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Rh kings and heroes to the same end. Asha Vahishta smites the worst of the demons by thousands, while they tremble before Sraosha, who wields a club in his hands to strike upon their skulls. Three times each day and each night Sraosha comes down upon this earth with his terrible mace to fight against the demons. Mithra likewise levels his club at their skulls and smites them down. The kings Haoshyangha, Takhma Urupi, and Vishtaspa triumphed and ruled over the demons. Of course the demons are terrified at the birth of Zarathushtra. They conspired to kill him, but he routed them at the outset. Not one of them, nor all together, could compass the hallowed sage's death; they vanished overcome at his sight. In fact all those demons that roamed about on the earth in human form sank beneath the earth at the appearance of the prophet. For all these reasons it may be understood that in the realm of the hereafter the demons quail at the sight of a righteous soul advancing towards heaven, in the same manner as a sheep trembles in the presence of a wolf.

The Daeva-worshippers. In opposition to the faithful who are called Mazdayasnians, or the worshippers of Mazda, all unbelievers and wicked persons are styled the Daevayasnians, that is, as being worshippers of the demons. The two worlds of the righteous and the wicked are rent asunder. The barrier between them cannot be broken. Mazda extends his helping hand to the righteous, but leaves the wicked to themselves. Nay he hates them.

As the dregvant, or the wicked one, stands in antithesis to the ashavan, the righteous one, in the sphere of morals, so the Daevayasnian, or worshipper of demons, stands in contradistinction to the faithful Mazdayasnian in the matter of belief. Both words, dregvant and daevayasna, are Zoroastrian synonyms also of heretic. The life of a Daevayasnian is not of equal value with that of a Mazdayasnian; this is shown in the Avesta by the fact that the new surgeon who intends practising among the Mazdaworshippers must first prove his skill on three of the