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Persians, as on some of the old-time monuments that have come down
to us; while occasionally Mithra is depicted as a youthful hero, with
high Persian cap, his knee on a prostrate bull, into whose heart he
seems plunging a dagger--symbolically, "the power of evil" in
complete subjection to the victorious sun, and about to be for ever
annihilated.

Zoroaster (called by the Persians _Zerduscht_) was not, the Parsees
say, the _founder_ of their sect, but only the reviser and perfecter
of the system as it now exists among them. Living in the reign of
Darius Hystaspes, he was the contemporary, probably an associate,
of the prophet Daniel. Before the advent of this reformer the Magi
acknowledged two great First Causes--i.e., the light and the darkness,
the former the author of all good, the latter of every evil, moral
and physical--and these they believed were at perpetual war with each
other. Zoroaster taught, as he may have learned from Daniel, that
there was One greater still, who created both the light and the
darkness, making both to subserve His own will. He also inculcated the
duty of building temples for the preservation of the sacred fire from
storm and tempest, when "by sudden extinction of the light the powers
of darkness do gain often a signal victory." The Parsees hold in
supreme veneration the name of Zoroaster as the most noted of all
their Magi for wisdom and virtue. They believe that the sacred fire
was lighted by him miraculously from the sun--that it has burned
steadily ever since, and can never go out till it has consumed all
evil from the earth and the good has become universally triumphant.
They claim also that from the reforms wrought by Zoroaster there was
never the slightest change in any of their observances until about
twelve centuries ago, when Persia was overrun and conquered by the
Mohammedan Arabs. But not the fiercest persecution could induce
the Fire-worshipers to change their religion for that of the
Koran. Preferring liberty and their altars in a foreign land to the
alternative of apostasy or persecution at home, the aboriginal Persian
inhabitants fled to other lands, settling immense colonies in Surat
and Bombay, where their descendants form in our day a large and
valuable element of the population. Their integrity, industry and
enterprise are proverbial all over the East; and while they live
strictly apart from all other races, the Parsees are never wanting in
sympathy and help for tho