Page:The Religion of the Veda.djvu/160

 pression turns in later Persian into Djemshed, the wolLknown hero of the Persian Epic, the SAM: Name/z, or Boo/E osz'ngS; the name is now familiar to Western readers as the intorlocutor in Omar Khayyam’s Ruéaym‘.

The myth takes another, even more: important turn in the: Veda. Yuma is the ﬁrst mortal king who died and found for the race of men a heaven where they may rejoice in the company of tho pious dead, especially those: pious urchprieots of mythical antiquity, the Angims. He is the ﬁrst of mortals; who died and went forth to this heaven J‘:.. “William is Vivasvant’s son, the king, where is heaven’s ﬁrm abode, where are yonder ﬂowing waters, there let me live immortal...“ “He (Yuma) went before and found a. dwelling from which no power can shut us out. Our fathers of old have travelled the path: it loads every earth~born mortal thither. There, in the midst of the: highest houvon, booms unfading light, and eternal waters ﬂow; thoro ovary wish is fulﬁlled on the rich Ilioadows of Yuma, ” “These blessed have left behind them the den crepitudo of their bodies; they are not lame nor

crooked of limb. ” ‘

‘ Atharva~Veda 18. 3. 13. 9 Rig-Veda. 9. "£13. 8. 3 Atharva—Veda. 3. 28. 5; 6.. I20. 3.


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