*** The Avesta places Nisaya between Muru and Bakhdhi to
distinguish it from other districts of the same name to be
found in this