slations, in which the reader will
easily discover the different hues of certainty and uncertainty, of
sense and mere verbiage:

1. That I will ask Thee, tell me it right, thou living God!
whether your friend (Sraosha) be willing to recite his own
hymn as prayer to my friend (Frashaostra or Vistaspa), thou
Wise! and whether he should come to us with the good mind,
to perform for us true actions of friendship.

2. That I will ask Thee, tell me it right, thou living God!
How arose the best present life (this world)? By what means
are the present things (the world) to be supported? That
spirit, the holy (Vohu mano), O true wise spirit! is the
guardian of the beings to ward off from them every evil; He
is the promoter of all life.

3. That I will ask Thee, tell me it right, thou living God!
Who was in the beginning the Father and Creator of truth?
Who made the sun and stars? Who causes the moon to increase
and wane if not Thou? This I wish to know, except what I
already know.

4. That I will ask Thee, tell me it right, thou living God!
Who is holding the earth and the skies above it? Who made
the waters and the trees of the field? Who is in the winds
and storms that they so quickly run? Who is the Creator of
the good-minded beings, thou Wise?

This is a short specimen of the earliest portion of the Zend-Avesta.
The following is an account of one of the latest, the so-called Ormuzd
Yasht:

'Zarathustra asked Ahuramazda after the most effectual spell
to guard against the influence of evil spirits. He was
answered by the Supreme Spirit, that the utterance of the
different names of Ahuramazda protects best from evil.
Thereupon Zarathustra begged Ahuramazda to communicate to
him these names. He then enumerates twenty. The first is
Ahmi, i. e. "I am;" the fourth, Asha-vahista, i. e. "the
best purity;" the sixth, "I am wisdom;" the eighth, "I am
knowledge;" the twelfth, Ahura, i. e. "living;" the
twentieth, "I am who I am, Mazdao."'

Ahuramazda says then further:

'"If you call me at day or at night by these names, I shall
come to assist and help you; the angel Serosh will then
come, the genii of the waters and the trees." For the utter
defeat of the evil spirits, bad men, witches, Peris, a
series of other names are suggested to Zarathustra,