Page:Avesta, the Bible of Zoroaster.djvu/9

 praise, and that in the new religion or Zoroastrian reformation of the old faith, concessions were made, and the Yashts were allowed to remain as a form of worship, and were given a scriptural or orthodox tone. Or possibly they may be later restorations of old myths and forms of worship, introduced after the Prophet's time, when the religion had sunk to a somewhat lower level than the high spiritual plane on which it had been placed by its founder. The mythological matter they contain is interesting from the comparative standpoint; and their legends and historical allusions receive a flood of light from Firdausi's later Persian epic, the Shāh Nāmah. The Yashts are not regularly incorporated into the Vendidad-Sādah used in everyday worship; they are rather the popular legends, the apocryphal books, scriptural tales, a sort of collection of 'St. George-and-the-dragon' pious stories.

Some idea of the Yashts, for example, may be gained from the following selections: In Yt. 19:40-41, the praises of the ancient and noble hero Keresaspa, and of his deeds, are sung in pious strains. The meter is the same as above.


 * Yō janat azhīm Sruvarəm
 * Yim aspō-garəm nərə-garəm
 * Yim vīshavantəm zairitəm
 * Yim upairi vish raodhat
 * Khshvaēpaya vaēnaya barəshna;
 * Yim upairi vish raodhat
 * Arshtyo-barəza zairitəm.

Or, as this may be rendered:


 * 'He who slew the dragon Srvara,
 * Which devoured men and horses,
 * Yellow serpent, rank with poison,
 * Over which poison was streaming —
 * Snake with darting, watchful head,
 * Over whom the yellow poison
 * Thumb-deep in a stream was flowing.'

The story continues, relating how Keresaspa, Sinbad-like, mistaking the monster for some island, begins to cook his meal