and infected 'the whole universe.' He rendered the
world as dark at full noonday as in the darkest night. He covered the
soil with vermin, with his creatures of venomous bite and poisonous
sting, with serpents, scorpions, and frogs, so that there was not a
space as small as a needle's point but swarmed with his vermin. He smote
vegetation, and of a sudden the plants withered.... He attacked the
flames, and mingled them with smoke and dimness. The planets, with their
thousands of demons, dashed against the vault of heaven and waged war on
the stars, and the universe became darkened like a space which the fire
blackens with its smoke." And the conflict grew ever keener over the
world and over man, of whom the evil one was jealous, and whom he sought
to humiliate.

[Illustration: 022.jpg ONE OF THE BAD GENII, SUBJECT TO ANGRO-MAINYUS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken from the
original bas-relief in glazed tiles in the Louvre.

[Illustration: 023.jpg THE KING STRUGGLING AGAINST AN EVIL GENIUS]

Drawn by Boudier, from the photograph in Marcel Dieulafoy.

The children of Angro-mainyus disguised themselves under those monstrous
forms in which the imagination of the Chaldaeans had clothed the allies
of Mummu-Tiamat, such as lions with bulls' heads, and the wings and
claws of eagles, which the Achaemenian king combats on behalf of his
subjects, boldly thrusting them through with his short sword. Aeshma of
the blood-stained lance, terrible in wrath, is the most trusted leader
of these dread bands,* the chief of twenty other Daevas of repulsive
aspect--Asto-vidhotu, the demon of death, who would devote to
destruction the estimable Fravashis;** Apaosha, the enemy of Tishtrya
the wicked black horse, the bringer of drought, who interferes with the
distribution of the fertilising waters; and Buiti, who essayed to kill
Zoroaster at his birth.***

* The name Aeshma means _anger_. He is the Asmodeus, Aeshmo-
daevo, of Rabbinic legends.

** The name of this demon signifies _He who separates the
bones_.

*** The Greater Bundehesh connects the demon Buiti with the
Indian Buddha, and J. Darmestefer seems inclined to accept
this interpretation. In this case we must either admit that
the demon Buiti is of relatively late origin, or that he
has, in the legend of Zoroaster, taken the place of a demon
whose name resembled his own closely enough to admit of t