o of the tradition
about the loss of Paradise ensuing upon a transgression prompted by the
Evil Spirit that we find in what is incontestably one of the oldest
portions of the Sacred Scriptures of Zoroastrianism.[56] "I created the
first and the best of dwelling-places. I who am Ahuramazda: the
Airyana-Vaedja is of excellent nature. But against it Angromainyus, the
murderer, created a thing inimical, the serpent out of the river and the
winter, the work of the Doevas."[57] And it is this scourge, caused by
the power of the serpent, which occasions the departure for ever from
the paradisiacal region.

Later, Yima appears as no longer the first man, or even the first king.
The period of a thousand years assigned to his existence in Eden[58] is
now divided between several successive generations, occupying the same
space of time, from the moment when Gayomaritan, the type of humanity,
began to find himself struggling against the hostility of the Evil
Spirit up to the death of Yima. This is the system adopted by the
Bundehesh. The history of the sin which made Yima lose his primal
happiness, and subjected him to the power of the adversary, still
remains connected with the name of that hero. But this transgression is
no longer the original sin; and in order to be able to attribute it to
the ancestors whence all humanity springs, its story is again told here
(subserving a double purpose) in connection with the first pair whose
existence was completely terrestrial and similar to that of other human
beings--Masha and Mashyana. "Man was; the father of the world was.
Heaven was destined to be his on condition of his being humble in heart,
and doing with humility the work of the law, of his being pure in
thought, pure in word, pure in deed, and of his never invoking the
Doevas. Under these conditions man and woman were reciprocally to make
each other's happiness. They drew near and became man and wife. At first
they spoke these words: 'It is Ahuramazda who has given the water, the
earth, the trees, the beasts, and the stars, the moon and the sun, and
all the blessings which spring from a pure root and pure fruit.' Later,
falsehood ran through their thoughts, perverted their disposition, and
said to them: 'It is Angromainyus who has given the water, earth, trees,
beasts, and all above-named things.' Thus, it was that in the beginning
Angromainyus deceived them concerning the Doevas, and to the end this
cruel one has only sought to se