it are to be found in the elder books
of the Avesta. It has been doubted if the doctrine of Zerana-Akerana, or
the Monad behind the Duad, is to be found in the Avesta; though important
texts in the Vendidad[141] seem indeed to imply a Supreme and Infinite
Being, the creator both of Ormazd and Ahriman.

In the beginning, the Eternal or Absolute Being (Zerana-Akerana) produced
two other great divine, beings. The first, who remained true to him, was
Ahura-Mazda, King of Light. The other was Ahriman (Angra-Mainyus), King of
Darkness. Ormazd found himself in a world of light and Ahriman in
boundless darkness, and the two became antagonists.

The Infinite Being (Zerana-Akerana) now determined, in order to destroy
the evil which Ahriman had caused, to create the visible world by Ormazd;
and he fixed its duration at twelve thousand years. This was divided into
four periods of three thousand years each. In the first period Ormazd
should rule alone; in the second Ahriman should begin to operate, but
still be subordinate; in the third they should both rule together; and in
the fourth Ahriman should have the ascendency.

Ormazd began the creation by bringing forth the Fereuers (Fravashi).
Everything which has been created, or which is to be created, has its
Fravashi, which contains the reason and basis of its existence. Even
Ormazd has his Fravashi in relation to Zerana-Akerana (the Infinite). A
spiritual and invisible world preceded, therefore, this visible material
world as its prototype.

In creating the material world, which was in reality only an incorporation
of the spiritual world of Fravashis, Ormazd first created the firm vault
of heaven, and the earth on which it rests. On the earth he created the
high mountain Albordj[142] which soared upward through all the spheres of
the heaven, till it reached the primal light, and Ormazd made this summit
his abode. From this summit the bridge Chinevat stretches to the vault of
heaven, and to Gorodman, which is the opening in the vault above Albordj.
Gorodman is the dwelling of the Fravashis and of the blessed, and the
bridge leading to it is precisely above the abyss Duzahk,--the monstrous
gulf, the home of Ahriman beneath the earth.

Ormazd, who knew that after the first period his battle with Ahriman would
begin, armed himself, and created for his aid the whole shining host of
heaven,--sun, moon, and stars,--mighty beings of light, wholly submissive
to him. First he created "th