Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/994

Rh envoys from various tribes subject to the Turks. Halting by the “vast, wide lagoon” (of the Aral Sea?), Zemarchus sent off an express messenger, one George, to announce his return to the emperor. George hurried on by the shortest route, “desert and waterless,” apparently the steppes north of the Black Sea: while his superior, moving more slowly, marched twelve days by the sandy shores of “the lagoon”; crossed the Emba, Ural, Volga, and Kuban (where 4000 Persians vainly lay in ambush to stop him); and passing round the western end of the Caucasus, arrived safely at Trebizond and Constantinople. For several years this Turkish alliance subsisted, while close intercourse was maintained between Central Asia and Byzantium; when another Roman envoy, one Valentinos , goes on his embassy in 575 he takes back with him 106 Turks who had been visiting Byzantine lands; but from 579 this friendship rapidly began to cool. It is curious that all this travel between the Bosporus and Transoxiana seems not to have done anything to correct, at least in literature, the widespread misapprehension of the Caspian as a gulf of the Arctic Ocean.

See Menander Protector, (De Legationibus Romanorum ad Gentes), pp. 295-302, 380-85, 397-404, Bonn edition (xix.), 1828 ( = pp. 806-11, 883-87, 899-907, in Migne, Patrolog. Graec., vol. cxiii., Paris, 1864); H. Yule, Cathay, clx.-clxvi. (London, Hakluyt Society, 1866); L. Cahun, Introduction à l'histoire de l'Asie, pp. 108-18 (Paris, 1896); C. R. Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography, i. 186-89 (London, 1897).

 ZENÁGA, a Berber tribe of southern Morocco who gave their name to Senegal, once their tribal home. They formed one of the tribes which, uniting under the leadership of Yusef bin Tashfin, crossed the Sahara and gave a dynasty to Morocco and Spain, namely, that of the (q.v.). The Zeirid dynasty which supplanted the Fatimites in the Maghrib and founded the city of Algiers was also of Zenága origin. The Zenága dialect of Berber is spoken in southern Morocco and on the banks of the lower Senegal, largely by the negro population.  ZENANA (Persian zanana), the apartments of an Eastern house in which the women of the family are secluded (see ). This is a Mahommedan custom, which has been introduced into India and has spread amongst the Hindus. The zenana missions are missions to Indian women in their own homes.  ZENATA, or, a Berber tribe of Morocco in the district of the central Atlas. Their tribal home seems to have been south of Oran in Algeria, and they seem to have early claimed an Arab origin, though it was alleged by the Arabs that they were descendants of Goliath, i.e. Philistines or Phoenicians (Ibn Khaldun, vol. iii. p. 184 and vol. iv. p. 597). They were formerly a large and powerful confederation, and took a prominent part in the history of the Berber race. The Beni-Marin and Wattasi dynasties which reigned in Morocco from 1213 to 1548 were of Zenata origin.  ZEND-AVESTA, the original document of the religion of (q.v.), still used by the Parsees as their bible and prayer-book. The name “Zend-Avesta” has been current in Europe since the time of Anquetil Duperron (c. 1771), but the Parsees themselves call it simply Avesta, Zend (i.e. “interpretation”) being specially employed to denote the translation and exposition of a great part of the Avesta which exists in Pahlavi. Text and translation are often spoken of together in Pahlavi books as Avistāk va Zand (“Avesta and Zend”), whence—through a misunderstanding—our word Zend-Avesta. The origin and meaning of the word “Avesta” (or in its older form, Avistāk) are alike obscure; it cannot be traced further back than the Sasanian period. The language of the Avesta is still frequently called Zend; but, as already implied, this is a mistake. We possess no other document written in it, and on this account modern Parsee scholars, as well as the older Pahlavi books, speak of the language and writing indifferently as Avesta. As the original home of the language can only be very doubtfully conjectured, we shall do well to follow the usage sanctioned by old custom and apply the word to both.

Although the Avesta is a work of but moderate compass (comparable, say, to the Iliad and Odyssey taken together), there nevertheless exists no single MS. which gives it in entirety. This circumstance alone is enough to reveal the true nature of the book: it is a composite whole, a collection of writings, as the Old Testament is. It consists, as we shall afterwards see, of the last remains of the extensive sacred literature in which the Zoroastrian faith was formerly set forth.

Contents.—As we now have it, the Avesta consists of five parts—the Yasna, the Vispered, the Vendidad, the Yashts, and the Khordah Avesta.

1. The Yasna, the principal liturgical book of the Parsees, in 72 chapters (hāiti, hā), contains the texts that are read by the priests at the solemn yasna (Izeshne) ceremony, or the general sacrifice in honour of all the deities. The arrangement of the chapters is purely liturgical, although their matter in part has nothing to do with the liturgical action. The kernel of the whole book, around which the remaining portions are grouped, consists of the Gāthās or “hymns” of (q.v.), the oldest and most sacred portion of the entire canon. The Yasna accordingly falls into three sections of about equal length:—(a) The introduction (chaps. 1-27) is, for the most part, made up of long-winded, monotonous, reiterated invocations. Yet even this section includes some interesting texts, e.g. the Haoma (Hom) Yasht (9, 11) and the ancient confession of faith (12), which is of value as a document for the history of civilization. (b) The Gāthās (chaps. 28-54) contain the discourses, exhortations and revelations of the prophet, written in a metrical style and an archaic language, different in many respects from that ordinarily used in the Avesta. As to the authenticity of these hymns, see. The Gāthās proper, arranged according to the metres in which they are written, fall into five subdivisions (28-34, 43-46, 47-50, 51, 53). Between chap. 37 and chap. 43 is inserted the so-called Seven-Chapter Yasna (haptanghāiti), a number of small prose pieces not far behind the Gāthās in antiquity. (c) The so-called Later Yasna (Aparō Yasnō) (chaps. 54-72) has contents of considerable variety, but consists mainly of invocations. Special mention ought to be made of the Sraosha (Srōsh) Yasht (57), the prayer to fire (62), and the great liturgy for the sacrifice to divinities of the water (63-69).

2. The Vispered, a minor liturgical work in 24 chapters (karde), is alike in form and substance completely dependent on the Yasna, to which it is a liturgical appendix. Its separate chapters are interpolated in the Yasna in order to produce a modified—or expanded—Yasna ceremony. The name Vispered, meaning “all the chiefs” (vispē ratavō), has reference to the spiritual heads of the religion of Ormuzd, invocations to whom form the contents of the first chapter of the book.

3. The Vendidad, the priestly code of the Parsees, contains in 22 chapters (fargard) a kind of dualistic account of the creation (chap. 1), the legend of Yima and the golden age (chap. 2), and in the bulk of the remaining chapters the precepts of religion with regard to the cultivation of the earth, the care of useful animals, the protection of the sacred elements, such as earth, fire and water, the keeping of a man's body from defilement, together with the requisite measures of precaution, elaborate ceremonies of purification, atonements, ecclesiastical expiations and so forth. These prescriptions are marked by a conscientious classification based on considerations of material, size and number; but they lose themselves in an exaggerated casuistry. Still the whole of Zoroastrian legislation is subordinate to one great point of view: the war—preached without intermission—against Satan and his noxious creatures, from which the whole book derives its name; for “Vendīdād” is a modern corruption for vī-daēvō-dātem—“the anti-demonic Law.” Fargard 18 treats of the true and false priest, of the value of the house-cock, of the four paramours of the she-devil, and of unlawful lust. Fargard 19 is a fragment of the Zoroaster legend: Ahriman tempts Zoroaster; Zoroaster applies to Ormuzd for the revelation of the law, Ahriman and the devils despair, and flee down into hell. The three concluding chapters are devoted to sacerdotal medicine.

The Yasna, Vispered and Vendidad together constitute the Avesta in the stricter sense of the word, and the reading of them appertains to the priest alone. For liturgical purposes the separate chapters of the Vendidad are sometimes inserted among those of the Yasna and Vispered. The reading of the Vendidad in this case may, when viewed according to the original intention, be taken as corresponding in some sense to the sermon, while that of the Yasna and Vispered may be said to answer to the hymns and prayers of Christian worship.

4. The Yashts, i.e. “songs of praise,” in so far as they have not been received already into the Yasna, form a collection by themselves. They contain invocations of separate Izads, or angels, number 21 in all, and are of widely divergent extent and antiquity. The great Yashts—some nine or ten—are impressed with a higher stamp: they are cast almost throughout in a poetical mould, and represent the religious poetry of the ancient Iranians. So far they