Page:Avesta, the Bible of Zoroaster.djvu/8




 * But the son walked with the father,
 * Fifteen years old each in figure,
 * Long as Vivanghvats' son, Yima,
 * The good Shepherd, ruled as sovereign.

The chanting of the praises of Haoma continues for three chapters, concluding at Ys. 11. Then follows an interesting chapter (Ys. 12), the Avestan Creed, recited by those who adopted the Zoroastrian faith, renounced their primitive marauding and nomadic habits, and peacefully cultivated the fields. Other divisions of a catechetical or a devotional nature are inserted; and then come the Gāthās or Psalms, the most interesting and valuable part of all the Avesta, comprising chapters 28-53. The closing sections of the Yasna (Ys. 55-72) conclude the ritual worship.

2. The Visperad 'all the masters' forms in 24 sections a supplement to the Yasna. Invocations and offerings of praise are addressed to all holy beings and sacred things. In ceremonial recitation the sections of the Visperad are inserted between the Yasna chapters, somewhat as the verses of the litany in church service.

3. The Yashts 'praises' form a book of some 21 hymns of adoration and praise of the divinities or angels, Yazatas (Izads) ' worshipful ones' of the religion. The most important of the Yashts are those in praise of Ardvi Sura Anahita 'the high, exalted, undefiled,' the goddess of waters (Yt. 5), and of the star Tishtrya (Yt. 8); of Mithra the divinity of truth and light (Yt. 10), of the Fravashis, or glorified souls of the righteous (Yt. 13), of the Genius of Victory, Verethraghna (Yt. 14), and of the Kingly Glory (Yt. 19), together with the exaltation of some abstract qualities that receive personification and religious adoration.

The Yashts for the most part are written in meter, and they have poetic merit. Their material in general is old. It is evident that we have' in them certain ancient Iranian legends. A conjecture might be made, not without reason or probability, that the Yashts represent the pre-Zoroastrian sagas and hymns of