BABYLON AND PERSIA

^ 5t^^' ^ ., " V',! p-ii!^t \ ..HtkARCHER-FRIEZE,IN GLAZED TILES ALONG THE PALACE OF DAREIOSI., AT SUSA EXHUMED BY MR. DIEULAFOY, IN I785.Frontispiece.

MEDIABABYLON AND PERSIAINCLUDING A STUDY OFTHE ZEND-AVESTA OR RELIGIONOF ZOROASTERFROM THE FALL OF NINEVEH TO THEPERSIAN WARZENAIDE A. RAGOZINMEMBER OF THE " SOCIliTg ETH.NOI.OGIQUE " Of I'ARIS ;AUTHOR OF "ASSYRIA,"" CHALDEA," ETC.3Lon&onT. FISHER UNWIN26 PATERNOSTER SQUARENEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONSMDCCCLXXXIX

Entered at Stationers' HallBy T. Fisher UnwinC01.VRICHT ny G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1888(For the United Slates of America)^^^C(b^:

CLASSIFIEDCONTENTS.Notable Religious Survival : the ParsisAnquetil Duperron .... 1-16§ I. The Parsis, descendants of the Persians and followersof Zoroaster.§ 2. The Parsis not heathens.§ 3. Con¬quest of Persia by the Arabs.§ 4. Oppression and con¬version of the country,§ 5. Self-exile of the Zoroastrians.§ 6. Their wanderings and settlements in India. § 7.Principal tenets of their religion. § 8. Discovery of Parsimanuscripts.§ g. Anquetil Duperron and his mission.§ 10. Hjs-departure for India.§ 11. Obstacles and hard¬ships.§ 12. His translation of the Zend-Avesla.§ 13.He is attacked by William Jones.§ 14. His mistakes anddisadvantages.g 15. Eugene Burnouf, the founder ofEranian scholarship.§ 16. Advance and results of Eranianstudies.II.The Prophet of EranThe Avesta . . 17-33§ I. The religions that have sacred books, and their de¬mands.§ 2. They claim to be supernaturally revealed.§ 3- The Veda and the Zend-Avestathe sacred books ofthe Hindus and Aranians.§ 4. "Zend-Avesta" a mis¬nomer.§§ 5, 6. "Pehlevi" the Persian language of theSassanian period.§ 7. Uncertainty and obscurity of mostpoints concerning the Avesta.g 8. Ancient writers onZoroaster.§ 9. The " Gathas " (songs) the oldest portionof the Avesta.§ 10. Scant information on Zarathushtra(Zoroaster) in tlie Avesla.§ 11. King Vishtaspa, Ihe friend

IVCLASSIFIED CONTENTS..and follower of Zarathushtra. § 12. Loss of the greatestpart of the Zoroastrian literature. § 13. Survival of sometexts.The parts of the Avesta as we have it. § 14. The'Bundehesh ;its lateness and its contents.III..Aryan Myths 34-SS§§ I, 2. Impossibility of invention in a strict sense. § 3.Zarathushtra not an inventor, but a reformer.- § 4. TheHindus and Eranians sister nations of the Aryan or Indo-- European race. § 5. The Airyana-Vaeja, or first Aryanhome of Eranian tradition. § 6. The Rig-Veda, the mostancient sacred book of the Aryan Hindus, and its indica¬tions concerning the religion of the primitive Aryas. § 7.The powers of nature the gods of the Aryas. § 8. TheAryan sky-gods, Dyaus and Vdruna. § 9. The Aryanlight-god, Mitra. § 10. The Aryan fire-god, Agni.§ II. Aryan-dualism. Gods and demons, light and dark¬ness, rain and drought. § 12. Aryan storm-myth.§ 13. Indra, tlie god of the thunderbolt. § 14. Vritra andAhi, the cloud-fiends. §§ 15, i6. Soma, plant, beverageand drink. 17, 18. EfTicacy of sacred texts Mantra andof sacrifice. § ig. Crossness of some of these concep¬tions. § 30. Richness of Aryan mythical epos. § 21.King Yama and the Pitris. § 22. Aryan reverence towardthe spirits of the departed the Pitris. § 23. The Pitrispass into heroic epos.IV.Aryan Myths in the AvestaTheir Allegori¬cal Transformation . . . 56-94§ I. Enervating influence of the Indian -climate on theAryan population.g 2. Bracing and hardening influence ofthe soil and climate of Eran.The nature of Eran all in ex¬tremes. § 3. It intensifies the feeling of dualism, and de¬velops the battle-myth almost exclusively.§ 4. Spiritualtransformation of Aryan myths in Eran. § 5. Ahura-Mazda, the supreme God and Creator, the successor of the

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.VAryan sky-gods. § 6. The sacred mountain and paradiseof the Eranians. § 7. Tiie heavenly sea, the celestialspring, and the tree of life and immortality.g 8. Anthropomorismsubordinate in Eranian myth. §g g, 10.Mithra, the successor of the Aryan Mitra, transparentlymythical. 11. His spiritual transformation : the god oflight becomes the god of truth. g 12. Ilis allegorical at¬tendants : Victory, Obedience, Uprightness, etc. § 13.Allegory a distinctive feature of the Eranian mind. g 14.The Amesha-Spentas, or " Bountiful Immortals, "and theirallegorical character. § 15. Tlie seven Amesha-Spentasand their functions.g 16.Ahura-Mazda is the first of themand has created the others. g 17. Atar Fire successor ofthe Aryan Agni. g 18. The Hvareno, or " Kingly Glory,"g ig. Tishtrya, the chief of stars and Eranian storm-god.g 20. The Fravashis, the successors of the Aryan Pitris.gg 21, 22. Desire of the Eranian gods for sacrifice.g 23, 24. The Manthra, or sacred text, and the Ahuna-Vairya, and their power over the fiends. g 25. Angra-Mainyu, or the "Evil One." g 26. Yima, the successorof the Aryan Yama ; history in the Avesla. g 27. The fallof Yima. g 28. Tlie Sagdid.V.The Gathas The Yasna of Seven Chapters^ 95-112§ I. Mazdayasnians and Daevayasnians. g 2. Zarathushtra'swork. g 3. Early period of the Gathas. g 4. The,prophet's denunciations of theDaevayasnians, or Fiendworshippers.g 5. The Aryan, " Devas," gods trans¬formed into the Eranian " Daevas " fiends. " Ahura "and "Asura." g 6. Poetical prologue of the Gathas,§ 7- Proclamation of the new religion. g S. Essence ofMazdeism : niortil dualism. g g. The hymn of questions.g 10. Simplicity and literalness of the Giilhas. g 11,12.The " Yasna of Seven Chapters."Slight deterioriation inthe spirit of Mazdeism ;formation and return to myth.§ 13. The Mazdayasnian " Profession of Faith." § 14.Marriages between near relations.

^'CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.' ' VI.Migrations and Foreign Influences TheVendidad Heathen Revival TheKhordeh Avesta . . . . 113-168§1. Characterof the Vendidad.g 2. The three fundamen- ~tal principles of the priestly legislation.-§ 3. Power of thepriesthood.g 4. The Athravans and Zoroastrian sacrifice.g§ 5, 6. Holiness of an agricultural life.g 7. Care of thebody enjoined ; asceticism denounced.gg 8, g. Exposingof the dead.g 10. The Dakhma.g 11. Questions onpurity and pollution.g 12. Impurity of the Dakhmas.§ 13. Treatment of corpses in winter.g 14. Sinfulness ofburying a corpse.g 15. Impure creatures become clean bydying.g 16. On sickness.§ 17. On thriftiness.§ 18.The Nasu, or corpse-fiend. Rights of purification.g ig.Dangerous sinfulness of carrying a corpse alone. g 20. Onphysicians.g 21. Sacredness of the dog.g 22. Of thecock.g 23. Signs of nomadic life in the Vendidad.g 24.25. Turanian influences encountered by the Eranians intheir westward migration.gg 26,28. Traces of these influencesin the Avesta.g 29. Plebrew affinities.-gg 30-31.Puzzling penaliegislation.g 32. The " Khordeh-Avesta. "Heathen Revival.§ 33, 34. The Chinvat Bridge, and thetrials of the soul after death.g 35. High standard andbeauty of Mazdeism. lis high place among religions.VII.The Last Days of Judah . . . 169-1815g I. Affairs in Syria.2. Necho II. of Egypt plans an in¬vasion of Asia.g 3. His campaign in Syria.§ 4. Battleof Megiddo, and defeat of Josiah of Judah.§ 5. Battle ofKarkhemish ; defeat of Necho by Nebuchadrezzar.§ 6.The Median and Babylonian empires.§ 7. Submissionof Syria.g 8. The prophet Jeremiah.g 9. First takingof Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar.g 10-13. Jeremiah'spreaching and unpopularity.§ 14. Destruction of Jerusa¬lem.§ 15, 16. The siege of Tyre. Nebuchadrezzar.

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.viivin.J.ydia and Asia MinorThe Balance of Powerin the East' 186-222gg 1-3. The countries of Asia Minor independent of Baby¬lon.gg 4, 5. Lydia. Kandaules and Gyges.g 6. Rocktombsof Lycia.g 7. Languages of Asia Minor.§ 8.The Hittite element in Asia Minor.§ g. Indo-Europeaninfluences.§ 10. Hellas, the Doric migration and Ioniancolonies.g 11. Ionian colonies on the shore of Asia Minor.g 12. Mutual influence of the Greeks and Lydians.§§ 13, 14- Invention of coinage by the Lydians.g 15.Aggrandizement of Lydia.g 16. Her wars against theGreek cities on tlie sea-shore.g 17. War between Lydiaand Media.g 18. Battle of liie Eclipse. Peace and intermarriages.gig. Death of Kyaxares.IX.Babylon the GreatThe House ^gip.i. 223-260g I. Little durabilily of a balance of powers.g 2.Nebu¬chadrezzar's fear of Media.His works of fortification.g 4. The Median Wall.g 5. Ilis constructions at Baby¬lon.§ 6. The great walls. g 7. The great bridge andthe embankments, g S. Tlie new palace.gg g, 10. TheHanging Gardens.g 11. The lemple of Bel-Marduk.§ 12. Legends of Semiramis and Nitokris.g 13. Nebu¬chadrezzar's greatness,g 14, Herodotus' acco\uit of someBabylonian customs.g 15, Discovery . of the bankinghouse of Egibi.g 16. Long duration of the firm.g 17.Theirarchiveof private transactions.g 18.Their businessoperations.g ig. Legal transactions in property.gg 20-22. Tablets of legal precedents.g 23, 24. Dignified andindependent position of Babylonian women.§ 25.Privateletters. § 26. Reading-books, and children's exercise books.§ 27. Late use of cuneiform writing in contract-tablets.X.Media and the Rise of Persia . . 261-288g I. Astyages succeeds Kyaxares. Hisinsignificance.g 2.Splendor of Median royalty.g 3. Columnar architecture

VI"CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.introducedbytheMedes.-g§4, 5. The palace at Agbatana. "g 5- Uncertainty concerning tlie Medes.g 7. The Mediantribes, Aryan and un-Aiyan.§ 8. The Magithe priest¬hood of Media.§ 9. Their probable un-Aryan origin.§10. Theirpolilicalpower.g II. The Persians. Uncer¬tainty about their origin.g 12. Persia properits climateand productions. Ch.aracter of the Persians.g 13. ThePersian tribes, Aryan and un-Aryan. Elam and An.shan.§ 14. Reunion of the tribes under Akhjemenes. Begin¬nings of the Persian nation.g 15. The double line of theAkhasmenian house ; the Anshan line, and the Persian line.§ 16. The newly discovered cylinders of Nabonidus andKyros.g 17. The Rock and Inscription of Behistiin.g 18. The early Akha:menian house reconstructed fromthese documents.XLKurush, the King, the Akh^emenian . 289-332gg .1, 2. Fall of the Median Empire. gg 3, 4. Herodotus'fabulous account of the birth and childhood of Kyros.g 5.Explanation of the account.g 6. Probable details.g 7.Extension of the Persian Empire in the East. g 8. Kyros'wise rule. Fusion of the Medes and Persians.§ g. Theruins of Pasargada^, Kyros' royal city in Persia.§ 10. 'Persian art, as shown in the monuments at Pasargada:, imi¬tated from Assyrian art.g 11. The balance of powersthreatened iiy Kyros,g 12, Alyattes of Lydia succeededby Kroisos, g 13, Kroisos prepares to make war againstKyros, and seeks alliances,g 14. His embassy and giftsto the Delphic temple.g 15. Beginning of the war. g 16,17. The fall of Sardis and capture of Kroisos.-g iS. At¬tempted self-immolation of Kroisos. His rescue from thepyre.§ ig. Subjection of the Ionian cities and the rest ofAsia Minor,g 20. First and unsuccessful attack on Baby- -,Ion. Complete subjection of Elam. Susa one of the capi¬tals of the Persian empire. g -21, The successors ofNebuchadrezzar at Babylon. Accession of Nabonidus.- § 22. He indisposes the priesthood of Babylon. First and- unsuccessful attempt of Kyros.g 23. The priesthood call

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.ixin Kyros. § 24. The Jews support him. g 25. Surrenderof Babylon and triumphal entry of Kyros. -g 26. He con¬ciliates the priests and delivers the Jews. g 27. Obscurityof his last years, and death.Appendix to Chapter XI. . . . 333-343The last discoveries at Susa.XII.Kambyses. 529-522 B.c 344-360§ 1. Accession of Kambyses. g 2. His unfortunate natureand jealousy of his brother Bardiya. g 3. He plans theconquest of Egypt. g 4. Preparations on both sides. g 5.Assassination of Bardiya.g 6. Battle of Pelusion and con¬quest of Egypt. g 7. Kambyses' religious tolerance andmild rule in Egypt.g 8.His reluctance to return andfurther campaigns. g 9. Tidings of an impostor person¬ating Bardiya, and of a general revolt.Kambyses confesseshis crime and puts an end to his life. g 10. Record of theevent in the Behistun inscription,XIII.Dareios I., THE Son of Hystaspes.522-485 B.C.First Period : Civil Wars . . 361-383g 1-3. Gaumata the Magian slain by the seven Persianprinces. Accession of Dareios I. g 4. Tlie Behistun in¬scription on the subject. g 5. Dareios a Mazdayasnian.g 6. The Persians not strictly followers of the Vendidad.§ 7. Breaking out of the civil war. g S. Revolt of nineprovinces. g g. Revolt of Media. g 10. Capture of theMedian pretender. g 11. End of the civil war. § 12.Sculptures at Behistun. g 13. List of nations.XIV.Dareios I. Second Period : Years of Peace, 384-411§1. Dareios' wise home rule. g 2. His system of taxation.§ 3. Construction of roads, and institution of a postal ser-

CLASSIFIED CONTENTS.yiee. § 4. The Nile canal and uniformity of coinage. § 5.and Persepolis.g 6. Great platform at Persepolis.§"7". Stairs at Persepolis.g. 8. The palace of Dareios.§ 9. The Hall of Hundred Columns.g 10. The audiencehallat Susa, in- the Book of Esther.g 11. Buildings ofXerxes at Persepolis. g 12. Conjectures about the walls ofthepalaces,g 13.The royal tombs at Persepolis.XV.Dareios I. Third Period : Foreign Wars. 412-433g I. Dareios begins a series of foreign wars. g 2. Theknowledge of the Greeks about Scythia. 3, 4. Herodo¬tus' description of Scythia. 5,6. Of the Scythians.g 7.Dareios bridges and crosses the Bosporus and the Danube.g§ 8, 9. His campaign in Scythia.g 10. His retreat andreturn across the Danube and the Hellespont.§ 11. Ex¬peditions in India and Africa. Revolt and chastisement ofthe Greek cities in Asia and Thracia. Preparations againstGi'eece.Index 435

LIST OFILLUSTRATIONS.PAGEARCHER-FRIEZEA PARSI GENTLEMAN (mODERn)A PARSI LADY (mODERn)PAGE OF THE AVESTAFrontispiece6729PARSI IN PRAYING COSTUME '" PAITIDANA"..."kosti" ...." ATESH-GAH," OR " FIRE-ALTARSIS ..." ATESK-GAH," OR " FIRE-ALTAROF MODERN PAR'SEEN BY ANQUE"5"5115116TIL DUPERRON . . . . ' .SACRIFICIAL IMPLEMENTS USED IN PARSI WORSHIPA "dakhma," OR " TOWER OF SILENCE "ANCIENT " DAKHMA " NEAR TEHERAN IN PERSIAVIEW IN AUDERBEIDJ.InVIEW IN AUDERBEIDJ.^NASSYRIAN ALTAR ....RUIN OF " ATESH-GAH " AT FIRUZABADRESTORATION OF THE SAME .LYCIAN ROCK-TOMBS AT MYRALYCIAN ROCK-TOMB AT TELMESSUSLYCIAN ROCK-TOMB AT TELMESSUSFACADE OF LYCIAN ROCK-TOMB AT MYRAROCK-TOMB AT MYRA ....RELIEFS ON THE SO-CALLED " HARPY-TOWER117119127129143145149151153190191192194-195197xi

XllLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.pagbSEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT XANTHOSMODERN CONSTRUCTIONS IN LYCIAGRANARY IN MODERN -LYCIAGRANARY IN MODERN LYCIAROCK-TOMB OF MIDASCITY WALL OF CNIDUS .STATUE OF THE ARTEMUS OF EPHESUSRUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF DIDYM^AN APOLLOFRAGMENT OF ORNAMENTEARLY AND LATE LYDIAN COINSBRICK OF NEBUCHADREZZARHANGING GARDENS OF BABYLONMOUNTAIN SCENERY IN MEDIA 'PERSIAN AND MEDIAN FOOT-SOLDIERSROCK OF BEHISTUN19920020120220320520821121321623223s237276283SCULPTURES AND INSCRIPTIONS ON THE ROCK OFBEHISTUN ....GATE-PILLAR OF KYROS' PALACE .BAS-RELIEF REPRESENTING KYROSTOMB OF KYROS AT PASARGAD/ESUPPOSED TOMB OF KAMBYSES I.LION-FRIEZE, IN GLAZED TILES, AT SUSADESIGN ON archers' ROBESBATTLEMENTED STAIR PARAPETROYAL SEAL OF THE AKH/EMENIAN KINGSWINGED BULL AT PERSEPOLISPERSIAN PILLAR BASE AND CAPITALDOUBLE GRIFFIN CAPITALDOUBLE BULL CAPITAL .RUINED PALACE AT FIRUZABADSASSANIAN rock-SculpturesDAREIOS I. ON HIS THRONETOMBS OF AKH^MENIAN KINGS285299301.3023053353373383393403413423433553592,^2, '367

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,XIUDETAIL OF AKH,ffiMENIAN TOMBBUILDING KNOWN AS " RUSTEm's TOMB "SASSANIAN SCULPTURESASSANIAN KINGS ....MASONRY OF GREAT PLATFORM AT PERSEPOLISLION ATTACKING BULLPARAPET OF STAIR, PERSEPOLISCARVED LINTEL OF WINDOWS AND DOORSPALACE OF DAREIOS AT PERSEPOLISATTEMPT AT RESTORATION OF SOUTH FRONT OFPALACE OF DAREIOS AT PERSEPOLISDAREIOS FIGHTING A MONSTERDOOR OF PALACE OF DAREIOS, PERSEPOLISPILLARS OF THE HALL OF XERXESGENERAL VIEW OF THE PALACE OF DAREIOSSCYTHIANS AFTER A BATTLEGREEK SILVER VASE, FOUND AT KERTCH371373375377Z92>397398399401403405407409421423

PRINCIPAL WORKS READ OR CONSULTED,IN THE PREPARATION OF THISVOLUME.Anquetil, Duperron. Zend-Avesta : Ouvrage de Zoroastre, contenantles idees theologiques, physiques et morales de ce legislateur,les ceremonies du culte religieux qu'il a etablies, etc.,etc. 2 vol. in 4°. Paris 1761.Ayuso, Francisco Garcia.Madrid, 1S74.i vol.Los Pueblos Iranios y Zoroastro.Babelon, Ernest. Histoire Anxienne de l'Orient. gme ed.5th and 6th vol. Paris, 1887 and 1888. (Continued fromLenormant.)Bartholom.*, Chr. Arische Forschungen. II, and III. Halle,1886 and 1887.Bradke, p. v. Dyaus Asura, Ahura-Mazda und die Asuras.Studien und Versuche auf dem Gebiete alt-indo-germanischerReligionsgeschichte. Halle, 1885. 128 pages.Darmesteter, James. The Zend Avesta. Part I. , The Vendi¬dad. Part II., The Sirozahs, Ya^ts, and Nyaij-. ( " SacredBooks of the East." Series, vol. IV. and vol. XXIII). Oxford,1880 and 1883. 2 vols.Ormaed et Ahrim-AN : Leurs origines et leur histoire.(Bibliotheque de 1' Ecole des Hautes Etudes ; 2ge Fascicule.)Paris, 1S77. I vol.Haurvatat et Amerktat : Essai sur la mythologie deI'Avesta. (Bibliotheque de I'Ecole des Hautes Etudes ; 236' Fascicule.) Paris, 1875. 85 pages.Delattre, a. Le Peuple et l' Empire des Medes, jusqu' kla fin du regne deCyaxare. Bruxelles : 1883. 1 vol,Dosabhai, Framji Karaka. History of the Parsis. Includingtheir Mannere, Customs, Religion and Present Position. Lon¬don, 1884. 2 vol.

XVIPRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED.Duncker, Max. Geschichte des Alterthums. 5th edition.12th and 4th vol. Leipzig, 1880.EvERs, Dr. E, Das Emporkommen der Persischen MachtUNTEr Cyrus ; nach den neuentdeckten Inschriften, Berlin, '1884. 40 pages.Ferguson, James. Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis Re¬stored. London, 1851. i vol.Floigl, Dr. Victor. Cyrus und Herodot : nach den neugefundeiienKeilinschriften. Leipzig, i88l. ig7 pages.Harlez, M. C. de. Avesta : Livre sacre du Zoroastrisme traduitdu texte Zend, accompagne de notes explicatives, et prece'ded'une Introduction a I'etude de I'Avesta et de la ReligionMazdeenne ; 2e edition. Paris, 1S81. i vol.Les Origines du Zoroastrisme. (Extrait du Journal Asiatique.)Paris, 1879, Deux parties en 8°.PlAUG, Martin. Ess.-iYS on the Sacred Language, Writings,and Religion of the Parsis, 1 vol. Second edition.Hovelacque, Abel. L'Avesta, Zoroastre et le Mazdeisme.Paris, 1880. I vol.Le Chien dans l'Avesta. Les soins qui lui sont dus. Soneloge. Paris, 1876. 56 pages.Les Medecins et la Medecine dans l'Avesta. 21 pages.Jackson, A. V. Williams. A Hymn of Zoroaster YasnaXXXI. Translated with comments, 62 pages ; Stuttgart, 1888.Justi, Dr. Ferdinand. Geschichte des Alten Persiens. Ber¬lin, 1879. 1 vol.KuHN, A. Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des GOtter.trankes. First edition. 1 vol.Lenormant, Francois. La Monnaie dans l'Antiquiti!. Vol.1st. Paris, 1878.Les Origines de l'Histoire, d'apres la Bible et les tradi¬tions des peuples Orientaux. 2d vol. Paris, 1882.Maspero, G. Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient. "3d edition. Paris, 1878.Menant, Joachim. Zoroastre : Essai sur la Philosophic Religieusede la Perse. 2d edition. Paris, 1857. i vol.Meyer, Eduard. GEschichte des Alterthums. Stuttgart, 1884.Vol. 1st.Mills, L. II. The ZeNd Avesta : Part III. The Yasna, Visparad,Afrinagan, Gahs, and Miscellaneous Fragments. ("Sacred Booksof the East," Series, voL XXXI.) Oxford, 1887, i vol.

PRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED.xviiMOller, F. Max. Chips from a German Workshop. New'York, 1876. 4 vol.Lectures on the Science of Language.New York,1875. 2 vol.Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas.London, 1888.Myer. Remains of Lost Empires. 1 vol.Oppert, J, Le Peuple et la Langue des Medes.' L' HoNOVER : le Verbe Createur de Zoroastre. (Extrait desAnnales de Philosophic Chrelienne, Janvier, 1862.)24 pages.Plutarch.De Iside et Osiride.Rawlinson, George. The Five Great Monarchies of theAncient Eastern World. London, 1865. 3d and 4th vol.History of Herodotus, a new English version.London,1875. 4 vol.Rialle, Girard de.Agni, Petit-fils des Eau.x, dans le Veda etI'Avesta. Paris, i86g. 16 pages.Sayce, a. H. The Ancient Empires of the East. London,1884. 1 vol.Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, asillustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians.Hibbert Lectures, 1887. t vol.Schrader, Eberhard. Die Keilinschriften und das AlteTestament. 2d edirion. Giessen, 1883. i vol.Spiegel, Friedrich. Er.4nische Alterthu.mskunde. 3 vol.Leipzig, 1871, 1873, and 1S78.Die Altpersischen Keilinschriften. 2d edit. i88i.Unger, G. Fr. Kyaxares und Astyages. (Aus den Abhandlungenderkon. Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, I CI., XVI.Bd., Ill Abth.) Miinchen, 1882. 85 pages.Vaux, W. S. W.Persia, from the Earliest Period to theArab Conquest. (Ancient History from the Monuments.)I vol.ViGOUROUx, Abbe F. La Bible et les Decouvertes Modernesen Palestine, en Egypte et en Assyrie. 4th edit. Paris, 1884.4 vols.West, E. W. Pahlavi Texts. Part I. The Bundahij, BahmanYajt and Shayast La-Shayast. (" Sacred Books of the East."Series, Vol. V.) Oxford, 1880. I vol.Whitney, Wm. Dwight. Oriental and Linguistic Studies,New York, 1S73. i vol.

XviiiPRINCIPAL WORKS CONSULTED.Windischmann, Friedrich. Zoroastrische Studien. Abhand¬lungen zur Mythologie und Sagengeschichte des alten IranBerlin, 1863.Mithra : ein Beitrag zur Mythengeschichte des Orients ;Leipzig, 1857. 8g pages.Numerous works on Ancient India and Comparative Mythologyalso pamphlets and essays by Sir H. C. Rawlinson, Th g'Pinches, W. St. Chad Boscawen, H. Rassam, De Harlez"Spiegel, Hovelacque, Hale'vy, Girard de Rialle, E. Dieulafoy'and others, in Rawlinson's " Herodotus," the EncyclopasdisBritannica, and various periodicals, such as "Transactions"and "Proceedings" of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, the"Journal " of the Victoria Institute, the " Museon," the " Baby-Ionian and Oriental Record," the "Revue Archeologique, ""Gazette des Beaux Arts," and others.This volume will surely-and deservedlybe found fault with bycritics on the score of inconsistent spelling of Oriental and Greeknames. It is a defect very difficult to avoid in the present transitionstage between the spelling sanctioned by old habit, though utterlyincorrect and misleading, and the more faithful and rational trans¬literation which a finer scholarship is rapidly introducincr. Theauthor IS fully conscious of this shortcoming, which, however shallbe thoroughly eliminated in a final revised edition.Z. A. R.

PRINCIPAL DATES GIVEN IN THISVOLUME.Battle of Megiddo (Defeat of Josiah of Judah byNecho II. of Egypt) 609 B.&Battle of Karkhemish (Defeat of Necho II. byNebuchadrezzar of Babylon) 605 "First Taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar . 597 "Destruction . OF Jerusalem and Beginning of Cap¬tivity 586 "Battle of the Eclipse (between Alyattes of LydiaAND Kyaxares of Media) 585 "Death of Kyaxares 584 ''Death of- Nebuchadrezzar ^ 561 "Fall of the Median Empire (Astyages, son ofKyaxares, Dethroned by Kyros, King of An¬shan and Persia) 549 "Conquest of Lydia by Kyros 546 "Conquest of Babylon by Kyros and End oeJew¬ish Captivity 539 "Death of Kyros the Great 529 "Kambyses, son of Kyros . .... . . '. . 529-522 "Battle of Pelusion and Conquest of Egypt . . 525 "Dareios I., son of Hystaspes 522-485 "(522-515, Civil Wars ; 515-508, Years of Peace ;508-485, Foreign Wars). .Battle of Marathon. . 49° "pji;

T, FISHER UNWIN 26, PATERNOSTER SQUARE, LONDON, E.C,

THE STORY OFMEDIA, BABYLON,AND PERSIA.I.A NOTABLE RELIGIOUS SURVIVAL: TIIE PARSIS.ANQUETIL DUPERRON.I. Among the so-called heathen religions whichstill claim for their own more than one half of man¬kind, there is none of greater interest and iiTiportancethan that of the ParsIS, more generally knownunder the graphic but misleading name of " Fire-Worshippers."It is certainly not from their num¬bers this sect derive that interest and importance,for in that respect they form an almost imperceptibleunit in the general sum.The entire number ofParsis now living scarcely, if at all, exceeds 100,000,which represents about one in fourteen thousand ofthe earth's population. But, small as that frag¬ment of humanity is, it isa chip from one of theworld's noblest and mightiest nations, the PERSIANSof old, a nation which, though not extinct, and stillcounted as one of the greater political powers of theEast, has degenerated beyond recognition under the

2 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.influence of foreign conquest, enforced change of re¬ligion, and mixture of races. And the religion whichthe.se exiled descendg.nts of the ancient Persianshave preserved along with purity of race and timehonoredcustoms, is that of ancient Eran, the old andwidely .spread faith, the prophet of which, SpitamaZarathushtra, was vaguely known and reverencedby the writers .i Greek and Roman antiquity, aswell as by tha' -r .scholars of Europe, under thename of Zoroaster.2. It is custoinary to sweep under the head" Heathen Religions " all except the three greatSemitic religions: Judaisin, Christianity, and Lslamisin,or the religion of Mohammed. It is doubtfulhow far so coinprehensive a designation may be cor¬rect in individual instances. In that of the Parsis,at least, it appears decidedly rash, since they earnest¬ly, emphatically profess the worship of the one trueGod, and a horror of any kind of polytheism a formof belief which, surely, should win thein aplaceamong monotheists, as must be shown by a brief re¬view of their religious tenets and practices.3. It was in the year 641 A.D. that the Arab in¬vaders, in the heyday of their fervor for the faith ofwhich their prophet Mohammed had taught them toconsider themselves the heaven-sent bearers, won thebattle, (on the field of Nehavend, fifty miles fromancient Ecbatana), which changed the destmies ofEran, and turned its people, dreaded and victoriousfor four centuries under their last national kings, theSassanian dynasty, into a conquered, enslaved, andfor a long time ruthlessly oppressed and ill-treated

A NOTABLE RELIGIOUS SURVIVAL. 3population. Yezdegerd III., the last Sas.sanianking, was murdered on his flight, for plunder, and noeffort was made to retrieve the lost fortunes of thatterrible day, with which closed an heroic struggle ofover eight years ;the country's energies were broken.4. It was but natural that the religion of the van¬quished should be the first object of persecution atthe hands of victors whose wars .1 conquests wereall prompted by religious fanat n. The Persianclergy were persecuted, their temples desecratedand destroyed, their sacred books likewise, and thefaithful followers of the ancient national creed sub¬jected to somany indignities and extortions as tomake existence not only burdensome, but wellnighimpossible.They were made to pay ruinous extrataxes, were excluded from all ofifices, from all par¬ticipation in public life, and, worst of all, very nearlydeprived of the protection of the law, at all eventssystematically denied justice or redress wheneverthey applied for either against a Mussulman.Theirproperty, their lives,their honor, thus were com¬pletely at the mercy of the insolent and graspingforeign rulers. From so many and unbearable ills,the only escape lay in embracing the faith of theseruler.s, doing homage to Mohammed, and abjuringall their own traditions, beliefs, and practices. Bythis one act they could step at once from the stateof down-trodden slaves to a condition if not ofeqliality with their masters, at least of well-protectedsubjects. It is no wonder that apostasy becameripe in the land. Compulsory conversion, however,is scarcely likely to be sincere, and we may take it

4 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.for granted that the first generations of new-madeMussulmans were so only in self-defence and in outerform. Not so their descendants. Habit and asso¬ciations gradually endearedto them the faith inwhich, unlike their fathers, they were born and bred,and at the present moincnt there are no more zeal¬ous followers of the Arab prophet than the Persians.5. But even at the time of the wholesale con¬version of the country to Islamism, which was anaccomplishedfact in less than two hundred yearsafter the conquest, great nuinbers preferred everyhard.ship to apostasy.Only, as life under such con¬ditions had becoine unendurable at home, the vastmajority of these took the desperate resolution ofgoing into exile, to seek some place of refuge inforeign lands, where they would be tolerated asharmless guests,and suffered to practise their re¬ligion unmolested.A sinall remnant only stayed,lacking the courage to sever all old ties and go forthinto absolute uncertainty, and of this remnant thefate was most pitiful." In the tenth century of theChristian era," says a distinguishedmodern Parsiwriter,* "remnants of theZoroastrian populationwere to be found only in the provinces of Fars andKerman ;and the reader will have an idea of the rateat which that remnant has declined even in recenttimes, when it is stated that, while about a hundredand fifty years ago it numbered one hundred thou¬sand souls, it does not at present exceed seven oreight thousand.". * Dosabhai Fraihji Karaka, in his " History of the Parsis," Lon¬don, 1884.

A NOTABLE RELIGIOUS SURVIVAL.J6. The self-exiled Zoroastrians fared better. Afterwandering for many years soinewhat at random, stop¬ping at various places, but not attempting any per¬manent settleinent until they effected a descent onthe western coast of India, they reached at last thepeninsula of Gujerat (or Guzerat), where theywere hospitably received by the reigning Hinduprince, after they had agreed to soine by no meansonerous conditions :they were to lay down theirarms, to give an account of the religion they pro¬fessed, to adopt the language of the country, toconform to some of its customs.From this timeforth and through several centuries the Zoroastrianexiles, who now began to be called Parsis, prosperedgreatly.Deprived of arms, and with no call to usethem had they retained them, they settled into thethrifty, intelligent, industrious ways which charac¬terize them at the present day.Agriculture andcoininerce became their favorite pursuits, and asthey were in no way repressed or restrained, theybegan to sjiread even as far as Upper India (thePenjab). Then, about 1300 A.D., they were oncemore driven forth homeless, by aMussulman in¬vasion, which ended in the conquest of Gujerat., This time, however, they did not stray far, butbetook themselves to Navsari and SURAT nearthe coast, where they came in contact with Euro¬peans, to the great furtherance of their commercialinterests. It was undoubtedly this new coinmercialintercourse which drew them southwards, tothe great centre of the western coast, the city ofBombay, where we find them as early as about

BABYLON, AND PERSIA.1650 A.D., just before the transfer of the city andterritory from the Portuguese to the English crown:The Presidency of Bombay with its capital has sincebecome the head-quarters of the Parsis, whose num¬bers in this part of the country and the whole ofIndia ainount to something over 85,500.7. It has always been known inEurope that the Parsis, or Gebers,(" infidels," as the Mussulmans con¬temptuously call them), followed areligion of which the most peculiarand striking outer feature wasthehonor paidsacred firesto fire; that they hadkept burning always inchapels, and that when they movedfrom place to place they car¬ried these fires with them.Itwas, naturally enough, in--ferred that Fire was theirI deity, their god; and the" name of " Fire-Worshippers "was universally bestowed onthem.had aOnly a scholarly fewdeeper and more cor¬A parsi gentleman(modern).rect perception of what wasto the mass an absurd super¬stition, and knew that the Parsis did not worship fireas a deity, but admired and honored it as the purecstand most perfect emblem of the Deity.*They* The Parsi writer quoted above, in vindicating his brethren fromthe charge of heathenism, very aptly cites the words of Bishop Meurin,the head of the Roman Catholics of Bombay :" A pure and un-

ANOTABLE RELIGIOUS SURVIVAL.also knew that the Parsis believe in a number ofspiritual beings who take care of the world underthe orders and supervision of the Creator, in sixspirits more exalted still and partaking in theiressence of some of the Divine qualities, also inthe existence and powefof sainted souls, and that theyinvoke all these beings in prayersomewhat as the Roman and Orien¬tal churches do angels, archangels,and saints. Lastly, scholars knewthat the Parsis professed to followstrictly and undeviatingly the law ofZoroaster, asit was handeddown from their ancestors be¬fore the conquest, the Per¬sians of the Sassanian period,who were, in their turn, saidto have received it from re¬mote antiquity.Now theseassertions are strongly con¬firmed by a great many pas¬sages from Greek and Romanwriters of various times,whose accounts (fragmentary . ~^ :. as they are) of the beliefs 2, a parsi lady (modern).and religious practices of the Persians as ' theyknew them in their time, agree remarkably withthe beliefs and practices of the modern Parsis.The name of Zoroaster, too, is mentioned by manyclassical authors, vaguely, it is true, and with manydefiled flame is certainly the most sublime natural representation ofHim who is in Himself Eternal Light." ,,nr,r "v^ 1,-vT!

8 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.contradictions, but always with reverence, asonecoupled with much holiness and mystery.It was,therefore, generally understood among the learned :1st. That the Parsis must possess sacred books ofgreat antiquity, containing and expounding the lawsDfone of the oldest and most remarkable religionsin the world; 2d. That it would be extremely desira¬ble, in the interests of historical and religious re¬search, to gain access to these books, and, if possi¬ble, to secure copies of them for the great Europeanlibraries.8. Both these points were partially settled by thehappy chance which, in the beginning of the lastcentury, put an English traveller and scholar,George Bourchier, in possession of a manu¬script, which he obtained from Parsi priests dur¬ing a visit to Surat.It contained the VENDIDADoSadEH, i. e., a compilation of prayers and hymns, inthe order in which they are recited at religious ser¬vices, and was deposited at Oxford.More manu¬scripts followed, until towards the middle of thecentury that great university owned a nearly com¬plete collection.But what was the use, when therewas no one to read them? The very characterswere unknown, and there seemed but little prospectthat the puzzle should ever be solved.9. Fortunately four pages traced from one of theOxford manuscripts found their way to Paris, andthere happened to meet the eye of a young Orientalstudent, ANQUETIL DUPERRON.Ainbitious, eagerminded,and scarcely twenty-two, he saw in this ahint of fate, a great work, worthy of all his energies

A NOTABLE RELIGIOUS SURVIVAL. 9and enthusiasm, given into his hand ; in short, thatmost desirable of boonsan object in life. " I atonce resolved to endow my country with this pecul¬iar piece of literature," he says. " I dared to formthe design of translating it, and determined to go tothe East with that object in view, and learn the an¬cient Persian language in Gujerat or Kerman." Be¬longing to a noble family, he could command theinfluence of high-placed friends, and might, in time,have obtained an appointment at one of the count¬ing-houses of the French East-India Company. Butsuch a roundabout way and its inevitable delays illsuitedwith his youthful impatience, and, takingcounsel of no one, he cominitted the reckless stepof engaging as a private in the service of the Com¬pany, which was sending out a batch of recruits, justto secure an immediate passage. Only when all thearrangements were coinpleted did he inform his elderbrother of what he had done, and, unmoved by hisdisinay and tearful entreaties, marched out with hiscompany one raw Noveinber morning of the year1754-lo. Enterprising and brave to foolhardiness asAnquetil was, from temperainent, froin nationalbent, and from the buoyancy which belongs to ex¬treme youth, it is just possible that he might nothave embarked in such blind wise on his adventur¬ous errand, had he quite known the number and thenature of the hardships which he was rushing tomeet, even though they were greatly initigated forhim by the exertions of his friends, who obtainedfrom the government his discharge from military

10 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.service, a small pension, and proinise of further,assistance even before he left his native soil.Thegood news reached him atL'Orient, the seaportfrom which the recruits were to beshipped, andhe stepped on board the vessel in February, 1755, afree man. It was well for him that it fell out so ; for aswe read his account of the voyage and of the shareof suffering which fell to him as one of the ofificers'mess, we ask ourselves with a shudder what wouldhave been his fate had he been counted ainong thewretched rabble of vagabonds, criminals, and scampsof every description, the scum of prisons and regi¬ments, which made up the Company's soldiery, andwere housed, fed, and generally treated accordingly,on a six inonths' voyage, mostly on tropical seas.II. Nothing can be more entertaining and in¬structive, at times more fascinating and thrilling,than Anquetil's own detailed narrative of his longwanderings and manifold adventures.The book isbut little read nowadays.We accept the results ofa great man's self-devotion, and care little to recallat what cost those results were obtained.Yet thereare surely some good lessons to be drawn from thecareer of men whom we sec giving up home, friends,prospects in life, for the sake of knowledge, pursuingthis, to the great mass of men, most unsubstantialof goods, at therisk of life and health, grudgingneither time nor mdney, or, far more frequently still,working for it without any money, by sheer personalexertion and perseverance, in the face of appallingprivation and hardships, and considering themselvesrepaid beyond any wealth if they succeed in securing

A NOTABLE RELIGIOUS SURVIVAL.IIeven but a portion of the knowledge they sought.Such men there have always been ; such men thereare now, many of them. They work, they succeed,they suffer,^they die, too, more of them than theworld knows of, victims of their enthusiasm andself-devotion ; witness George Smith,"'T witness thetwo Lenormants, father and son, Charles and F'ran-§ois, and' so many others, all smitten in harness bycruel diseases contracted in distant and uncongenialclimes, at their noble tasks. Anquetil Duperron wasemphatically one of the heroic band. Few sufferedas many and varied ills, and if he lived to achieveand enjoy, it was solely owing to an exceptionallyvigorous constitution,12. He was absent seven years. But there was notime lost. When he re-entered Paris, early in 1762,he was barely thirty. The most arduous and adven¬turous part of his -task lay behind him, successfullyachieved, and before him the best years of hismanhood, to be devoted to comparatively easy andcertainly pleasant work: that of translating theseveral books which fonned the body of Parsi Scrip¬ture, and becaine generally, though incorrectly,known under the name of Zend-Avesta. Thistranslation, accompanied by adetailed naiTative ofhis varied wanderings and experiences, was laid be¬fore the public as early as 1771, in three quarto vol¬umes bearing the lengthy but exhaustive title :" Zend-Avesta, the Work of Zoroaster Contain¬ing the Theological, Physical, and Moral Ideas of thatLawgiver, the Ceremonies of the Religious Worship Es-* See "Story of Chaldea," pp. 102-105.

12 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.tablishedbyhim, and SeveralImportant Traits Bearingon the Ancient History of the Persians." The manu- -scripts from which he worked had already been de¬posited in the Royal Library. He had thereforefully redeemed the vow to which he pledged himselfseventeen years before on first beholding the puz¬zling pot-hooks on the Oxford tracing, andnowwaited anxiously and with natural curiosity to seethe impression which his labors would produce onthe scholarly world of Europe.-13. Here he was doomed to an unlooked-for anddisheartening experience.True, there was here andthere a little burst of enthusiasm, but the large ma¬jority of scholars held aloof, uncertain and bewil¬dered, while the English scholars, partly movedthereto by personal feeling against the author, whohad been guilty of some very ill-teinpered and un¬warrantable attacks on the University of Oxford,took a decided hostile stand.Their spokesman wasWilliam Jones, then a very young man, but al¬ready distinguished as a linguist and Orientalist,who published in French an anonymous " Letter toMr. A duP " in the form of a pamphlet.Though so abusive as to be decidedly in bad taste,it was very clever, and the French was so perfectthat it was some time before the nationality of thewriter was suspected. Jones siinply accused theelder scholar of forgery, or else of a credulity pass¬ing all reasonable bounds.He objected that thewritings, presented to the world as the works of oneof the greatest thinkers of all ages, half the time .to use a homely expression," didn't make Sense,"

A NOTABLE RELIGIOUS SURVIVAL. 1 3and when they did, were insufferably stupid andprosy. " Though the whole college of Gebers wereto assert it," he says, " we should never believe thateven the least clever of charlatans could have writ¬ten the nonsense with which your two last volumesarc filled. . . . Either Zoroaster was devoid ofcommon-sense, or he did not write the book you at¬tribute to hiin. If the first, you should have lefthim to obscurity ; if he did not write the book, itwas impudent to publish it under his name. Youhave then either insulted the public by offering themworthless stuff, or cheated them by palming off false¬hoods on them, and in both cases you deserve theircontempt.". On this theme the changes were rungfor years with little variety and less good-breeding., " The least reason I shall offer " (for rejecting theauthenticity of the book) " is the uncommon stu¬pidity of the work itself," is the verdict of anotherEnglish scholar.14. Time' and more advanced scholarship havevindicated the memory of Anquetil Duperron.They have long ago assigned" to him his true place,established the great and real worth of the work hedid, and also its shortcomings. For though it wouldenter nobody's head nowadays to deny the authen¬ticity of the books he undertook to translate, hisrendering of them is so faulty, carried out on suchaltogether wrong principles, as to be utterly un¬available the monument at once of a great achieve¬ment and a great failure. He had neither the rightmethod nor the right tools. He tru.sted entirely tohis instructors, the Parsi Desturs, or high-priests, and

HMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.their word-for-word translations into modern Persian,never dreaming how unreliable their knowledge was.He was aware, indeed, that the mass of the Parsishear and recite their sacred texts parrot-wise, withoutunderstanding or deeming it needful to understandasingle word of them, satisfied _with scrupulouslyperforming the ceremonies and rites of the worshipthey were taught. But he was told" that on theirhigher clergy rested the obligation to .study theancient dead languages of their race, so as to handdown froin generation to generation the sense andspirit of their religious law as well as its outer forms.How could he suspect that, in carrying the vessel,they had spilt most of the contents, and that theirmain-stay was a thread of tradition, continuous, in¬deed, but growing more and more corrupt andunreliable ? So he wrote down every word in mod¬ern Persian, as his Desturs gave it, then renderedthat literally into French, andto do his opponentsjusticehalf the time it did not " make sense."15. Thus it seemed as though one puzzle had onlybeen exchanged for another, scarcely less hopeless.A great and clear mind was needed to disentangle it.and carry on the work which had been dropped fromsheer inability to grasp it. Such a mind turned uponly sixty years later, in the person of another FrenchOrientalist, EUGENE BURNOUF. He thought hesaw his way to a more correct understanding of theParsi sacred books, by means of a more rational andexhaustive method, and although the experimentreally lay outside of his special line of studies, heundertook it, more to open the road for others and

A NOTABLE RELIGIOUS SURVIVAL. 1 5" show them how," than with a view to follow it tothe end himself. True, he brought to the task atool which Anquetil had lackeda perfect knowl-_e.dge of Sanskrit, the most ancient surviving languageof the Aryans of India and the sister tongue of thatin which the so called Zoroastrian books were origi¬nally written. Curiou.sly enough, this tool, which wasthe means of establishing Anquetil's claim to honorand recognition, even while exposing his shortcom¬ings, was in a measure supplied by his bitter foe anddetractor. Sir William Jones; for, it was this greatscholar who, being called to India to fill a high offi¬cial position, first took up the study of the classicallanguage of ancient India himself, and inspired hisfellow-workers and subordinates with the same en¬thusiasm, earning for himself the title of founder ofthose Sanskrit studies which were to become soprincipal a branch of the then dawning science ofComparative Philology. The great likeness whichwas discovered between the ancient languages of theAryans of India and of Eran suggested to Burnoufthat by bringing to bear Sanskrit scholarship on theEranian texts, the traditional but mostly unintelli¬gent rendering of the Parsi Desturs might be con¬trolled and corrected, and a closer comprehension oftheir Scriptures attained than they could at allachieve. One chapter was all he worked out accord¬ing to this plan. But on what scale and with whatthoroughness the research was conducted, is shownby the fact that it fills a quarto volume of eight hun¬dred pages.* - '.* " Commentaire sur le Ya9na," published in 1833^35. ' '

l6MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.i6. All the work that has since been done on thisfield was carried out along the lines laid down in thisfirst attempt of Burnouf'sa monumental treasuryof erudition and ingenuity. But the matter in handis singularly arduous and obscure, and although pa¬tient scholarship has indeed succeeded in restoringthe lost religion attributed to Zoroaster in its mainfeatures and general spirit, in tracing the various ele¬ments which entered into its progressive develop¬ment, yet many and many are the points still underdi,spute, the passagessometimes most importantonesof which we have several conflicting verisions,among which even the trained specialist finds it im¬possible to make a decisive choice. In many waysthere is less uncertainty even about cuneiform de¬cipherment. Still much is done every year, and evenas matters stand now, we know enough to warrantus in pronouncing the religion so almost miracu¬lously preserved by a handful of followers one ofthe finest, wisest, loftiest the world has seen. Asit was the religion of the race which, in the order ofhistory, takes the lead at the point to which ourstudies have brought us, we shall pause to gainsome knowledge of it, and thus be prepared to fol¬low that race's doings more understandingly andappreciatively.

II.the PROPHET OF KKAN THE AVESTA.I. The religions of the world, apart from theirintrinsic differencesj may be divided into two greatclasses :those that have sacred books, and thosethat have not. The sacred books of a religion em¬body all its teachings in inatters of faith, theology,and conduct. They tell its followers what theyshould believe, what they should do and avoid doing,how they should pray, worship, conduct themselveson the momentous occasions of human life. Allthese instructions the faithful are not to take assimply advice for their general guidance, but as ab¬solutely binding, to be believed without discussion,to be obeyed without demurring. When any ques¬tion arises bearing on religious doctrine in any way,the devout believer ought not to use his own judg¬ment, but to refer to his Sacred Book, or to its privi¬leged interprcter.s, the priests. This, indeed, is themost commendable and the safer course, as the lay¬man is liable to mistakes from imperfect trainingand incomplete knowledge; while the priest mustperforce understand what he devotes his life tostudy. A doubt as to the absolute truth of any,statement, or as to the necessity or righteousness of17 C

l8MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.any prescription contained in the Sacred Book ismortal sin, entailing punishment in the next world,and, if expressed in acts of insubordination, here onearth, at the hands of the priests and the governmentwhich supports them.2. Such utter surrender of man's most therishedrights the right of thought and independent action,such unreasoning obedience, amounting almost tothe abolition of individual will and intellect, couldnever be demanded or obtained by mere men, eitherthe wisest or the most despotic. Man will obey hisfellow-man from choice, and as long as he thinks itto his own advantage to do so, but never admit thatsuch obedience is a paramount and indisputableduty. Every religion, therefore, that has sacredbooks, claims for them a superhuman origin : theyare the Divine Word and the Divine Law, revealedsupernaturally, imparted directly by the Deitythrough the medium of some chosen man or men,who become the prophets, teachers, and lawgiversof their people, but speak not from themselves, butin the name and, as it were, under the dictation ofthe Deity, with whom they arc supposed to havemiraculous, face-to-face intercourse. In remote an¬tiquity men were more simple-minded than they arenow, and, being devoid of all positive (/.

THE Prophet of eran.i^ing to admit the divine origin claimed for the Lawoffered to them, that the best of every religion,being glimpses of eternal truths, opened by thenoblest and -wisest thinkers of a race, has alwaysbeen so far above the average standard of the timesas to appear to the mass unattainable by the unas¬sisted efforts of the human inind.*3. The two great Asiatic divisions of the Aryanstock or race, the Hindus and the Eranians, bothfollowed religions which, their priests taught them,were revealed to the founders directly and personallyby the Deity. The Hindus treasured a set of bookswhich they called " Veda " {i. e., " Knowledge "), asthe repository of the Divine Law, while the SacredBook of the Eranians has long been known. underthe name of " Zend-Avesta." Neither of these re¬ligions is extinct. The former is still professed, in amuch altered form, by many millions of the inhabi¬tants of India, while the latter has survived, as wesaw, in that handful of descendants of Persian emi¬grants which forms the Parsi community in India,and the daily dwindling remnant of their brethrenm the old country. Between both there are strikingresemblances and not less striking differences, as isusually the case between members of one family bethey individuals or nations. But we are, in this vol¬ume, directly concerned only with the race which,at the point we have reached, the ever-revolvingwheel of history is bringing up to the top, to gatherthe mheritance of older nations whose greatness isof the pastAssyria, Babylon, and others, lesser insize, power, and influence.* See ' Story of Chaldea," pp. 259, 260.

20 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.4. When, on the authority of Anquetil Duperronand his first successors in the field of Eranian re¬search, the title "Zend-Avesta" was universallyaccepted, and " Zend " given asthe name of thelanguage in which the newly found books werewritten, a misnomer was unconsciously introducedwhich considerably delayed discoveries and addedconfusion to analready almost hopelessly obscuresubject.In the first place, the title, a compoundone, should be " Ave.STA-U-Zend," which may bepretty fairly translated " the Law and Commentary,"for " Zend " is not the name of a language at all, buta word, which means " explanation, commentary."In the second place, the books arc not written in oneuniform language, but in several Eranian dialects ofdifferent jDeriodsand, probably, different countries.Now that these facts are distinctly understood, it isbecoming more and more usual tO call the booksthemselves simply " AvESTA," and the language ofthe original texts " AvESTAN,"a name which doesnot committo any particular time or country,while the language in which the Zend or com¬mentary and glosses are written, and which is of farlater date, as can easily be proved from inscriptions,has been named " Pehlevi " the Persian of theMiddle Ages.5. Pehlevi is a most peculiar language, especiallyin its written form. Not so much from the differ¬ence of the characters, which is not greater than thedistance of several centuries would naturally war¬rant ; but at first sight it does not seem to bePersian at all, but rather Semitic.That is, an enor-

tiie prophet of eran. 21mous proportion of the words nouns, pronouns,verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions are Se¬mitic, while the grammar and construction, z. e., theway of using and arranging those words, are Eraniana proceeding so anomalous as to make it certainthatthe result could not possibly ever have been theliving language of any nation whatever. The solu¬tion of the riddle seems scarcely less strange. It isthis : that the words which were Semitic to the eyewere Eranian in sound ; or, to put it more clearly,the reader, in reading to himself or aloud, substitutedto each Semitic word its Eranian (or Persian) equiv¬alent. Thus: "king" would be written " malkd"(an old Semitic word), and pronounced " Shah " ;" Malkan malka," " King of Kings," became '; Shahan-Shah " ; "gosht " (meat) was substituted in readingto its Semitic equivalent " bisrd,'" which was thewritten word. We ourselves do something of thesame kind, on a very small scale, when, on meeting,in print or writing, forms like " i. e.," " e. g.," " etc.,"which stand for the Latin, " id est," " exempligratia,"" et cetera," we fluently read the English words," that is," "for instance," "and so forth," not to speakof the numeral figures (r, 2, 3, etc.), which everylanguage pronounces in its own way. To indulge inthe exercise on such a scale as did the readers andwriters of Pehlevi-Persian implies a knowledge oftwo languages, which is rather surprising, and wouldalone go far towards proving the indebtedness ofthe younger race of Central Asia to the ancient cul¬tures of the West. For where and in what way, ifnot by con.stant contact with old Semitic nations,

22 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.like those of Nineveh, of Babylon, of Aram, could'the Persians have acquired such familiarity with alanguage than which none could be more differentfrom the Eranian speech, as to keep writing in thatlanguage and translating it into their own as theyread ?6, The written Pehlevi language, therefore, iscomposed of two very distinct elements, which havealso been distinguished by different names. Thatpart of it which is written one way and read anotherhas been called Huzvarespi, while the purely Per¬sian part goes under the name of PAzEND. It isclear that it is quite possible for a text to be writtenentirely in Huzvaresh or entirely in Pazend, butneither is u.sually the case. Only it has beenremarked that, the older the text, the more Huzva¬resh it contains, so that it may be said that the mostancient Sassanian writings are neariy all Huzvaresh,while the latest are almo.st entirely in Pazend.7. From what has been said it is evident that thebooks which we know under the general name of" Avesta " are composed of parts belonging to verydifferent ages. As the Pehlevi characters differ fromthe Avestan ones, it is comparatively easy to sepa¬rate the original text from the Zend, and to assignto the latter its proper time, which is the period ofthe Sassanian dynasty (226-640 A.D.). Beyond that,every thing is doubt and darkness. It is just themost interesting and important quesrions to whichwe have no satisfactory answers. We should like toknow : How old is the religion of which the writtenlaw has in great part just been recovered? From

the PROPHET OF ERAN. 23which of the countries of Eran did it go forth ?Wasthere really a man of the name of Zarathushtra, whoinvented and preached it, and when did he live?And did he invent it, or only reform it and put itinto shape ?When were the texts containing thedoctrine, the prayer, and the law, written down ?All these points have now for years been the subjectof researches, which have arrived at conclusionsin a great measure conflicting, and which theirauthors themselves do not attempt to give out asfinal.It is not for a book like the present, meantessentially for general readers, to enter into the de--tails and merits of special controversies.It can only^present, in the briefest and clearest possible form,'such results as are certain and such as appear most'probable, most likely to be confirmed in the courseoffurther study, as being supported by the greatest'amount of intrinsic and circumstantial evidence.8, Most of the Greek and Roman writers whoseworks, or fragments of them, have come down to us,speak of Zoroaster as of a wise man of the East andteacher of divine things, and also magic, whose ex¬istence it occurred to no one to doubt.True, theirtestimony, taken separately, would not go for much,as neither of these nations was remarkable for greathistorical sense or critical discernment, and besides,they place him at absurdly varying periods, rangingall the way between 6,000 and 500 B.C. But theunanimity of the testimony establishes a strong pre¬sumption in favor of the real existence of such a'person, at some time, as yet not to be determined, 'although somuch can be said with certainty even '

24 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSI7,~now, that both the above extreme dates are equallypreposterous, the one for its remoteness, the otherfor its lateness.. More conclusive, however, is theintrinsic testimony we derive from the Avesta itself.9. There is a small collection of hymns calledGathas (literally "Songs"), written in a peculiarEranian dialect, either older than the Avestan gen¬erally, or belonging to a different part of Eran.They are in verse, and bear the marks of far greaterantiquity than any other portion of the book. Theyevidently present the teachings of a new religion inits eariiest and purest stage, and, among sermon.s,prayers, sayings, loosely strung together in no par¬ticular order, eontain some of the very few pieces ofreal poetical beauty which the Avesta can boast.In these " Songs " the prophet stands forth with anunmistakable, living reality. Sometimes he preachesin his own person, expounding to a concourse ofhearers the simple and broad principles of his creed ;sometimes he cries out to his God, as a persecutedand homeless wanderer among men, with a pathosthat strongly recalls some of the Hebrew Psalms :"To what land ,shall I turn? Whither 'shall I go ?. . . None of the servants pay reverence to me, nordo the wicked rulers of the country. How shall I "worship Thee further, O Ahuramazda ? I know thatI am helpless ... for I have few men. I imploreThee weeping, O Ahura, who grantest happiness as afriend gives a present to his friend. . . ." At othertimes he speaks hopefully; for he has found friends:a great king has been moved to believe in theprophet and his mission, his first disciples are among

THE PROPHET OF ERAN. 2$the royal family and the mighty nobles of the land ;. the queen herself is his devoted follower. Then, again,his disciples seem to be speaking, for he is mentionedin the third person.But throughout this preciouscollection, the grand figure stands out most real, -most human, appealing to thenoblest, tenderesthuman .sympathies, and making you feel sure thatZarathushtra has once been a living man, and not anempty naine.10. But when our curiosity prompts us to inquirefor details, for biographical facts, materials fail usentirely.The Avesta tells us the name of his fatherand of his family or clan- Spitama ; aLso those ofhis wives, his sons,that nothing definite.and his daughter, but beyondStill keeping strictly to theAvestan text, we find that he was born by a greatwater, probably a river, in a wooded and mountain¬ous country, and a " mountain of holy communings "is mentionedsurely a lofty forest retreat, where hespent a portion of his lifeperhaps a large portionof it,meditating and lifting his soul higher andhigher, until he felt himself face to face with theDeity, and came down and went forth to teach hispeople, fully believing that he spoke not out of him¬self, but from what it had been given him to hear,in answer to his own seeking and questioning ofspirit. For solitude, amidst grand natural surround¬ings, is a great breeder of thought and visions. Mo¬hammed had been for years a driver of camels and aleader of caravans, conning the mighty, silent lessonsof the desert and the stars, before he announcedhimself a seer and a prophet, and he was forty then.

26 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.For years, too, had Moses lived the herdsman's lifein the wilds of stony Sina'i before he returned to hispeople, old in years and in heavenly lore, and toldhis mission and worked it out.Let us, then, becontent with such vague glimpses of the Eraniansage in his human truth, without heeding the flimsyfinery of signs and wonders with which the puerilefancy of later ages and the injudicious zeal of fol¬lowers tricked out the reverend and majestic image.II. We further know froin the Avesta that theking who honored Zarathushtra and believed in himwas Vishtaspa, famous in legendary tradition asone of the early hero-kings of Eran. But it isscarcely admissible that the whole of Eran shouldhave been united under one ruler in pre-historictimes.So Vishtaspa will have to be iinagined askin"- of some one Eranian countiy, almost certainlyin the northeastern region, very possibly Bactria,which was early a prosperous and powerful kingdom,the capital of which is called " the beautiful Bakhdhi,with high-lifted banners," a designation evidentlyimplying some great distinction, probably a royalresidence.Whether Zarathushtra was a born sub¬ject of Vishtaspa, or was a native of some other partof Eran and only came thither to preach, is uncer¬tain. Tradition, however, makes him of royal race,and has preserved a long genealogy, which showshim to be descended from one of the very oldestlegendary kings. As to the time when king andprophet lived, it is likely that no positive date willever be reached, and all we can with great proba¬bility conjecture, is that it should be placed some-

THE PROPHET OF ERAN. 27where beyond looo B.C.This date, so easily acces-.sible as to be comparatively modern in Chaldea and -Assyria, is so remote as to be virtually pre-historic in 'a land entirely devoid of monuments, and where wehave no grounds for even suppositions as to the time ;when writing was -introduced.12. This latter fact sufficiently shows how impos¬sible it is to ascertain with any degree of precision atwhat period the Avesta texts as well the Gathas as 'the later ones were written down. No manuscriptsnow extant are really ancient.According to Parsitradition, there once was a large body of sacredbooks, all indiscriminately and, beyond doubt, erro-;neously, attributed to the prophet himself.This socalledZoroastrian literature is said to have consisted, tof twenty-one books, written out on twelve thousandcowhides, (parchment), embracing every possiblebranch of religious discipline, philosophy, and sci¬ence, but to have been destroyed at the time of theconquest of Persia by the Greeks under Alexanderthe Great of Macedon, three centuries before Christ.No Greek ever persecuted any religion; but asit iswell known that Alexander, in a fit of drunken exal- 'tation after a feast, burned down Persepolis, thecapital of the vanquished Persian kings, it is,ofcourse, quite possiblethat manuscripts may haveperished in the conflagration. That an extensivesacred literature did exist at the time is partly con¬firmed by the testimony of acontemporary Greekwriter, (Hermippos), who is recorded to have cata¬logued the Zoroastrian books, and to have stated the -contents of each book.After the great fire we are'

28MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.told that sacred tradition and law survived only in thememories of the priests for several centuries until, inthe Sassanian period, a council of priests was convokedfor the express purpose of restoring and committingto writing the ancient texts, and the result is theAvesta text as we now see it, incomplete, fragmen¬tary, confused in the arrangement and order ofchapters and even verses. The ancient languagehad fallen into disuse as early as Alexander's tim^'e,wherefore it was found necessary to provide transla¬tions and commentaries in the then modern PersianIt is not to be wondered at that theclergy, seeing, from the disposition of the new reign¬ing house, that their day of power had come, remod¬elled many of the texts in a way favorable to theirown overweening claims, nor could they fail to addor fabricate some to suit their purposes and establishtheir rule.Persia now became what it never hadbeenpriest-ridden, and an era of fanaticism to thelength of persecution was inaugurated by the procla¬mation of King Shapt:.r II. :" Now' that we haverecognized the law of the worid here below, theyshall not allow the infidelity of any one whatever,and I shall strive that it may be so."13. It stands to reason that, of a large mass of re¬ligious literature entru.sted to the memories of thatreligion's ministers, only such portions will be pre-.served in tolerable entirety and uncorruptedness asare in daily use for purposes of worship and observ¬ance.Such exactly was the case with the Avesta.The portions that have come down to us are collec¬tions of prayers and invocations, which the faithful

,,^^wl_y/^/j n^uX^y-fr'iiw jjotj^i $*>*'^ Ji\f'-»,3, PAGE OF THE AVESTA, FROM TIIE OLDEST MANUSCRH'T (WRITTEN1325 A,D,), I'KESERVED IN KOrENHAGEN. (AUOUT HALF THEORIGINAL SIZE,)ag

30 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.are to recite daily, in a certain order,the service orliturgy proper ;-also of hymns of praise to variousdivine beings whom the modern Parsis regard as sub¬ordinate angels or good spirits, which hymns, as wellassome short prayers and fragments, are groupedunder the title of Lesser Avesta (KllORDEH Avesta),as being of less vital importance, and to be recitedonly once a month and on certain occasions.Theprincipal divisions of the Avesta as it has stoodsince the text was definitively established and sanc¬tioned under the Sassanian king, Shapilr If. (about325 A.D,), are as follows :I. The Vendidad, corrupted from a much longerword which means "the law against the Devat "{i. e., the Demons). It is, propeHy, a code of lawsand regulations tending towards the establishmentof righteousness andthe defeat of the Powers ofEvil, but includes some interesting mythical legends,traditions, and digressions of various sorts.II. The Vispered :invocations to all the divineand holy beings, who are honored under the title of" Chiefs of the Good Creation," and invited to assistat the sacrifice that is preparingvery much in theform of a litany.HI. The Yasna, " Sacrifice," i. e., the prayers andtextManthraswhich are to accompany the veryminute and complicated performances that composethe sacrifice, in presence of the sacred fire, to whichare presented offerings of meat, milk, bread, andfruit, in small quantities, and the juice of acertainplant, the Haoma, which is pressed out on the altarItself with many strictly prescribed ceremonies.The

THE PROPHET OF ERAN. 3 1Gathas are comprised in the Yasna, for no particularreason that one can see, and form twenty-five chap¬ters of it. It also contains forins of confession, in¬vocations, praise, exhortations, etc. These threedivisions, Vendidad, Vispered, Yasna are not re¬cited separately, but intermingled, as suits the. prog¬ress of the liturgy. When written' out in thisparticular liturgical order they form the Vendidad-Sadeh.IV. The YesHTS, hymns of praise, containingmuch interesting mythical matter, indeed distin¬guished altogether by a polytheistic and mythologi¬cal character entirely foreign to the early stages ofZarathushtra's religion, and cleariy showing a farlater and greatly corrupted period. These Yeshts,together with a few fragments, short prayers foreach day of the month and others, form the Khor¬deh or Lesser Avesta, perhaps held somewhat lessholy than the other three books, as not being inliturgical use at daily worship. It is to be notedthat, for the same reasons, very few of the Yeshtshave been translated into Pehlevi, so that scholars,in reading and rendering them, have the additionaldifficulty of being entirely unassisted by tradition.14. It will be seen from this brief review of itscontents, that we would vainly look in the Avestafor the cosmogonical legends which usually form apart of a nation's sacred lore, and which we find insuch abundance and richness in the sacred recordsof the Chaldeo-Assyrians and the Hebrews. Such ablank in our knowledge of so great a race as that ofEran would be an irreparable loss. Fortunately it is

32 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. 'in a great measure filled from sources which, if com¬paratively modern, are not devoid of authority, sincethey are beyond a doubt supplied from ancient tra¬ditions ; these sources are various books composinga voluminous Pehlevi literature, and all belonging tothe Sassanian period, but certainly containing muchof the material of which the lost books of the oldAvestan literature were made up, even though mod¬ernized and greatly transformed by ages of oraltransmission and altered conditions of culture.Chiefand foremost among these late growths of an ancientand much grafted stem is the BuNDEHESH, an inval¬uable collection of mythical and religious narratives,about the beginning of things, and also the endand regeneration of the world, the order that rulesthe universe, chapters of afanciful geography andastronomy clearly betraying the same mythicalorigin, scraps of national heroic epos, and evenphilosophical digressions.All these rather hetero¬geneous elements arc worked into asystem with asymmetry which detracts from the genuine worth ofthis compilation by giving it a too obviously arti¬ficial character. Where every thing is smoothedand ordered and fashioned to fit, wc may be surethat the original material is marred in the handling.Still, if the handling be modern, the material as cer¬tainly is old, as is, moreover, abundantly proved byvarious hints in the Avesta it.sclf, which become in¬telligible by the light of the Bundehesh.This iswhy, although this book by its date is far removedfrom the time which the present volurrie is meant to(nearly a thousand years later than the latest

THE PROPHET OF ERAN.33date It will reach), we could not, without referrin- toIt, attempt an intelligent and intelligible sketch ofthat ancient religion, the moral and philosophicalsides of which are mainly represented in the surviv¬ing books of the Avesta.As to the capital question : whether the prophetwho preached that religion to Eran was the inventorof It or only a reformer, .it is of a bearing too vast ofimport too profound, not to claim a separate chapter

in.ARYANMYTHS.1, In the first place, no religion is ever inventedany more than a language. The many and greatvarieties of both arc ticcounted for by growth andtransformation, in every case where searching inves¬tigation is brought to bear on sufficient materials,/. c., where we have knowledge enough to enable usto draw a conclusion capable of test and proof.The result is so invariable and uniform as to warrantan r^/r/^r/ conclusion of the same purport, wheneverwe have to deal with insufficient materials, i. e., wemay confidently foretell that, when we do gain moreknowledge, the results will necessarily agree withthose that have been attained in other similarcases.2. It, follows that man never really invents anything.At least not in the sense commonly given to, the word in our approximate every-day speech. Origi¬nally the word, which is a Latin one invenio,meant simply to " find," or more literally still, " tocome upon " something ;a most correct and preciseof the thing it stands for, since an " in¬vention " is always, in the beginning, an involuntaryact, an illumination of the mind.The inventor ac-34

ARYAN MYTHS. 35cidentally finds something, stumbles upon an idea,which, if his. gifts lie that way, he develops andworks out into something serviceable, or beautiful,or wise, and in its final form, new.But he in nocase, and in no sense, creates.Man never can pro¬duce any thing absolutely new, that never existed atall, in any shape whatever.He compares, arranges,combines, transforms, but he must have somethingto work upon. To use a homely but very pertinentsimile : the spinner, the weaver, the dyer, and theembroiderer produce articles of marvellous varietyin quality, texture, color, and design ;but they coulddo nothing had not the raw material been given in thefirst instance-the flax, or wool, or cotton, or silk.3. The question with which the preceding chapterclosed is virtually answered by what has just beensaid. Zarathushtra was a reformer. And as one ofthe chief facts about every new religion isits atti¬tude towards its predecessor, the religion from whichit sprang, and which it strives to supplant, the nextquestions that arise are these :What materials didthe master find ready to his hand? What did he re¬tain, what reject, what did he bring of his own ? Andwhat were the compelling influences that called for thework? An inquiry of this kind is something liketracing a river to its springs, hiven when the visiblefountain-head is reached high in the mountain wilds,there is much more to find out ; for many are therivulets that ooze their way through hidden under¬ground passages, that dribble and trickle throughspongeous stone and rocky rifts, until they reach thecommon gathering-point. And it is those unseen

36 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.rills and driblets, tinged and flavored by contactwith the various substances through which they pass,that determine the purity and wholesoraeness of thewaters which are to slake the thirst of thousands.4. We have hitherto been exclusively occupiedwith the thoughts and deeds of three out of thehalf dozen leading races of humanity. Of these,onethe Shumiro-Accads of Ch-aldea belonged tothe yellow, or Turanian, race ; the second the peo¬ples of Canaan to the much-mixed Hamitic stock;and the third Babylonians, Assyrians, and. Jewsto the Semitic division of the great white family.We saw the moral and intellectual characteristics ofeach reflected in their religions, while these againreacted on their destinies. The nations of Eran-,which in the course of history next claim our atten¬tion, belonging asthey do to our own division ofmankind, the Aryan or Indo-European race, presenta subject of study in many ways more congenial, andwc feel in far more direct sympathy with their spirit¬ual life, the workings of which, from our kinship ofblood and mind, we find it easy to follow and toshare.It is, however, scarcely possible, in dealingwith them, entirely to separate them from theirbrethren of India. These two Asiatic branches ofthe Aryan tree are so closely connected in their be¬ginnings, the sap that courses through both is soevidently the same life-blood, that a study of the onealmost necessarily involves a parallel study of theother. Wc must at all events pause here to attempta sketch of the conditions of Aryan life, from whichboth those branches originally drew their being.

ARYAN' MYTHS. 375. There was a time when Eranians and Hinduswere not yet, but the ancestors of both lived, an un--divided nation, in apleasant country, of which therace retained a dim but grateful remembrance in theshape of tradition, since God himself is made to sayin the Avesta :" The first of the good lands andcountries I created was the Airyana-Vaeja," i. e.,the "Aryan Home " (Vendidad, I.).How delightfulthis primeval home of the race was supposed to havebeen is further shown by this statement, attributedto God in the same passage :" I have made everyland dear to its dwellers, even though it had nocharms whatever in it ; had I not made every landdear to its dwellers, then the whole living worldwould have invaded the Airyana-Vaeja."It would ofcourse be vain attempting to locate this region, towhich remoteness of time has lent a mythical vague¬ness ;but on the whole it .seems most likely that theprimeval Aryas dwelt somewhere to the east of theCaspian Sea, in the hilly, wooded, and well wateredportions of the high tableland, from which streamsof emigrants could freely flow southward and west¬ward.were aIt is very probable that the Indo-E.ranianslarge division which, after separating fromthe main trunk and leaving the primeval Aryanhome, the Airyana-Vaeja, dwelt for many centuriesm another but not very distant region, until theirturn came, and they .split into the two great branches ,which were to .spread over the lands of India and of, 'Eran.6. Neither the Indo-Eranians nor their fathers,the primeval Aryas, have left monuments of any

38 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.kind from which wc might gather indications con¬cerning their mode of life and thought, their concep¬tions of the worid they lived in, and the powersthat rule it. But we have a collection of a littleover a thousand prayers or liymns, preserved by theAryan conquerors of India. This collection is thefamous Rig-Veda, one of the Hindus' four sacredbooks. It is the most andent of the four; and assuch, of the greatest value to us. A goodlyportionof the hymns are very old indee'd, and take us backto the eariiest times of Aryan occupation in thenorthwestern part of India, named from the riverIndus and its principal affluents, " the land of theSeven Rivers," now PenjAb, atimc probably not verymuch anterior to Zoroaster and the Gathas. As thesehymns beyond doubt embody no new ideas, butthose which the settlers had brought from their morenorthern homes, it is not difficult to reconstruct fromthem the simple creed of the Indo-Eranians, if notof the Aryas themselves, the creed from which tworeligions were to spring: Hindu Brahmanism andEranian Mazdeism, religions than which none candiffer more widely in scope and character, yet bearmore palpable signs of an original common source.7. At the very eariiest stage of their spiritual lifeat which we can reach them, the Aryas already ap¬pear far superior to the Turanians, as represented bythose eariy Shumiro-Accads, who have left suchample records of themselves. This is partly to beascribed to the difference of time, since Aryan an¬tiquity has nothing to show at all like the prodigiousdatesas high as 4000 B.C.authentically established

ARYAN MYTHS. 39 ,for Chaldea, and still more to difference of race.Ifthe Spiritism or goblin-worship of early Shumir andAccad have at some time necessarily been the religionof mankind in general, as the crudest, rudimentarymanifestation of the religious instinct inborn in man,some races took the step to a higher spiritual levelearlier than others, while those purely Turanianpeople who remained uninfluenced by foreign cul¬tures have scarcely taken that step even yet.'* Ourearliest glimpse of the Aryas shows them to us atthe stage which may be called that of pure natureworship,as developed by the particular conditionsof land and clime under which they were placed, andthe life, half pastoral, half agricultural, which theyled. The beneficent Powers of Nature the bright.Heaven ; all-pervading Light ; Fire, as manifested inthelightning, or the flame on the altar and thehearth ; the Sun in all his many aspects ; the kindlymotherly Earth ;the 'Winds, the Waters, the lifegivingThunderstorm ; all these were by themadored and entreated, as divine beings, gods. Theharmful Powers, far fewer in number, principallyDarkness and Drought, were fiends or demons, tobe abhorred, denounced, and accursed, never propiti-^ated and herein lay one of the chief differences be¬tween Aryan conceptions and those of Turanian andCanaanitic races. In the ideas of these latter thePowers that do evil to man are to be conciliated andinclined to mercy by prayer and sacrifice ; in thoseof the former they must be fought and vanquished,a duty which naturally devolves on their adversaries: ,'* See " Story of Chaldea," Ch. Ill,, " Turanian Chaldea,"

40 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.it is the natural business of Light to conquer Dark¬ness of Wind and Storm to gather the clouds drivenout of sight by the fiends of Drought, and to pourdown rain. Hence the Aryas' simple and manly at¬titude towards their deities: praise, thanksgivingand prayers for help, and a religion so plain andtransparent that a sketch of it can be given in a very\ '^There are few facts better established than this,-that the oldest known and most exalted Aryangod is Heaven, the luminous, the earth-enclosing.His name in the Sanskrit of the Rig-Veda-which isolder than that of any other Sanskrit literature isDy^US and, at a somewhat later period, Varuna.Both names originally are really common nounsand mean the same thing. For DyauS is the wordused in Sanskrit to designate the visible Sky, whileVARUNA, in a slightly altered form-OURANOS-tothis day means "Sky "or "Heaven m Greek._ Itis clear that these names carry us back to the prime¬val Aryan times, the times when those detachmentsdeparted which reached Europe in their wanderings.Althou-h the Indo-Eranian religion was franklypolytheistic, yet a certain supremacy seems to haveAttached to the Sky-god, and he is pre-eminently en¬titled, in the oldest portions of the Rig, both underthe name of Dyaus and that of VaruNA, Asura-" Lord " Varuna frequently also receives the epi¬thet of All-Knowing, Omniscient. The sun is hiseve Fire, in its celestial lightning form, is his son, andthe 'visible starry sky is his royal robe. Forhe is farfrom being a mere personification of a physical fact.

ARYAN MYTHS.4IHe is, on the contrary, endowed with the highestmoral attributes. He established heaven and earth ;he is the giver and keeper of the order and harmonywhich are the Law of the universe, the Cosmos, andwhich, transferred from the material to the spiritualand moral worid, becomes the Law of Righteousness,deviation from which is sin and the beginning of allwrong and confusion. Hence it is to Varuna thatexpressions of penitence and prayers for forgivenessareaddressed, for he is the punisher ; and the sinwhich he most detests is lying.9. The name of Varuna is coupled in a great manyinvocations with that of another bright being, MiTRA(/. e, " the Friend "), Daylight personified. The as¬sociation between them is so close, that they presentthemselves to the mind as an inseparable pair, Vdruna-Mitra,or Mitra-Varuna, who drive the samechariot, think the same thoughts. Together theyare the keepers of the Cosmic Order and the Law ofRighteousness, together they watch the deeds andthe hearts of men, equally all-seeing, all-knowing,and the sun is called the eye of Mitra-Varuna asoften as of Varuna alone. What more natural thanthis connection. Heaven and Daylight Mitra-Va¬runathe Luminous Sky? There are indications ofVaruna and Mitra having been associated with severalluminous deities of rank somewhat inferior to theirown (the Adityas), not only in the Indo-Eranian pe¬riod, but in the primeval Aryan period, and to haveformed with them a company of seven. The sacred¬ness and significance of this number is universal andlinspeakably ancient, and it will probably be traced

42 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.to primeval humanity before its first separation.One would be inclined to fancy that these sevenluminous beings were really only pale reflections ofVaruna-Mitra,'(they being the first of them), inventedfor the sake of the sacred number.IG. One of the many 01d-San.skrit names forLightning, the son of the Asura Varuna, is Athar-VAN, literally " he who has Athar." Sacred tradi¬tion has transformed this mythical Atharvan into ahigh-priest, first bringer of fire to men and institutorof sacrifice in the form of burnt-offering.There isto this day a large class of priests in Indiatho.sewho have the, special charge of the sacred and sacri¬ficial fires,who are called Acharvans, and traditionmakes them lineal descendants of that first mythicalhigh-priest, who on closer in.spection resolves himselfinto the Fire-god, the personified clement of Fire,descended from heaven in the shape of lightning,otherwise Athar, the son of Varuna. Athari inSanskrit means " flame "aiharyn (" flaming, blaz¬ing") is a frequent by-word for Agni = Fire. Atharcotisequently is one of the oldest Aryan names ofFire ; if not the oldest, for there is a Greek .wordwhich points farther back than the Indo-Eranianperiod. That word is athragcni, the name of aplant, a creeper, the wood of which was used in veryancient times to bring forth fire by friction. Inter¬preted, it can mean nothing but " what gives birth toAthar." It was obsolete already in the classicalGreek times, and the plant has never been identified.As to the sacredness of the element itself, it is asuniversal and primcvally ancient as that of the num-

ARYAN MYTHS. 43ber seven. It has always been the object of a pecul¬iarly fervent and, if one may say so, endearing wor¬ship, as the friend of man, who sits on his hearth,assists in his tasks, the substitute for the light ofday, for the warmth of the sun, the conqueror anddisperser of all evil things that lurk in darkness, ofphantoms and bad dreams,lastly as the messengerbetween the two worids, whose flames, leaping aloft,carry up to Heaven the prayers and offerings ofmen.II. In its original celestial form, as Lightning,Fire, the Son of Heaven, plays a prominent part inthe war which the bright Devas, the givers of light,life, and plenty, are forever waging with the demonsof Darkness and Drought, and the battle-ground ofwhich is the intermediate region between heaven andearth, the Atmosphere. It is in the poetical descriptionsof this warfare that the Aryan race displayedall its gifts of imagery, its exuberant epic genius. Theeternal conflict which to us is a series of meteoro¬logical phenomena, spiritualized only in rare poeticalmoods, and always consciou.sly, was to the eariyAryas, the most impressionable and imaginative ofraces, a thrilling drama carried on by living, super¬human beings, mighty for good or for evil. Orrather two distinct dramas, with two different pro¬tagonists. The two supreme goods, which give allthe others, are Light and Rain. The arch-enemiesof mankind are those powers that rob them of thesetreasures. Now the war with the fiends of Darknessand Night is comparatively a simple affair, which isnaturally left entirely to the Sun. Still, the inexhaug-

44 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.tible imagination of the Aryas filled it with a varietyof incidents replete with gorgeous or delicate poetry,creating that fund of Sun-myths to which fully onehalf of the stories and poetry of the world are trace¬able.This, however, is not the place to enter into astudy of them, for we are now in search of thesources of Eranian religion and epos, and the Sunmythsomehow never much caught the fancy of thatparticularly stern and practical race, and so is butfeebly reflected in its spiritual life.12. Far more complicated is the Storm-myth, thestory of the struggle for the waters of heaven ;farmore varied and exciting too, because, through itsmany stages and incidents to its culmination in thefinal battle-scene, the thunder-storm, the success oftenseems doubtful, the advantage frequently remains fora long time with the hostile powers, even though thevictory can never be theirs in the end.Numberlessare the wiles of the fiends to gain and keep posses¬sion of the waters, and desperate their acts of vio¬lence and resistance ; numberless also the shapesthey assumeand no wonder, since they are chieflythe personifications of different kinds of clouds.Forthere are clouds and clouds, and not all by any fneansbode or bring rain.If some generously pour downthe precious, pure liquid that is life and drink to theparched pining earth, others keep it back, wickedlyhide it, swell and spread with the treasure theycover and enclose, and will not give it up, untilpierced and torn asunder by the lightning spear ofthe angry thunder-god.This difference in clouds,which does not strike us except on reflection, su-

ARYAN MYTHS. 45perficial as our attention to the outer world hasbecome, could not escape the observation of peoplewho, so to speak, lived on nature's lap, whose sim¬ple mode of life fostered the closest, most watchfuldependence on her every mood, while the unparal¬leled vigor and fertility of their poetical fancy notonly suggested to them a thousand similes, as strik¬ing as varied, but .straightway transformed each. ofthese into a person and a story.Let us examinea few of these creations, in which one hardly knowswhat most to adinircthe childlike, naive simplicity,or their unfailing appropriateness. A very few, forthe reason expressed above, reserving a thoroughexploration of this veritable fairyland of our race'schildhood for another volume, to be devoted toancient India, where it bloomed m.oreluxuriantlythan in any other land.13. It must have been one of the earliest, becausethe most natural flights of fancy, which comparedthe light and fleecy clouds to herds of kine lazilymoving across space, as across a broad pasture, andpouring down their milkthe rain, to feed the earthand all living things. Somewhat more elaborate and .far-fetched, but still perfectly intelligible, is the poeti¬cal effort which likens them to graceful women.Wethus have the heavenly Water-Maidens, and the di¬vine Waters, wives of the gods, the Asuras, andmore especially of the Supreme Asura, Varuna.As such they are the mothers of Lightning, one ofwhose most sacred names is, very' consistently, " Sonof the Waters," APAM Napat. The fiends, there¬fore, who withhold the rain and bring on the earth

46 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the horrors of drought and famine, are, in rhythicalspeech, stealers of cows or of women.They eitherspirit them away altogether out of sight, or shutthem up in dark mountain caves, or in strongholdsbeing standing designations, in Aryan my¬thology, for the dark, lowering clouds which i-ise atthe end of the sky in the shape of mountain ridgesor fortress-walls, with battlements and towers.ThenIndKjV, the god of the thunderbolt, resplendent inhis golden armor, mounts his chariot, drawn by fleetdappled steedsthe racing clouds of the storm, to¬gether with his inseparable companion Vayu, thewind that ever moves in the heights of the atmos¬phere ; after them ride the troop of the strongStorm-Winds, and the battle begins.Not long canthe mountain or the fortress hold out against theironslaught. After repeated blows from Indra'sfiery mace, the rocks, the walls are burst open, thecows are brought forth and pour down their longedformilk ; or, if the other image be adopted, themaidens, the wives are delivered.14. But there is no end to the suggestiveness ofclouds, as whoever has spent idle hours at sea or inthe mountains watching them will nOtneed to betold.There is not a child who has not discoveredin the sky likenesses, animal shapes, fantastic formsof monsters and giants, landscapes, and cities.Toour Aryan ancestors the cloud that gave no rain wasthe most malignant of fiends ; it was to them Vritra,the "coverer" or "enfolder," and " KiUer of Vritra,"Vritrahanis the highest term of praise, themost triumphant title bestowed on the devas who sue-

ARYAN MYTHS. 47ceed in piercing. his shaggy hide, and letting out theimprisoned waters. This epithet became a specialby-word for Indra, as being the demon's most coiistantadversary, whose own particular weapon, thelightning-spear, alone can end the fray. Anotherand still'more popular cloud-demon is Ahi, "theserpent" who sits on the mountain and defies thedevas. It is the dark storm-cloud of many coils,which it slowly winds and unwinds on top of themountain,clouds banked up against the horizon.It is usually the indefatigable Indra who fights andkills him, and the story is told in a hundred moreor less dramatic versions in the Rig-Veda. Thissame serpent-fiend is one of the most active andubiquitous, and we find him again and again, in eposand story, in a variety of situatioils and combina¬tions, where his original nature as cloud- and stormdemonis forgotten.15. A notable peculiarity of the Aryan conceptionof nature, earthly and divine, is the extremely dig¬nified attitude apportioned to man in his relations tothe higher powers. As in every religion, prayer andsacrifice are required, but in a somewhat differentspirit : he does not passively entreat feivor, he in ameasure also grants it ; he is supposed to help hisbright devas in the good fight against the demons.His songs of praise and thanksgiving encourage them ;the sacrificial offerings to which he bids them asguests, and of which they partake as friends partakeof a feast in the house of a friend, increase theirvigor, just as food increases that of men ; above all,the drink-offering, the exhilarating Soma-juice, fills

48 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.them with glee, strength, and valor.Nay, they areactually dependent on it for victory, and would beunable to overcome the fiends were they not liberal¬ly supplied with the wonderful liquid.It is espe¬cially Indra who is said to consume enormous quan¬tities of it, after which his onslaught is irresistible.i6. The Indian SOMA is a plant with soft and flex-,ible stem, which contains a milky juice.This juice,being pressed out and allowed to ferment, gives anintoxicating liquor, the use of which at sacrifices isone of the very earliest customs of the Aryan race.It was poured into the fire, which burned the brighterfor the alcohol it contained, and the priests drank itthemselves, probably in quantities sufficient to feelthe intoxicating effects.Nothing extraordinary sofar.But the strange and distinctively Aryan featureof thisobservanipe is that the Soma plant and the Somajuice were not only held sacred, but actually wor¬shipped as a divine being, a god ; so that Soma cameto be not only one of the devas, but one of themightiest, most dread, and most beneficent.Thereis in the effect of stimulants, when used in modera¬tion, an elevating, exhilarating virtue which seems tohave struck the discoverers of the plant and its prop¬erties as supernatural. The strange light-heartedness,the temporary oblivion of cares and sorrow.s,the heightened vitality manifested in greater cour¬age, in loosened, eloquent tongue, nay, frequently inpoetical, even prophetical, inspiration, made themfeel transfigured, as by the presence of a foreignand higher element ; a god, they thought, must havedescended and entered into them, and that god

ARYAN MYTHS. 49dwelt in the consecrated plant of sacrificethe godSoma, the friend alike of gods and men,for in theircrude anthropomorphism they could not but imaginethat their devas would be affected in the same man¬ner as themselves, to a proportionately higher degree.So when they bade them to the sacrificial feast, theydid not forget to provide their due treat of Soma,and sent them, rejoicing and invigorated, to do bat¬tle against Vritra and Ahi and the cow-stealers withtheir bands of fiends.17- Great as is the power of prayer which is sup¬posed to help the deity, the Aryas went even fur¬ther: they imagined that in prayer, or rather in therecitation of certain prayers and sacred texts, lay aforce that could compel the devas' assistance, nay,almost their submission, and defeat the demons bytheir own inherent virtue. The Mantra (" SacredWord," text) thus became a weapon of attack anddefence against the demons, a weapon of irresistiblemight. At a late period of development, this ideaof the compelling power of prayer was carried to in¬credible lengths of absurdity, claiming nothing shortof omnipotence for certain peculiarly endowed mor¬tals ; but in its origin the notion has nothing impi¬ous or unnatural." Man's prayer," says one of ourmost eminent mythologists,* " is generally in accord¬ance to nature; he asks for rain in times of drought,and rain must follow on drought ; he asks for lightin darkness, and light i?tust come after darkness.Seeing that his prayer is invariably heard, he ascribesto it power to effect its object." The few other things* Darmesteter : " Ormazd et Ahriman," p.agc 114, note i,E

50 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.that the Aryas prayed and sacrificed for in thoseprimitive times,a numerous and healthy posterity,increase of cattle, health and long life for them¬selves, and victory in their wars with the natives ofthe countries they occupied,were the very thingsthat could not fail to come to them in the conditionsin which their life was passed, and with their superi¬ority of race So there was nothing to shake, andevery thing to confirm, their excessive faith; forman, unenlightened by scientific culture, conse¬quently believing in powers, not laws, is ever proneto admit rather supernatural than natural agencies. ,1 8. From this conception there was but one stepand not a wide one eitherto making of the hymn,the Sacred Text (Mantra), a Person, an independentdeity, to be individually invoked and adored, as be¬ing not only beneficent in a general way, but likeIndra, Soma, and other devas, essentially " demonkilling"^vritrahan. It is to be noted that, in orderto ins'lire its full power and effectiveness, the Mantrawas to be recited at the proper time, in the properway, with the proper intonations of voice, all strictlydetermined by rules ; rulesnumerous, complicatedand infinitely minutegoverning also every step ofthe sacrifice which usually accompanied the recitation.If these rules be perfectly complied with, the Mantra,the sacrifice wfll take effect, quite independently of thedisposition of mind of the worshipper. If departedfrom in the smallest particular, prayer and sacrificeboth are worse than useless-they most likely willact the wrong way and bring down disaster on theworshipper's head, though his soul maybe filled with

ARYAN MYTHS. 51the purest and most fervent piety.It is, therefore,safest for the layman not to meddle with these mat¬ters at all, but leave them in the hands of the pri-ssts,who are qualified by right divine to wield the spiritualpower, and will, if meetly remunerated, perform forthe layman the necessary ceremonies, instruct himas to his own sharein them, and see that he doesnot come to, harm, through ignorance or overofficiousness.19. It will be seen that so material a conceptionand use of prayer and sacrifice are more like con¬juring, i;i spirit andobject, than any thing else..They may be considered as a remnant, slightly trans¬formed, of that grossest and most primitive stage ofreligious consciousness which every race must startfrom, and which we saw amply illustrated in themost ancient practices and conjuring-feats of theShumiro-Accad sorcerer-priests. The old Aryas andIndo-Eranians had by no means shaken themselvesfree of this primitive materialism. The gods whomthey worship often bewilder us by their mixed nature,made up of material and spiritual attributes in sucha way as to make it very difficult to know where to 'draw the line. While at one time Varuna, Mitra,Agni, Soma, are beyond a doubt praised and invokedas the visible, material sky, light, fire, the plantthat is brought from the mountains, cut up andpressed, and as the fermented intoxicating beverage ;at others they are addressed as the most spiritualbeings and invested with the loftiest abstract proper¬ties: Varuna becomes the Lord that dwells in orabove the sky, whose robe the sky is, the lifter of

52 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.lies and the punisher of sins ; together with Mitra,all-seeing, all-knowing, he is the keeper of the Cos¬mic Order and the Law of Righteousness ; Soma isthe Healer, the giver of life and immortality, thegod of inspiration and heroism. This second, halfmaterial stage in the evolution of religious feeling,is closely matched in ancient Chaldea by the periodof those beautiful hymns to the Sun, to Fire, to theMoon, etc., which have been aptly compared withthose of the Rig-Veda.*20. A mythology so rich in dramatic incidentsand personages is a very hot-bed for the growth ofmythical epos, which every race creates for itself bythe simple trick of transferring the various scenes ofthe atmospheric drama, be it sun-myth or stormmyth,from heaven and cloud-land down to earth,transforming the gods into heroes, the Sun-maidensand Water-maidens into mortal women, the cloudcattleinto herds of real kine, and the demons intowild beasts or monsters, or giants and dragons.Each nation, of course, weaves into this commonfund of mythical romance the names and dimly out¬lined forms of its own ancient heroes, together withsuch circumstances of its real history as traditionhas preserved. Many are the divine champions of theAryan myth which reappear in such new garb in theepos of India and that of Eran, and consequentlymust have passed through the Indo-Eranian period.Of these semi-heroic, semi-divine myths, the mostimportant and interesting is that of Yama.21. Yama was originally one of the names of the«See " Story of Chaldea," Chapter III., from p. 170,

ARYAN MYTHS. 53setting sun, in the particularly sad and solemn as¬pect of the departing, dying god, which, however,contained the consoling suggestion of resurrectionand immortality.*He was the first to go the waythat all must go " to show the way to many,"in the language of the Rig-hymn.ually transformed into the first manHe was grad¬the first wholived, and, consequently, the first who died. Be¬ing the first to arrive in " the vasty halls of death," fhe becomes master and host there, receiving thosewho join him in succession, and, by a natural transi¬tion. King of the Dead.Then popular fancy goesto work to complete the transformation by pictureesque touches of appropriate detail, unconsciouslyborrowed from the same inexhaustible treasury ofmyth.So Yama is given two dogs, " brown, broadsnouted,four-eyed," whose business it is to go forthinto the world each day, to scent out those whosehour has come, and drive them like sheep to thedread king's presence.Yet King Yama is by nomeans an image of terror, but rather an auspi¬cious and gracious presence, as he sits with thegods in the highest heaven under the wide-spreadingtree the Cosmic Tree of Life, drinking the Somathat drops from its foliage, and surrounded by thePitris P"athers" e., the glorified souls of therighteous dead.22. For the Aryas held their departed relatives ingreat love and reverence, and did not believe thatthe mere fact of dying, going from the midst of his'* See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 337-339-f Matthew Arnold, in " Requiescat."

54 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.family, severed a man's connection with it.Each in¬dividual family honored its own Pitris, assembling atstated times to commemorate their earthly lives, byspeaking of them, calling to mind their deeds andgood qualities, invoking their j)rotection, and settingout for them offerings of simple foodmilk, andhoney, and cakes.Families on these occasions par¬took of a common meal, to which the supposed in¬visible presence of the Pitris lent a mysterioussolemnity. These commemorative festivals werethe strongest possible bond between the membersof each particular family, and the right to assist inthem was strictly limited and determined by customso sacred, that it became law and the standard forthe regulation of the right of succession.The Pitriswere supposed to be very powerful to do good orevil to their Descendants, but, on the other hand, todepend for their own happiness and comfort on theaffectionate remembrance of the living.23. It stands to reason that the remote ancestorsof a group of families connected by blood relation¬ship, i. e., of a clan or tribe, must have been reveredby all the branches of the clan ;that festivals on alarger scale must have beenkept in their honor,which were the occasions of general meetings of theclans, and kept alive the feeling of kinship and fellow¬ship. Such ancestors frequently became tribal heroes,fit subjects for story and song, which eked out what¬ever tradition had preserved of their real exploitswith mythical traits, the true import of which wassoon lost sight of.Such is the origin of most ofthose demigods, beings mortal yet more than human,

ARYAAr MYTHS. 55who crowd the borderland between myth and his¬tory, whose disembodied spirits were worshipped astutelary deities, and whose earthly careers, haloedwith the glory transferred to them from the divinechampions of Sky and Cloud-land, are the materialsout of which races weave their National Epos andHeroic Poetry. The Epos of Eran is rich with suchmythical heroes, and knows of whole dynasties ofthem, the reputed ancient kings of the race. But apresentation of them does not lie within the scopeof the present work. If some of them confront usand claim our attention, we shall account for theraas we go.

IV.ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTATIIEIR ALLEGORI¬CAL TRANSFORMATION.I. The myths of a race as apart and distinguishedfrom its religion being reducible to physical phe¬nomena, animated into personal life by poeticaland epic treatment,* necessarily convey some indica¬tions as to the physical conditions under which thatrace was placed. Now the influence of India on itspopulation is, on the whole, enervating, both as re¬gards climate and soil. The latter is very rich andproduces a great deal in exchange for very littlework ; the forests, indeed, abound in nourishmentfruits,and berries, and rootswhich grows wild, forman or beast, while the rivers are numerous andseldom dry up ; the larger ones, like the Indus andGanges, never. There is therefore, on one hand,little incentive to hard labor, and on the other, theneeds of men are few, as regards cither shelter, cloth¬ing, or food, owing to the climate, which is so hot asto make exertion unwholesome and a spare vegetablediet the only rational one. The Aryan conquerors,as they spread through the land and dwelt in it, sue-* See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 294, and ff.56

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA. '57curtibed to these' influences, lost much of their origi¬nal hardiness and active vigor, and were graduallytransformed into a ,raceof, physically,somewhat effemi-- , \..nate men, of dwin-;,',died stature and del-.^^-r'icate proportions, -,.- .in \yhoni leisure and^'-'Vhabitualidleness of . '"f:0;}' -^i%\, ^body developed an ^' O:;'^;^' ""extraordinary facultyfor spiritual con- . itemplationinordinateand anexuber¬ance of fancywhich two qualitiescombined give colorand tone to theirentiremythoiog}^'t'.V'f'* :' . ', '; rlifii;( -'"' 'jLI:' A . .'^ ' * .-- V.',:;» \-\' ,.-;^v - V : :-*i::^y-.^^, ;- - , .b,Oat/j

58 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.tioh, after taking them through pleasantlands ofhills and valleys and streams, of woods and pastures,little differing from their older home, and where theyfounded prosperous settlements and statesBactriabeing the chief of them,brought them to a regionof novel and forbidding aspect, aregion of sharpcontrasts, naycontraries, where nature seemed atwar with herself, and of which nothing could give amore vivid pictiu'e than an admirable page fromMax Duncker's " Ancient History," which we willproceed to borrow :" The centre of Eran was formed of avast desert ; to the north andsouth stretched far away arid tablelands ; the favored districts mightalmost be called oases.Immediately on the most fertile valleysand slopes bordered endless steppes ; blooming plains, denselyshaded by groves, were encompassed by sandy wastes. If themountainous countries of the northeast possessed the stateliest for¬ests, the richest pastures, the snow fell early, the winters weresevere.If the vegetation was most lu.xuriant along the edge of theCaspian Sea, sickness and venomous reptiles dwelt in the marshylowlands.The people of Eran suffered not only from the heat ofsummer, but also from the cold of winter ;the scorcliing winds ofthe desert were not more lo be dreaded than the snow-storms of thenorthern tablelands.Here pastures and cornfields were buried undersnow during many weeks ; there sand-drifts destroyed culture. Herethe camels died of cold and slipped down the icy steeps into preci¬pices ;springs.tliere the winds from the desert choked up the wells andHere was winter, " with the worst of its plagues," "coldfur ihe waters, cold for the eartli, cold for the trees " (Vendidad L,g-12), there the cattle were tortured by gadflies in the heat ;here bears and wolves invaded the herds,guarded against and the fiercer wild beasts.there snakes had to beLife was in this land afight against heat and against cold, afight for the preservation ofthe flocks ; and as soon as single tribes had begun to settle in themore favored districts, and to attend to agriculture, it became alight against the desert and drought.Here the dry soil had to be

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA. 50supplied with water ; there the crops had to be protected against thehot winds and sand drifts from the desert.To these hardships andcontrasts of nature must be added the contrast between the popula¬tions.Most of the native tribes of the central laljleland, and manyof those who held the suiTounding highlands, were debarred by thenature of the country from leading any life but that of nomadicherdsmen.To this day a great portion of the population of Eranconsists of nomads.So while the settlers labored lustily, in thesweat of their brow, the others roved about idly with their flocks.There could be no laclc of raids into the agricultural districts, ofplundering and robbing." *3. The influences which such conditions of lifemust perforce have exerted on a naturally gifted andhigh-spirited race,brave, doughty, and robust, areincalculable. It is entirely owing to them that theEranians became what we find them at their entranceon the stage of history a people of most noblepresence, of manly beauty of the heroic cast, indom¬itable fighters, earnest and honest of mind, of aserious and practical turn, far more given to the workof life than to its graces and amenities, who thoughtagriculture and cattle-raising the highest and holiestof occupations, and art a very secondary matter, inwhich, indeed, they reached proficiency only at avery late jieriod, and that as imitators. It is evidentthat their moral and religious sense must have beenvastly modified and shaped by the same influences.It was deepened in one particular channel, intensi¬fied in one particular direction. The strife whichpervaded their existence in the land which they hadmade their own, became to them the main fact ofnature generally, pervading the whole creation. Theopposition between Light and Darkness, and, conse-* " Geschichte des Alterthums," Vol. IV., pp. 105 and ff.

6oMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.quently, between the powers of Light and Darkness,the gods and the demons,is a prominent groundfeatureof the primeval Aryan conception of nature,as of every primitive religion in the world.Withthe Eranians that opposition became the one funda¬mental law, to the absorption and almost exclusionof the many picturescjue mythical details and incidfcntswith which the poetry of other Aryan nationsis adorned to overloading.The hard struggle for alife hedged in with dangers, crowded with hardshipsand difficulties, had weaned them from the idlingcontemplation, the toying wifh fancies and images,which is the essence of a myth-making poetry. Theydrew the great Battle-Myth down- to the earth, andembodied it in the contrasts with which their ownland teemed, thus preparing the way for the dualismwhich is the keynote of their national religion.4. There was no need of inventing new symbols toexpress this tendency.It was sufficient to empha¬size the conflict, which formed the groundwork ofthe oldest Aryan mythical religion. The ancientSky-god and his everlasting foe, the Cloud-Serpentthe Obscurer of Light,became the chief persons inwhom all good and all harm were embodied, andgradually drove the other mythical agents into thebackground. As we trace the ancient myths inwhat is left us of the Avesta, we are struck with thegreat development given to the spiritual meaning ofthem, which, in the sister race of India, is only occa¬sional and subordinate, the physical significance de¬cidedly predominating.5. Thus we shall have some difficulty at first in

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA. 6lidentifyingAhurA-Mazda, the supreme God, theCreator of the world and of the other gods, the masterof all, the inspirer and maintainer of holiness andrighteousness, such as he appears throughout theAvesta, with the old Aryan sky-godsDyaus andVaruna.It is only long and attentive study, bring¬ing out little touches scattered through the texts, fev/and far between, that enables, us to trace this grandspiritual conception to its first physical source.Andwhen these touches are found, they are such as toplace the original identity beyond a doubt.The veryname of the one is a combination of titles given tothe other.The Sanskrit AsuRA becomes, by thelaw of Eranian pronunciation, Ahura,* with thesame sense of " Lord."And of all the by-namesgiven to Varuna, that of " omniscient, all-knowing,"was adopted asone of the names of the DeityMazda. Thus "Ahura-Mazda " literally means "theLord of great knowledge."The material attributeswith which he is invested at once betray his origin.In one of thoseconversations with Zarathushtra,which are the accepted form of revelation through¬out the Avesta, he is made to say :" I maintain that sky there above, .shining and seen afar, and en¬compassing the earth all around.It looks like a palace that standsbuilt of a heavenly substance, firmly established, with ends that lieafar, shining in its body of ruby over the three worlds ;it is like agarment inlaid with stars, made of a heavenly substance, tliatMazda puts on . . . and on no side can the eye perceive theend of it.-|-* There is the same exchange of letters in Greek and Latin : Greekhepta = Latin septem (seVen) ; Greek herpeton = Latin serpens, etc.\ Yesht XIIL

62 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.To whom but a sky-god can this magnificent de¬scription apply? aside from the star-broidered gar¬ment, which also belongs to Varuna. (See p. 40.)The sky is also poetically called his body, and so heis said to be " the one of all whose body is the mostperfect," " the finest of body," and homage is paidto his " most beauteous body," we worship hisentire body." Still more conclusive is the text inwhich homage is paid to " the resplendent Sun, theeye of Ahura-Mazda " * (See pp. 40,41)- Atar, Fire(originally the celestial FireLightning ; see pp. 40,42), is invariably spoken of and addressed as " Son ofAhura-Mazda," alone of all the Yazatas or " divinebeings," while the Sacred Waters are invoked in ahymn as follows :" We worship this earth which bear,=; us together with thy wives,O Ahura-Mazda ! . . ."" O ye Waters ! we worship you, you that are showered down,and you that stand in pools and vats, ye female Aliuras (Ahtminisof Ahura), that serve us in helpful ways, well-forded and fullflowing.. . ." (See pp. 45, 46-)Lastly his name is joined with that of MiTHRA, thepure Daylight (of whom more anon), in a manner andwith a persistency which makes the couple correspondexactly to the Varuna-Mitra of the Rig-Veda: (Seep. 41.) "I announce and complete my sacrifice tothe two, to Ahura and to Mithra, the lofty, and theeverlasting and the holy" (Yasna I., n); " I desire:;o approach Ahura and Mithra with my praise, thelofty, eternal, and the holy two" (Yasna II., n).And before the battle the worshipper addresses to* Yasna L, II.

ARYAN MYTHS IN TIIE AVESTA. 63the divine couple the following poetical invocation ;" May Mithra and Ahura, the high gods, come to usfor help, when the poniard lifts up its voice aloud "(by clashing with another), " when the nostrils of thehorses quiver, when the strings of the bows whistleand shoot sharp arrows. . . ." It is most instruc¬tive thus convincingly to trace out step by step theproofs of the material and mythical origin of thegreat Eranian God, then to follow the process ofevolution which raised him into the loftiest, purest,most immaterial abstraction. But we must leavehim awhile before the race's religious consciousnessreaches that highest point, to follow up more tracesor transformations of Aryan myths in the Avesta.It will be pleasantest to seek the gods in theirluminous homes, and, to find our way thither, weshall have to look up a bit of celestial geography.6. Far away in the East, beyond the ridges thatrise in tiers upon tiers, marking the stations of therace's immemorial migrations, in its descent into theplains of later Ariana, is the Holy Mountain, theHarA-Berezaiti (" Lofty Mountain "), known in thePehlevi period and to the Parsis in the corruptedform of Alborj. It. rises from the earth, beyondthe sphere of the stars and that of the sun, into thesphere of Endless Light, Ahura-Mazda's own, wherehe dwells in the " shining Garo-NMANA" (" the Abodeof Song").This is the Mother of Mountains; althe.2,244 mountains that are on the earth havegrown out of it, and it is "connected with the sky."Its summit is bathed in eternal glory and is a seatof everlasting bliss." There come neither night nor

64 .MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.darkness, no cold wind and no hot wind, no deathfulsickness, no uncleanness made by the Daevas (de¬mons), and the clouds cannot reach up unto theHaraiti-Bareza." It has several notable peaks. Thatof Taera is the centre of the world and around itthe stars, the moon, and the sun revolve.Hencethe hymn:" Up ! rise and roll along, thou swift-horsed sun, above Ilara-Berczaiti, and produce light for the world, and mayest thou, O man !rise up there " (if thou art to abide in Garo-nmana)"along the pathmade by Mazda, along the way made by the gods, the watery waythey opened."("Watery " because of the clouds.)" Up 1 rise up, thou moon . . . rise up above Hara-Berezaiti "(the rest as above)."Up! rise up, ye stars . . . rise up above Hara-Berezaiti"(the rest as above).(Vendidad XXI.*)7. At the foot of the celestial part of the Hara,towards the south, stretches the Sea Vouru-Kasha,which is no' other than the old Aryan " heavenlyocean" or cloud-reservoir of the waters which de¬scend on the earth as rain.The same hymn con¬tains an invocation to the Waters, which shows a re¬markable comprehension of the continual interchangeof moisture between the sky and earth :" As the Sea Vouni-Ka,sha is the gathering place of waters, rise up,* Alborj, still further modified into Elburz, became the nanie ofan earthly mountain range, that which skirts the southern coast of theCaspian,This is a patent instance, of a proceeding familiar to allnations when they reach the stage of transition from myth to reality :that of transferring mythical, heavenly geography to eartha pro¬ceeding which goes hand in hand with the transformation of godsand myths into epic heroes and mythical legend.The Elburz, withits towering peak, Mt. Demavend, is shrouded, in the Eranian'seyes, with a mysterious sacredness and awe ; it is the scene of varioussuperhuman adventures in the Eranian Epos,

Aryan myths in the avesta. 65go up the aerial way and go down on the earth ; go down on the earthand go up the aerial way. Rise up and roll along ! "This sea is, moreover, everlastingly replenished bythe bountiful flow of the celestial spring Ardvi-SuraAnahita, which rushes from the peak Hukairya, ofthe Hara-Berezaiti, and supplies all the rivers of theearth with pure, abundant, and wholesome waters:" The large river, known afar, that is as large as the whole of thewaters that run along the earth ; that runs powerfully from the heightof Hukairya down to the sea Vouru-Kasha. All the shores of the seaVouru-Kasha are boiling over, all the middle of it is boiling over, whenshe runs down there. ..."And the waters of this same celestial sea everiastinglyfeed and protect the Tree of Life and Immor¬tality, the White Haoma or Gaokerena, whichGod himself planted on " high Haraiti " (the sameas Hara-Berezaiti), and placed in the centre ofVouru-Kasha together with another divine treewhich contains the seeds of all the plants thatgrow on earth. Of this heavenly and immortalHaoma (Aryan Soma), the Haoma that grows inthe mountains of Eran and from which is pressedthe golden-colored liquor used at sacrifices is theearthly representative, and from it derives its heal¬ing and " death-removing " properties. As for theseeds of the plants, they are carried down to earthby the rain. The summits of Hara-Berezaiti beingthe abode of the gods, who have their several man¬sions there, it is but right that there also should bethe store-houses of the choicest blessings which thegods bestow on men the waters and vegetation.8. Anthropomorphism, in its most direct, rank-

66 media, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.est form, is the very essence of Indo-Eraman andlater Hindu speculation, so that, among the Aryas ofIndia, Mythology entirely outgrew and, during a longperiod of time, almost smothered Religion.* In thesober, earnest-minded sister race, the tendency wasall the other way from anthropomorphism to spirit¬ual abstraction. Therefore Aryan divinities whenthey turn up in the Avesta, generally retain only a fewcharacteristic features, while the mythical exuberanceof incident and description is greatly cut down. Thuswe saw the Sun entitled the "swift-horsed." Thatthe Sun has a chariot and horses is an understoodthing ever since poetical forms of speech first beganto crystallize into myths. Eran retained the stand¬ing by-word, without, however, playing on it the in¬finite variety of changes which we shall find in theRig-Veda on this one theme. There is only oneshort, insignificant yesht (hymn) to the " undying,shining, swift-horsed Sun," and all the worshipperfinds to say in praise of it is the matter-of-fact re¬mark that its light purifies creation, and that, shouldit not rise up, the daevas (demons) would destroyall things and the heavenly Yazatas (good spirits)would find no way of withstanding or repelling them.Again the Dawn opening the gates of heaven andpreceding the Sun on her golden chariot drawn byfleet horses, is an image as old as the first attemptsat imaginative poetry and the theme of a hundredstories, for, in her character as the fairest of heavenlymaidens, she is the favorite heroine of Aryan naturemyth.The Eranian has preserved only the shortest* See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 331-334-

ARYAN myths IN THE AVESTA. 6/and driest mention of her, in a prayer to be recitedat break of day, and where she is called " the beau¬tiful Dawn, the shining, of the fleet and glitteringhorses," and is said to wake men to their work andto give light within the house.9. Far more accentuated and developed is themythical individuality of the Eranian Mithra, whenseparated from his original companion.One of, thelongest and finest hymns (Yesht X.) is devoted tohim.In order to fully comprehend the mythicaltraits in it, it must be borne in mind that Mithra,like his Aryan namesake, is Light, the pure light ofda)', which fills the space apart from the splendor ofthe sun, whence his standing surname " lord of widepastures " (heavenly .space) ;whence also he is saidboth to precede the sun at his rising iind to followhim after his setting ;he is the morning and eveningtwilight, the dawn and the gloamintr:"llie first of the heavenly gods who reaches over tlie Hara, be¬fore tlie undying, swift-horsed sun ; who foremost, in golden array,takes liold of the beautiful suniniits, and from thence looks with abeneficent eye over the abodes of the Aryans, where the val¬iant chiefs draw up their many troops in array, where thehigh mountains, rich in pastures and waters, yield plenty tothe cattle ; where the deep lakes with salt waters stand ; wherewide-flowing rivers s^vell and hurry. . . ." Who goes over tlie earth, all her breadth over, after the settingof the sun, touches both ends of this wide, round earth, whose endshe afar, and surveys every thing that is between the earth and theheavens." He who moves along all tlie Karshvars,* a Yazata unseen, andbrings glory. ... ,^ ^"^ ^'irth is divided into seven regions or Kakshvars, of whichEran is the largest and central one.

68 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA." For whom the Maker, Ahura-Mazda, has built up a dwelling onthe Hara-Berezaiti, the bright mountain around which the manystarsrevolve, . . . and he surveys the whole of the materialworld from the Haraiti-Bareza. . . .' ' With his arms lifted up towards Immortality " (towards the abodeof the Immortals), " Mithra, the lord of wide pastures, drfves forwardfrom the shining Garo-nmana, in a beautiful chariot . . , wroughtby the Maker, Ahura-Mazda, inlaid with stars and made of a heav¬enly substance. . . ." Four stallions draw that chariot, all of the same white color,living on heavenly food, and undying.The hoofs of their fore-feetare shod with gold ; the hoofs of their hind-feet are shod withsilver ; all are yoked to the same pole, and wear tlie yoke, and thecross-beams of the yoke are fastened with hooks of metal, beauti¬fully wrought. . . ."lO.Mithra, being in his essence Light, is the nat¬ural foe of the daevas,z.c., the fiends of Darkness,who flee from before him in fear, or fall under thestrokes of his never failing weapons ;he is the pro¬tector and rescuer of the heavenly cattle which thedemons are forever stealing and driving into theirrobber holds.This most primeval of Aryan mythsis reproduced with beautiful entirety in a verse ofMithra's Yesht."The cow driven astray invokes him for help, longing for thestables When will that Bull, Mithra, the lord of wide pastures,bring us back and make us reach the stables ? When will he turnus back on the right way from the den of Druj (a name for" demon ") whither we were driven ? "He is therefore essentially a warrior, the mightiestof warriors, and a patron of warriors, who gives vic¬tory in a righteous cause :"A warrior, -with a silver helm, a golden cuirass, who kills withthe poniard, strong, valiant; ... the warrior of the white

ARYAN- MYTHS IN THE AVESTA.6ghorse, of the sharp, long spear, the quick arrows, , . . WhomAhura-Mazda htis establi.shed lo maintain and look over all thismoving worid, , , , wlio, never sleeping, wakefully guards thecreation of Mazda, , . , he who stands up upon the earth asthe strongest of all gods, the most valiant, the most energetic, theswiftest of all gods, the most fiend-smiting of all gods,"II. So much for the obviously physical part of themyth. The transition to the spirituak side is won¬derfully easy and logical. MiTHRA IS LiGHT, ANDLight is all-pervading ; therefore Mithra isALL-SEEING AND ALL-KNOWING ; Ahura Mazda ravehim a thousand senses and ten thousand eyes to see,he is the undeceivable watcher of men ; or else hehas ten thousand ears and ten thousand spies.Mithra is Light, and Light is Truth, andTruth is Good. The Daevas are Darkness,and Darkness is Lie, and Lie is Evil. Thismo.st simple and primary conception, perhaps theonly absolutely universal one, and, in all probability,the very first, because the most obvious, equationbetween the Visible and Invisible that occurred tothinking man all the worid over, at once transfers thestruggle, the championship, and the victory from thematerial into the .spiritual worid. He who is theLight of Absolute Truth is of his nature the foe anddestroyer of Deceit, and Faithlessness, and Wrong,and all the evil brood of Darkness, and, as a practi¬cal application, the protector in open warfare of allwhose cause is righteous, and, above all, the supremeguardian of covenants and punisher of bad faith.He who eludes or breaks the bonds of a contract isa " deceiver of Mithra,"but Mithra is " the Unde¬ceivable," his wrath and the curse of all good men ig

70 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.sure to light on the foolish evil-doer, whom he routsand.paralyzes: *"On whatever side there is one who has lied to Mithra, on thatside Mithra stands forth, angry and offended, and his wrath is slowto relent. Those who lie unto Mithra, however swift they may berunning, cannot outrun him ; riding, cannot outride him ; driving,cannot outdrive him. The spear that the foe of Mithra flings dartsbackward ; . . . and even though it be flung well, even thoughit reach the body, it makes no woundthe wind drives away thespear that the foe of Mithra flings. . . . He takes away thestrength from their arms, the swiftness from their feet, the eye-sightfrom their eyes, the hearing from their ears. . . . He givesherds of oxen and male children to that house wherein he has beensatisfied ; he breaks to pieces those in which he has been offended.Sad is the abode, unpeopled with children, where dwellmen who have lied unto Mithra. . . . The grazing cow goes asad, straying way, driven along the vales of the Mithra-deceivers ;they stand on the road, letting tears run over their chins. ..."This is why Mithra is said to be " both good andbad to men, to keep in his hands both peace andtrouble for nations." He stands a watchful guardianof the covenant, spoken or unspoken, which rulesthe relations between friends and kindred, betweenpartners, between husband and wife, master andpupil, father and son, between nations." The man without glory, led astray from the right way, thinks thusin his heart : ' That careless Mithra does not see all the evil that isdone, nor all the lies that are told.' But I think thus in my heart :' Should the earthly man hear a hundred times better, he would nothear so well as the heavenly Mithra, who has a thousand senses andsees every one that tells a lie.' "Nor is the faithful observance of contracts, or" Story of Chaldea." p. 171.

ARYAA^ MYTHS IN THE AVESTA.7Ipromises confinedto fellow-Mazdayasnians ("wor¬shippers of Mazda "). It is expressly said :" Break not the contract, neither the one that thou hadst enteredinto with one of the unfaithful, nor the one that thou hadst enteredinto with one of thy own faith.For Mithra stands both for the faith¬ful and for the unfaithful." *12. A spirited picture is that which the greatYesht brings before us, of Mithra going forth in hisheavenly chariot, escorted by his helpers and friends,to do battle against the Powers of Evil and theirhuman followers :"His chariot is embraced and uplifted by Holiness ; the Law ofMazda opens a way, that he may go easily ; four heavenly steeds,white, shining, seen afar, beneficent, endowed with knowledge,swiftly carry him along the heavenly space. ... At his right handdrives the good, holy Sraosiia (Obedience to the Law of Mazda) ;at his left drives tlie tall and strong Rasiinu (Uprightness, Jus¬tice) ; on all sides of him . . . the Fravashis of the faithful(the Spirits of the Departed). . . . Behind him drives Atar (Fire),all in a blaze. . . ."Before him and close by him run two dread be¬ingsVerethraghna (Victory), and the " StrongCursing Thought of the Wise," both described inidentical words as wearing the shape of a " sharptoothed,sharp-jawed boar, that kills at one stroke,pursuing, strong and swift to run, and rushing for¬ward." Mithra is well armed for the fray".Swinging in his hands a club with a hundred knots, a hundrededges, that rushes forward and fells men down ; a club cast out ofred brass, . . . the strongest of all weapons, the most victorious ofall -H'eapons."It IS noteworthy that mithra at la,st becomes a common notin,meaning "contract," and used as such in every-day speech.

72 " MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.His chariot, too, is a well-supplied armory :thereare a thousand bows with their arrows, vulturefeathered,with golden points; a thousand spearsand as many steel hammers ;a thousand two-edgedswords and as many maces of iron. All theseweapons are described as " well-made," and as " go¬ing through the heavenly spaces and falling on theskulls of the daevas." It would seem, from the wayit is put, that they fly of their own accord, self-sped,to do havoc on the fiends.Such self-acting divineweapons are very plentiful in the Aryan mythologyof India. Wefl may the worshipper exclaim : " Oh 1may we never fall across the rush of Mithra, thelord of wide pastures, in his anger ! "13. This picture of a god riding to battle, with afull description of his armor, his chariot, his bandof followers, etc., is a thoroughly Aryan one.Each Aryan god has his own "turn-out," and notone is passed over in the Rig-Veda. The anthropo¬morphism of the conception is rank. But in thecase of the Eranian Mithra, it presents a featurecharacteristic of the race, and which, in its develop¬ment, caused a complete revolution. It will havebeen observed that the followers of Mithra are nomythical persons, i. c., no phenomena of natureturned into persons ; but, consistently with the spirit¬ual transformation of the myth, they are abstractideas, or moral qualities personified : Holiness, Up¬rightness, Obedience to the religious Law ; lastly,the " Curse of the Wise." This is not Myth it isAllegory, and one such instance is sufficient toillustrate the difference between the two notions and

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA. 73the meaning of the two words.In one of Mithra'sband, Myth and Allegory meet, or rather it is shownhow easily and smoothly Myth can glide into Allegory.Verethraghna, the geniusof Victory, is certainlyan allegorical personage, an abstract idea which acapital initial converts into a person ;for the wordverethragna is a common noun which means " vic¬tory."But that word itself has a mythical import,being none other than the Eranian transliteration ofthe "vritrahdn" (" Vritra-killer ") of the Rig-Veda,the title of honor given to various "fiend-smiting"deities, but most frequently to Indra, the championdemon-killer of them all. (See p. 46.) This originalmeaning must have been quite forgotten before thename changed into a common noun meaning "vic¬tory" in general, and became personified once more,no longer mythically, but allegorically.14. This tendency to close the eyes to the evervaryingplay of physical nature and turn them in¬ward, to the contemplation of high moral abstrac¬tions, till these seem almost tangible realities, is theindication of a very serious mind and the key to thetransformation which the myth-religion of the an¬cient Aryas underwent at the hands of their-sternerEranian descendants. The most notable instance ofsuch allegorical transformation is that practised onAhura-Mazda himself. The original identity withthe old sky-god once having subsided out of sight,preserved only in a few traditional and unconsciousforms of .speech, his spiritual nature became the sub¬ject of earnest and profound speculation. Theysought to express his various attributes by a variety

74 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.of names,such as " Perfect Holiness," " Creator,",or " Maker of the material worid," " Keeper andMaintainer," the Best of Sovereigns," " the Bestowerof Health," "All-Weal," " He who does not deceiveand is not deceived," etc. ; lastly, " the BeneficentSpirit," SpentA-Mainyu, a name which is used pref¬erably to all others, as fully designating his essenceand nature, and opposing him to the Other One,the Spirit of Evil.Certain qualities and propertiesseemed especially to belong to him, or to be awardedby him, such as (i) good thoughts, (2) perfect holi¬ness, (3) excellent sovereignty, (4) piety, (5) health,(6) immortality ; and by dint of being prayed /or, asAhura-Mazda's^?//.?, came to be prayed to, as his min¬istering spirits, created by him. This, the inevitableanthropomorphic tendency asserting itself, broughtabout oneMazdeism,of the most characteristic institutions ofthe heavenly council of the BountifulImmortals, the Amesha-Spentas (the Amsiia-SPANDS or archangels of the modern Parsis). Theyare seven in number, Ahura-Mazda being one ofthem, though he is said to have created the others.When they areinvoked or referred to, it is oftenquite difficult to distinguish whether their names areused in their literal sense or as persons.The former,however, is most frequently the case in the earliestperiod, that of the Gathas, where the allegory isalways very transparent. It is only in time that ithardens into solid personifications, when the Amesha-Spentas are not only separate and individual spirits,but have certain clearly defined functions assignedto them in the general guardianship of the world.

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA. 7515. Before avc examine into the nature of theAmesha-Spentas as a body and their relations totheir chief and maker, it will be well to review themindividually, specifying their original meaning andlater development.1st. Ahura-Mazda, Sperita-Mainyu, the Benefi-,cent Spirit, uncreated, "creator of all things."2nd. Vohu-Mano,the "Good Mind" or "Be¬nevolent Mind "that state of mind which is con¬ducive to peace and good-will toward men generally,and gives the wisdom of moderation, of conciliation.At a later period he became the protector of cattle,cattle-raising being an essentially peaceful and kindlyavocation, which, moreover, can prosper only intimes of peace.3rd. Asha-Vahishta," Best " or " Perfect Holi¬ness," that conforms in every particular, " in thought,in word, and in deed," to the law of Mazda, espe¬cially as regards religious observances ;later the pro¬tector of Fire, as the embodiment of Purity and Wor¬ship, of ritual and priestly functions ; in reality theLaw itself, the Order which rules the world.4th. Kiishathra-Vairya, - " Excellent Sover¬eignty," the power which comes from God, andtherefore is beneficent, merciful, and the guardian oforder and law.Becomes the protector of mctal.s,possibly because royalty has always been in the habitof reservingto itself the wealth drawn from theearth, especially gold and silver.5th. Spenta-Armaiti, " Holy Piety," patientand humble simple-mindedness. Also Earth person¬ified, or the Spirit of Earth, and that at a very early

76, MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.period, as early as the Gathas. The only femaleAmesha-Spenta, whose sex, name, and attributionsare easily explained asa reminiscence of a rathermisty Aryan deity, whom we find in the Rig-Vedaunder the name of Aramati, and who, like herj'ounger Eranian namesake, personifies both theEarth and the virtue of devotion.6th and 7th. Haurvatat and Ameretat," Health and Immortalitj'," a divine couple almostnever mentioned or invoked separately, and who, by aprocess at once logical and poetical, remained closelyunited in the functions assigned to them in the ma¬terial world,that of guardians of the waters andthe plants on earth.The wholesomeness of purerunning water, both in itself and as provoking andfostering vegetation, and its healing properties, nat¬urally commended it to the care of the Genius ofHealth ;while the trees and plants, with their latentandever-replenished vitality, have always been ameet symbol of immortality.And one must havetravelled or lived in lands of drought and barrenness,where the course of the tiniest streamlet is markedbyits fringe of verdure or foliage, sometimes nowider than itself, where not a .spring or well but is.shaded by its palm or plane tree, fully to realize theaptness of the conception which unites the runningwater and the growing plant into the inseparablecouple, " Haurvatat and Ameretat," who arealsosaid to give food its rich and pleasant taste.16. It is quite evident from several passages thatthe Amesha-Spentas were originally one with Ahura-Mazda, who, on being asked by Zarathushtra which

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA.pof all holy words is the strongest, the most effective,the most fiend-smiting, replies :"Our Name, O Spitama Zarathushtra! who are the Amesha-Spentas,that is the strongest part of the Holy Word, that is themost victorious, that is the most glorious, the most effective, themost fiend-smiting, that is the best-healing. . . ." (Yesht I.)The most decisive evidence iscontained in thefollowing passage :". . . The luminous ones, . . . who are all seven of onethought, who are all seven of one speech, who are all seven of onedeed, . . . whose fither and commander is Ihe same, namely,the Maker, Ahura-Mazda. ^Vllo see one another's souls, thinkingof good thoughts, tliinking of good words, thinking of good deeds,thinking of Garo-nmana, and whose ways are shining. Who are themakers and governors, the shapers and overseers, the keepers and])reservers of the creations of Ahura-Mazda. . . ." (YeshtsXIIL and XIX.)The lines in italics have clearly been added whenthe conception of Mazda's supremacy had reachedthe height of an almost absolute monotheism, andno Power or Being could be allowed to exist whowas not created by him, even though they share theact of creation with him. In the same spirit Ahura-Mazda, in one hymn, is made to present the Immor¬tals to his prophet, singly and by name, tlius : " Hereis Vohu-mano, my creature, O Zarathushtra ! Hereis Asha-Vahishta, my creature, O Zarathushtra,"etc. (Yesht I.) It is in consequence of the sameafterthought that he is made to say of Mithra,originally as much his companion and equal as theAryan Mitra is of Varuna : " Verily, when I createdMithra, lord of wide pastures, I created him asworthy of sacrifice, as worthy of prayer, as myself,

78 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.Ahura-Mazda."Thus again, and consistently withwhat gradually became the leading idea of Mazdeism,the name of every god, however jDowerful, howeverexalted and reverenced, is frequently accompanied, asa reminder, by the epithet " created by Ahura."Therefore it is that all the " created " gods ceased intime to be thus styled, and, together with all benefi¬cent .spirits, were gathered under the designation ofYazatasthe Yzeds, Angels, of the modern Parsis.Mithra, Verethraghna, Sraosh.a, Atar, etc., are Ya¬zatas ;so are the Sun, the Moon, and all good spirits,whether representing natural forces or abstractions.Their number is unlimited:"'When the light of the sun waxes warmer ; . . then upstandthe heavenly Yazatas, by hundreds and lliousandsthey pour its glory upon the earth made by the Ahura."They all dwell in the Endless Light, eternal and un¬created, "the Garo-nmana, the abode of Ahura-Mazda, the abode of the Amesha-Spentas, the abodeof all the other holy beings."17. As Ahura surely was himself, once on a time,the original one " Bountiful Immortal," so this titlewas probably bestowed on other beneficent beings,before the ancient sacredness of the number seven,and, possibly a dim reminiscence of the AryanAdityas, of whom Varuna was the chief, (see p. 41)confined it to Ahura and his six doubles. In onepassage Atar is called " the most helpful of theAmesha-Spentas," but it is a solitary, queer survival.His proper titles are, ." Son of Ahura-Mazda " and" most great Yazata." As the one who is nearest toman, who sits on his hearth, the kindly bond of family

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA. 79and state, he is addressed and spoken of with a res¬pectful tenderness, an affectionate familiarity, whichis sometimes very pretty in its naivetd."Atar, the son of Ahura-Mazda,. lifts up his voice to all those forwhom he cooks their evening meal and their morning meal.Fromall those he wishes a good offering. . . . Atar looks at thehands of all those who pass by :' What does the friend bring to hisfriend ?What does he who comes and goes bring to him who staysmotionless ? 'And if the passer-by brings him wood liolily brought. . . then Atar, the son of Ahura-Mazda, well pleased with himand not angry, and fed as required, will thus bless him: ' Mayherds of oxen grow for thee, and increase of sons. . . . mayestthou live on in joy of thy soul all the nights of thy life.'This is theblessing that Atar speaks unto him who brings him dry wood, wellexamined by the light of the day, well cleansed with godly intent."For if to the Athravansthe officially institutedclass of priests was committed the care of thesacred fires in the public places of worship, eachhouseholder's first religious duty was to tend thefire of his own hearth, to trim and clean it, and neversuffer it to go out. This was a more arduous taskthan appears at first sight, as the flame was to be fednot only constantly, but daintily, with small quanti¬ties, continually renewed, of driest, finely-cut chipsof the best, and in part fragrant, wood, such assandal, " well examined by the light of the day, andwell cleansed," so that no impurity of any kindshould pollute the sacred element ; besides which agood Mazdayasnian had to get up three times in thenight (as the Parsis do now, for that matter) to lookafter it." In the first part of the night, Atar, the son of Ahura-Mazda,Calls the master of the house for help, saying : ' Up ! arise, thoumaster of the house ! put on thy girdle and thy clothes, wash thy

8oMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.hands, saw wood, bring it unto me,and let me burn bright withthe clean wood, carried by thy well-washed hands. Here comesAjl (the Fiend-Serpent, Darkness), made by the daevas, who isabout to strive against me and wants to put out my life."And SO " in the second," and " in the third part ofthe night."i8. In the persistent enmity between the demonAji and Atar, which endures throughout the Avesta(with the exception of the Gathas), we easily recog¬nize the struggle between the Aryan Fiend-SerpentAhi and the Storm-god, as embodied in his principalweapon the Lightning. In one of the Eranian ver¬sions of the conflict, very dramatic in form, thelatter even resumes his Vedic name of " Son of theWaters," and is called indiscriminately Atar, orApanm-Napat (see p. 45) ; it is where the two ever¬lasting adversaries do battle for the light whichhides in the sea Vouru-Kasha, the Cloud-Sea. Thetransformation which this simple myth one of theoldest undergoes from the spiritualizing process ofEranian thought is very remarkable : the light,originally meant in a literal sense, becomes a subtleand sacred splendorthe HvARENO, or " Glory,"a peculiar and visible golden sheen, which must beimagined as surrounding the head and shoulders ofpersons endowed with it, after the manner of thehalo around the heads of saints and angels in modernpaintings. This "awful Kingly Glory,"probablya portion or reflection of the eternal, uncreatedEndless Light wherein God dwells, belongs, inthe first place, to Ahura-Mazda, to the Amesha-Spentas, and to all the Yazatas, then " to the Aryan

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA.8lnations, born and unborn," and lastly to every law¬ful Aryan king asa sign of divine grace, and per¬haps, in mythical times, of. divine descent. ' He towhom it "cleaves" is assured of wealth, of power,prosperity, and victory ;exterminates his enemies.himself unconquerable, heBut the Hvareno cannotbe seized by violence or usurped by aliens ;and, if aking endowed with it tells a lie, it .straightway passesaway from him.Certain Yeshts give instances ofboth these occurrences, taken from the rich store ofthe national mythical epos. The most amusing isthe story of that " most crafty Turanian ruffian,Frangrasyan," who thrice stripped himself nakedand plunged into the sea Vouru-Kasha, "wishing toseize that Glory that belongs to the Aryan nations."But the Glory escaped him every time, until at lasthe " rushed out of the sea Vouru-Kasha, thinkingevil thoughts," and was fain to confess : " I have notbeen able to conquer the glory that belongs to theAryan nations, born and unborn, and to the holyZarathushtra ! " A most ingenious, half mythical,half allegorical rendering - of unsuccessful Turanianinvasions.19. But the Eranian Storm-god par excellence isTishtrya, the star Sirius, known also as the Dog-Star. The Eranians very curiously associated rainwith certain stars, which are said to contain the".seed of the waters." Over these and, indeed, itwould appear, over all the stars Tishtrya is set aschiefra??^ :"We sacrifice unto Tishtrya, the bright and glorious star, whomoves in light with the stars that have in' them the seed of theG

82 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.waters, whom Ahura-Mazda has established as a lord and overseerabove kll stars. . . ." (Yesht VIII.)This star presidesover the dog-days, which, inhot climes, are immediately followed by heavyrains.Hence its rising is invoked with passionatelono-ing by the people of a region where the streamsare alf rain-fed and dry up in the rainless season,while most of them do not flow into other streams,or lakes, but are greedily and profitlessly sucked upby the sand of the desert."We sacrifice unto Tishtrya, the bright and glorious star, forwhom long flocks, and herds, and men, looking forward for him anddeceived "in their hope. ' When shall we see him rise up, thebright and glorious star Tishtrya ? When will the springs run withwaves as thick as a horse's size and still thicker? Or will theynever come? . . ..'"We sacrifice unto Tishtrya, the bright and glorious star, forwhom long the standing waters, and the running spring-waters, thestream-waters, and the rain-waters. ' When will the bright andglorious Tishtrya rise up for us ? When will the springs, with aflow and overflow of waters, thick as a horse's shoulder, run to thebeaudful places and fields, and to the pastures, even to the roots^ofthe plants, that they may grow with a powerful growth ? . . .'" We sacrifice unto Tishtrya, the bright and glorious star, whoserising is watched by men who live on the fruits of the year, by thechiefs of deep understanding; -by the wild beasts in the mountains,by the tame beasts that run in the plains ; they watch him as hecomes up to the country, for a bad year or for a good year, thinkingin themselves : ' How shall the Aryan countries be fertile ? ' "The dog-days are the hottest and driest of theit is the time of Tishtrya's great conflictagainst ApaosHA, the Drought-Fiend, a conflict inwhich he is several times worsted before he comesoff victorious at the last.The god appears in three

ARYAN MYTHS IN TIIE AVESTA. 83different shapesfor ten nights in that of a beautifulyouth, for ten in that of a golden-horned bull, andfor the last ten as a beautiful white horse withgolden ears and golden caparison.It is in this shapethat he gives the final battle to his demon antago¬nist, who rushes down to meet him by the Cloud-Sea Vouru-Kasha, in the shape of an ugly blackhorse, with black ears and tail."They meet together, hoof .against hoof. . . . They fighttogether for three days and three nights.And then the DaevaApaosha proves stronger than llie bright and glorious Tishtrya ;heovercomes him. And Tishtrya flees from the sea Vouru-Kasha. . .He cries out in woe and distress. . . ." (Yesht VIII, )He cries out for sacrifices to be offered him, to"bring strength " to him, and, having received them,rushes back to the sea Vouru-Kasha. But it isonly at the third encounter that he finally routs theBlack Horse." He makes the sea boil up and down ; he makes the i;ea streamthis and that way. . . . All the shores are boiling over ; all themiddle of it is boiling over. . . . And vapors rise up above themiddle of the sea Vouru-Kasha. . . . Then the wind blows theclouds forward, bearing the w-aters of fertility, so that the friendlyshowers spread wide over ;they spread helpingly and friendly overthe seven Karshvars. . . ." (Yesht VIII.)But there is not water enough for all the Aryancountries, and the distribution of it becomes the. oc¬casion of another conflict between the warriors ofheaven,the FRAVASHIS of the faithful (DepartedSpirits, corresponding to the Pitris of the Hindus,.see p. 53-54)."The good, strong, beneficent Fravashis of the faithful; withhelms of brass, with weapons of brass, with armor of brass ; who

84 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.struggle in the fights for victory in garments of light, arraying thebattles and bringing them forwards, to kill thousands of daevas. . . ." When the waters come up from the sea Vouru-Ka.sha, . . .then fonvards come the awful Fravashis of the faithful, many andmany hundreds, many and many thousands, many and many tens ofthousanils, seeking water for their own kindred, for their own bor¬ough, for their own town, for their own country, and saying thus :' May our own country have a good store and full joy ! '" They fight in the battles that are fought in their own place andland, each according to the place and house where he dwelt of yore ;they look like a gallant warrior, who, girded up and faithful, fightsfor the hoard he has treasured up." And those of them who win, bring waters to their own kindred,to their own borough, to their own town, to their own country, say¬ing thus : ' May my country grow and increase ! '"20. As the Fravashis are also supposed to helptheir own people in their earthly wars, and to per¬form all sorts of good offices for the material woridin general, it will be seen that prudence no less thanaffection prompted their living descendants to paythem honor and offer them gifts. Nor are they dif¬ficult to propitiate. For they are gentle, and readyto confer benefits ; " their friendship is good, andlasts long ; they like to stay in the abode where theyare not harmed by its dwellers," and they " never doharm first," though "their will is dreadful unto thosewho vex them." The last few days of the year(iOth-20th of March) are specially devoted to them, andat that time" . . . they come and go through the borough . . . theygo along there for ten nights, asking thus : ' Who will praise us ?Who will offer us a sacrifice ? Who will meditate upon us ? Whowill bless us? Who will receive us with m£at and clothes in hishand, and with a prayer worthy of bliss ? Of which of us will thename be taken for invocation ? ' . . . And the man who offers

Aryan myths in the avesta. 85them up a sacrifice, with meat and clothes in his hand, and a prayerWorthy of bliss, the awful Fravashis of the faithful, satisfied, un¬harmed, and unoffended, bless thus :' May there be in this houseflocks of animals and men !May there be a swift horse and a solidchariot !May there be a man who knows how to praise God andrule in his assembly ! ' . . ."21. It is not the Fravashis alone who ask thusopenly and eagerly for gifts and offerings.We sawthe Storm-god Tishtrya crying out for sacrifices to" bring him strength," when sorely pressed by theDrought-Fiend Apaosha.So does Mithra, wishingfor strength to perform his appointed work, ever cryout to Ahura-Mazda :" Who will offer me a sacrifice ? ... If men would worshipme with a sacrifice in which I were invoked by my own name, asthey worship the other Yazatas,... I would come to the faith¬ful at the appointed time of my Ijeautiful immortal life."Ardvi-Siira Anahita, as she drives forward on herchariot, drawn by four white horses, and holding thereins, longs for the worship of men, and thinks in herheart : " Who will praise me ? Who will offer mea sacrifice, with libations cleanly prepared and wellstrained,together with the Haoma and meat ? "22. The old Aryan conception of the efficacy, thecompelling force of sacrifice, asserts itself with greatemphasis in the Avesta, where we see not only thefamous mythical heroes sacrificing hundreds andthousands of bullocks, horses, and sheep to variousdeities, principally Haoma, Ardvi-Sura Anahita, andVayu, when asking for some special boon, but thegods offering sacrifices to each other on the heightsof the Hara-Berezaiti.Nay, Ahura-Mazda himself

86 ' MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. ,is no exception, and is said to offer a sacrifice to thisor that divinity by him created ! to request his orher assistance in the protection of the material worldagainst the evil powers.This glaring inconsistencycan be explained only by the' different stages of areligion, in which Ahura-Mazda was a god amongother gods before he became the One SuiDreme Godand Creator.23. Nor has the belief in the conjuring efficacy ofprayers and sacred texts the Manthra at allabated in the Eranian period. The Manthra isagain and again spoken of and invoked as a divineperson.So are the Gathas, and also certain prayerswhich are considered as particularly holy and won¬der-working.But the most potent spell of all, themost healing, most fiend-smiting, lies in a prayerknown under the Parsi name (corrupt) of HoNOVER,called in the Avesta the Aiiun,\-Vaik.VA, a prayerwhich adevout Parsi even now repeats dozens oftimes every day on every possible occasion of life.This famous prayer is written in so obscure alanguage that a final and satisfactory rendering of ithas not yet beenachieved, though every Avestanscholar has attempted a translation.The discrepan¬cies between these translations are so great and thesense remains so uncertain still, that it is scarcelypossible to make a selection between them, and togive them all would be confusing and unprofitable.The most extravagant magic powers are ascribed tothis sacred text, which Ahura-Mazda is said to havefirst uttered " before the creation of heaven, beforethe making of the waters, and the plants, and the

ARYAN MYTHS, IN THE AVESTA. 87four-footed kine and the holy biped man, and beforethe sun," and to have revealed to Zarathushtra, whorecited it first to mortal men."This word," Ahura-Mazda is made to say, "is the most em¬phatic of the words which ever have been pronounced, or which arenow spoken, or which shall be spoken in future, for the eminence ofthis utterance is such a thing, that if all the corporal and livingworld should learn it, and learning it should hold fast by it, theywould be redeemed from their mortality ! "The sacred names of Ahura-Mazda, the Amesha-Spentas, and some others, share this power of incan¬tation, as we saw above. (See p. 76.)24. The process of allegorical transformationwhich gradually permeated the whole mythic systemof Eran, here found a most grateful field. The con¬juring spell huried against the physical fiends repre¬senting the evil powers of material nature, werechanged into the spiritual weapons of prayer andobedience to the holy Law, used with infallible suc¬cess against the spiritual fiends,Anger, Rapine,Sloth, and, above all, the Spirit of Lies,who dwellin every man's own breast. That is the club, everuplifted agains the daevas, which the Yazata Sraoshacarries (the personified Obedience to Mazda's Law),he " whose very body is the Law," and who there¬fore is the most actively militant adversary of thedaevas. It is in this sense that the Ahuna-Vair>'a issaid to smite the fiends " as hard as a stone large asa house." When he hears it recited, the Arch-Fiendhimself cowers and writhes and shrinks, and hides inthe bowels of the earth. -25. For the Serpent, Ahi, the mythical Aryan

88 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. 'dragon that guards the fastnesses where the stolencows or maidens are locked away, now caUed Ajl orAji-Dahaka (the " Biting Snake "), touched by thesame magic rod of spiritual transformation, hence¬forth personated moral evil in all its odiousness andugliness, and began to be called " AngrA-MainYU,"the " Destructive Sprit," in direct opposition toSpenta-Mainyu, the Beneficent or Life-giving Spirit.By this time system-making had become a habit ofthe Eranian mind, and as every system, being anartificial construction, requires symmetry, Angra-Mainyu (better known under the corrupt later form,Ahriman), from being one of the names of theoriginal Serpent, grew into a separate abstraction, anArch-fiend, the exact counterpart of Spenta-Mainyuor Ahura-Mazda: the one all Light, Truth, Life, andGood; the other all Darkness, Lie, Death, and Evil.And henceforth the worid was divided betweenthem. Both being possessed of creative power, allthat was good in it, material or spiritual, was thework of Spenta-Mainyu ; all that was evil, of Angra-Mainyu. In this manner those profound but simplemindedthinkers got out of the terrible puzzle ofaccounting for the existence of evil in the worid, forthey could not comprehend the necessity of it, andtherefore would not admit that it could have beencreated by the All-good and All-wise Being. Thetwo spirits must have existed from the beginning,independent of each other, and the world and life, aswe see them, are nothing but the manifestation oftheir eternal enmity and conflict. When moral. specu¬lation had attained this height the race was ripe for

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVES7A. 89spiritual progressof the aspiring but inconsistentpopular mind.26.< To carry out the title of this chapter, itshould end with areview of such Aryan myths asbecame the groundwork of the Eranian Heroic Epos,one of the richest in the world, so far as they havefound a place in the Avesta. There are many such,but in a very fragmentary condition and too muchout of the scope of the present work to be consid¬ered.One, however, is given with great complete¬ness, although the different traits and incidents arescattered in many places of the book, and is too im¬portant and interesting to be overlooked.It is themyth of Yima, the first king, the Eranian rendering6f the Aryan myth of Yama, originally the SettingSun, then the first mortal and King of the Dead (seepp. 52-53).The story, ancient in itself, shows tracesa prophet, to give the gradually evolved new con-. sciousness the form and consistency of a faith,to purify it and separate it from the dross of ancientmyth that still clung round it and clogged theof a late rehandling in the way it is told, but must begiven as we find it, as it would be spoiled by beingpicked to pieces." O Maker of the material worid ! " Zarathushtrais made to a.sk of Ahura-Mazda, " who was the firstmortal before myself, with whom thou didst con¬verse, whom thou didst teach the law?" Ahura-Mazda answers: "The fair Yima, the great shep¬herd " ; and proceeds to tell that he offered Yima tobe the preacher and bearer of his law to men, butYima declined, not deeming himself fit. Then Ahura-

90 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA,''Mazda bade him rule his world, and watch over it, andmake it thrive. Yima accepted the task, and-AhuraMazda brought him a golden ring and poniard.'He sacrificed on the sacred height Hukairya toArdvi-Sura Anahita, Haoma, Vayu, asking for vari¬ous boons which they granted. He became thesovereign lord of countries, and ruled not only overmen, but over the daevas, and Mazda's Kingly Glory(Hvareno) was around him. That was the GoldenAge of the world. In his reign there was neithercold nor heat, neither old age nor death, neither hotwind nor cold wind, and there was great fatness andabundance of flocks in the world created by Mazda.Herds and people were free from death, plants andwaters were free from drought ;fathers and sonswalked about equally perfect in shape, which wasthat of youths of fifteen years.So were things whileYima ruled, he of the many flocks, and that wasduring a thousand years. Of these, three hundred'years had passed away, and the earth was replenishedwith flocks and herds, with men and dogs and birds,and red, blazing fires, and there was no more roomfor flocks, herds, and men. Then Yima, beingwarned by Ahura-Mazda, pressed the earth with thegolden ring and bored it with the poniard, speakingthus : " O Spenta-Armaiti (see p. 75), kindly openasunder and stretch thyself afar, to bear flocks andherds and men." And the earth, at Yima's bidding,grew one third larger than it was before, and therecame flocks and herds and men, at his will and wish,as many as he wished. When six hundred years of*So Darmesteter. DeHarlez renders "a golden plough and anox-goad."

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA.9Ihis sway had "passedaway, Yima again bade theearth open and stretch, and again when nine hun¬dred years had passed away, and each time the earthgrew by one third of its original size.When he hadreigned a thousand years, Ahura-Mazda called agreat meeting in Airyana-Vaeja, and came thitherwith all the gods ;thither also came Yima with themost excellent mortals'." And Ahura-Mazda spake unto Yima, saying ; ' O fair Yima, sonof Vivanghat !Upon the material world the fatal winters are go¬ing to fall, that shall bring the fierce, foul frost, that shall makesnowflakes fall thick and lie deep on the highest tops of mountains.And all the three sorts of Ijeasts shall perish : those that live in thewilderness, and those that live on the tops of the mountains, andthose that live in the bosom of the dale under the shelter of stables.Before that winter those fields would bear plenty of grass for cat¬tle ; now with floods that stream, with snows that melt, it will seema happy land in the world, the land wherein footprints even of sheepmay be seen. Therefore make thee a Vara (an enclosure) . . .' "Here follow minute instructions :" Thou shalt doso and so," which, being complied with, are repeatedword for word with change of tensepast instead offuture,after the manner of ancient epic narrative.We give the narrative as the more lively form :" And Yima made a Vara ... to be an abode for men, tobe a fold for flocks.There he made -waters flow in a bed a hdthralong (about a mile) ; there he settled birds by the everlasting banksthat bear never-failing food.There he estaljlished dwelling-places.. . . There he brought the seeds of men and women,* of the* To be put in the ground and grow in due time. According tothe later Cosmogony of the Bundehesh, the first human couple grewup in the shape of a shrub, then blossomed into human form andseparated. So are the different kinds of animals supposed to havecome from seed. We saw above that the stars are said to containthe seeds of the waters.

92 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.greatest', best, and finest kinds on this earth ; there he brought theseeds of every kind of cattle, of the greatest, best, and finest kindson this earth ; there he brought the seeds of every kind of tree, ofthe greatest, best, and finest kinds on this earth ; there he broughtthe seeds of every kind of fruit, the fullest of food and sweetest ofodor. All those seeds he brought, two of every kind, to be keptinexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the Vara.And there was no humpbacked, none bulged forward there ; no im¬potent, no lunatic, no poverty, no lying, no meanness, no jealousy ;no decayed tooth, no leprous to be confined, nor any of the brandswith which Angra-Mainyu stamps the bodies of mortals. . . .Every fortieth year, to every couple two are born, a male and afemale. And thus it is for every sort of cattle, and the men in theVara, which Yima made live the happiest life. . . ."Some commentators say they live there 1 50 years,others, that they never die. The latter come near¬est to the mythical truth of the story, as there canbe no doubt that Yima's Vara originally answered toYama's seat of bliss, and its inhabitants to the Pitrissouls of the departed. The Avesta narrativeadds,evidently a late appendage to the old myth,a wonderful bird brought the Law of Mazdainto the Vara and preached it there. The mythical-legends of India know of several such wise andspeech-endowed birds.27. There is another version of the end of Yima'srule, a, more human and very tragical one, which hasbeen adopted in the Heroic Epos of Eran. It is alsomentioned in the Avesta. There came a day whenYima fell and sinned. He " began to find delight inwords of falsehood and untruth." In fact, it isstated plainly, that he told a lie. But what the liewas the Avesta does not inform us. Epic traditionhowever does. Seeing both men and daevas subject

ARYAN MYTHS IN THE AVESTA. 93to his rule, his heart was lifted up in pride, and hedeclared himself to be a god.From this momentMazda's Kingly Glory (the Hvareno) flew away fromhim in the shape of a raven one of the visibleforms which Verethraghna, the Genius of Victory, issaid to assume.Yima also taught men to kill inno¬cent animals and eat their flesh, which was anothergrievous wrong.Three times the Glory flew awayfrom him ;he lost his sovereignty, wandered aboutan outcast, and finally perished miserably, beingsawed in two, according to the Avesta, by his ownbrother; according to the heroic legend, by his mor¬tal foe, the wicked usurper ZOH.\Kthe Persiancorrupt form of " Aji-Dahak," the primeval Serpentbeing, like the other personages of the heavenlydrama, brought down to earth and presented in ahuman incarnation.28. It is very curious that one detail of the oldAryan myth of Yama should have survived in Eran,in the practical form of a religious ceremony, whichis enjoined on the followers of Zoroaster, and strictlyobserved by them to this day. The reader will re-'member Yama's dogs, " brown, broad-snouted, foureyed,"who scent out those who are to die and drivethem to the presence of the dread king, at the sametime guarding them from the dangers and fiends thatbeset the dark road they travel. (See p. 53). TheAvestan Law prescribes that " a yellow dog with foureyes" shah be brought to the side of any personthat has just died, and made to look at the corpse,as the look of the four-eyed dog is supposed to driveaway the impure demon, (Nasu), that strives to enter

94MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.it and take possession of the clay tenement, which,from the moment that life leaves it, becomes theproperty of Angra-Mainyu, in order thence to workcontamination and harm on all who approach it. Asit maybe supposed that some difficulty was found inprocuring the animal in question, the law makes thefollowing qualifying concession : " A yellow dogwith four eyes, or a white dog with yellow ears'."The latter variety being more generally on hand,there is nothing to prevent conscientious Parsis fromperforming this time-honored ceremony, which theycall the Sagdid, and of the mythical origin andimport of which they are, of course, profoundlyignorant.** For the quotations from the Vendidad and the Lesser Avestathe translation of Mr, James Darijiesteter has been and will be usedthroughout.

V.THE G,A.TT-TAS,THE, Y.\SNA Ol'' SEVEN CHAPTERS.I. Mazdayasnians and Daevayasnian.s," Worshippers of God and worshippers of theFiends " ; such is the division of mankind accordingto the Zoroastrian faith. There can be no middleway.Whoever is not with Mazda is against him.Whoever does not enlist to fight the good fight withSpenta-Mainyu, the Spirit who is all Life, neces¬sarily swells the ranks of Angra-Mainyu, the Spirit whois all Death.The material world is divided betweenthem, and its various phenomena are but the visiblemanifestation of the war they wage against eachother. That war has its parallel in the spiritualworld.There the battle-ground is in every man'sown breast, and the stake is every man's own soul.But not without the man's consent can the stake bewon by either ; it is with him to choose. And as hechooses and abides by his choice, so will it fare withhim when his day of combat is done, and he eithercrosses the Bridge of the Gatherer,'^'" and passes intothe abode of God that dwells in Endless Light, or* The Bridge Ciiinvat, which is thrown across space from one ofthe highest peaks of the Hara-Berezaiti to the Garo-nmana, for tliesoul to pass after death. This is the last ordealj^ihichjione but thegodly successfully pass through. ^^''^^KyROE95:ioi

96 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.misses his footing, and is dragged down into the"abode of Lie," which is Endless Darkness.2. ' ' Towards this loftiest and purest, while alsosimplest, of all the doctrines that the ancient worldhas taught, tended the evolution of , the primevalAryan Dualism of Nature,, as it was effected in theEranian spiritual consciousness, moulded and direct¬ed by the peculiar conditions of Eranian life. Thatthis evolution did not waste itself in vague andprofitless repinings and speculations, like the streamsof Eran in the barren sands, but culminated in apositive faith, fruitful in works, like cloud-fed springsthat are gathered to a head and flow forth, a mightyand life-giving river, into the haunts of men this isdue to the genius and preaching of Zarathushtra.He laid before his people their own thoughts in allthe pure transparency of crystal waters cleared frommuddiness and unwholesome admixtures in thefilter of his own transcendant and searching mind.Pie guided their groping hands, and made themgrasp the truth for which they were blindly reach¬ing. Such is the mission of every true prophet. Hadthe people not been ripe for his teaching, he couldnot have secured a hearing, or made himself under¬stood ; the people, on the other hand, could neverhave worked out unaided the ideal to which theywere vaguely and only half-consciously drawn.They listened and understood, and were won, be¬cause, to use the expression of a great writer,* they* Voltaire. He says of the hero of one of his stories, that he re¬flected profoundly on a certain idea, "of which he seemed to havethe seed in himself."

THE GATHAS.gfhad in themselves the seed of the thoughts which theprophet expounded to them.3. Even if we lack data to determine the time ofZarathushtra's life and work, there is sufficient in¬trinsic evidence in the Gilthas, which were most"probably taken down partly from the prophet's ownwords and partly from those of some of his immedi.ate disciples, to show that he lived at a periodwhich must be considered an early one in the historyof his race. In their slow advance to the West, theEranians were continually harassed by fleetlymounted Scythian hordes (Turan), and encounteredscattered tribes of the same hostile race all along thebroad and irregular track of their migration.Thesesavage nomads, ubiquitous with their small, untiringsteppe-horses and their unerring lassoes, were thestanding terror of the Eranian settlers, whose pas¬tures and farms were not for one moment securefrom their raids. In the national Heroic Epos,which is the Battle-Myth of the Skies transferred toearth, the Eranian hero-kings answer to the Aryangods, whose names they ofttimes bear, and theirTuranian adversaries lawless invaders, iniquitoususurpers and tyrants, to the Aryan demons.'*^ Andin the time of the allegorical transformation ofmyths, which already approaches the historicalperiod, we see Violence, Lawlessness, and Rapine,* Compare Vima, son of Vivanghat = Yama, son of Vivasvat.ALso, Thraetaona, son of Athwya = Trita, son of Aptya ; in theEpos Thraetaona becomes the famous Persian hero-king Feridun,who vanquishes the wicked usurper Zohak Aji-Dahaka, a*.id chainshim under Mt. Demavend in the Elburz.H

98 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the characteristic features of the Turanian nomadsand raiders, embodied in the person of Aeshma-Daeva, the first and worst of daevas after the Arch-Fiend himself, as Sraosha; the personified Obedienceto Mazda's holy Law, is the first of the Yazatas.The prayer, " Deliver us from Aeshma," thereforehas a twofold purport : " Deliver us from the raidsof the Turanians, the foes of the honest herdsmanaud tiller of the land," and also, " Deliver us fromthe temptarion of ourselves committing violence androbbery."4. That the Turanians were accounted Daeva¬yasnians, worshippers of Fiends, is self-evident. Butnot they alone. Scarcely less hated of Zarathushtraand his followers are such communities of their ownAryan race as resisted the progressive movementtowards spiritual and enlightened monotheism, andpersisted in sacrificing to the gods of the old Aryannature-worship. There were doubtless many such,and it is certainly to them, their leader, and theirpriests, that Zarathushtra alludes when he speaks ofthe evil teachers that corrupt the people's mind, ofthe persecutions which made him and. his followershomeless wanderers (see p. 24). Nor can the prophetbe said to advise his own disciples to deal with theseunbelievers exactly in a spirit of charity. Not onlyare they bitterly, wrathfully denounced throughoutthe Gathas, but their extermination is demanded inno equivocal terms : he who huris from power orfrom life " the evil ruler who opposes " the progressof Righteousness in his province, will treasure up"a store of sacred wisdom"; any one who brings

THE GATHAS. 99harm on the settlements of the prophet's followers,let his evil deeds recoil on himself, let his prosperitybe blighted, let him perish and " no help come to himto keep him back from misery.And let this hap¬pen as I speak. Lord ! " On the other hand none,not even Turanian tribes, if they will be converted,are excluded from the community of the pious. Animportant and authentic precept for this triumph ofreligious brotherhood over race-feeling is establishedby the following explicit statement" When from among the tri1)es and kith of the Turanians thoseshall arise who further on tlie settlements of Piety witli energy andzeal, with these shall Alnira tlwell together through his Good-Mind {vohu-i/iano) [which will abide in them], and to them forjoyful grace deliver his commands." (Yasna XLVI. 12. L. H.Mills' tr.anslation.)5. There can be little doubt that the feelings ofhatred and contempt with which Zarathushtra in¬spired his followers against those of the old Aryanreligion were amply reciprocated by the latter, notonly by such asstill lived or roamed side by sidewith them in the cultivated regions or the wilds ofEran, but also by those who had already descendedinto India. This supplies us with the most naturalexplanation of some facts which would otherwise bedifficult to account for : the use by the ZarathushtrianEranians of the word daeva with the meaning of" demon, fiend," while Sanskrit deva continued in thesister nation of India to denote the gods of Light,the bright and beneficent Powers, as it had done inthe joint Indo-Eranian period, and probably in theprimeval Aryan times,together with the corres-

lOOMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.ponding use by the 7\ryan Hindus in the same evilsense of the Sanskrit Asura (= Eranian Ahura).^ Thislatter fact derives its significancy from the circum¬stance that the older Aryan Hindus gave to theword the same meaning as the Eranians, that of"Lord," "divine," and used it as the lofriest titleof several of the deities, especially of their Sky-gods,the primeval Dyaus and his successor Varuna,to whom a certain notion of supremacy or overiordshipseems to have attached from the eariiest_times.Asura is used in this wholly reverential sense in thegreatest part of the Rig-Veda, b.ut the change hasLken place already in the later hymns of the collec¬tion, where the Asuras appear as the fiends andjevilsPowers of Evilthey remain throughout thelater literature of India, religious and profane. Now,these hymns were gathered in their present form andorder, according to the latest and most moderatecalculations, between 1 500 and lOOO B.C. This givesus an indirect but not unimportant hint as to theprobable time of Zarathushtra and his reform.6. Nothing can be more impressive or majesticthan the piirely fanciful scene in which the prophetand his mission are introduced to the worid. It is asort of Prologue in Heaven, enacted by the denizensof the spirit-worid. Geush-Urvan (literally " Soulof the Steer"), the guardian spirit or " Chief" {j-atu)of animal creation, and especially domestic cattle,raises up his voice to heaven and complains of theill-treatment and sufferings which he and his kindendure at the hands of men, while it had been fore¬told him that they would be benefited by the insti-

THE GATHAS.lOItution of agriculture Asha (Righteousness andOrder, personified asone of the Amesha-Spentas)replies that, though no really benevolent man willbe hard on his cattle, yet people in general don'talways know in what manner they should behave totheir inferiors, and adds :" Mazda knows best thedeeds of daevas and men, both those that have beenand those that are to be.He, the Lord (Ahura),has to decide ; as he wills, so shall it be." Mazdathen .speaks, and his decision brings scant comfortto the Guardian of the Flocks, for he informs himthat there is no .specialprotector for cattle, sincethey have been created for the use of the tiller andherdsman, whom, by his own Mazda's and Asha'sordinance, they are to supply with meat and drink,by giving him their milk and their flesh.Geush-Urvan, in despair, then asks :" Plast thou no oneamong men who would take kindly care of us?"Whereupon Mazda answersof the jDoetical aj^ologue :and here lies the gi.st" I know on earth onlyone man who has heard our decrees ZarathushtraSpitama. lie will announce from memory my andAsha's teachings, when I endow him with sweetnessof speech." Then the Spirit of the Flocks moanedaloud : "Woe is me ! and is the powerless word ofan unwarlike man all I am to look to, when I wishedfor the protection of. a mighty hero?When will heever come, he who is to' lend my cattle efficienthelp? . . . But I know that thou, O Mazda,knowest best. Where else should be justice, benev¬olence, and power ! . . . And thus the Spiritof the Flocks departs, more disappointed than con-

I02 - MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.soled, nor kngws that the Word is far mightier thanthe sword.'*7. After this preamble, we are prepared to seethe prophet enter on his mission. There is nothread of narrative to inform us of the course ofevents but the text speaks for itself, and as we readthe famous Chapter XXX. of Yasna, we havedifficulty in imagining the preacher addressing anassembled multitude of menpeople and noblesinthe presence, as can be inferred from one passage, ofthe king, who had believed in him, probably KavaVishtaspa.noAs this discourse is to Mazdeism, in itsfirst and pure stage, what the Sermon of the Mountis to our own religion, we shall give it almostuncurtailed.fINow shall I proclaim unto you, O ye all that here approachme what the wise should lay to their hearts ; the songs of praise andthe sacrificial rites which pious men pay the Lord (Ahura), and thesacred truths and ordinances (Asha), that what was secret until nowmay appear in the light. . . , ," 2 Hear with your ears that which is best, and test it with a clearunderstanding, before each man decides for himself between the twoteachings. ... ,-.,,"3 The two Spirits, the Twins, skilfully created, in the begin¬ning, Good and Evil, in thought, in speech, in deed.And, betweenthese two, the wise have made the right choice ; not so the senseless.' ' 4And when these two spirits had agreed to institute the spong¬ing up and the passing away of .all things [to create Life and Death],and to decree that in the end the lot of the followers of Lie {drtijvan,i eholders of the false gods and religion) should be the worst lifeand 'that of the followers of Truth {iishavan, of the true religion)should be the happitst mental state,* Freely given from the translation of Bartholomae, in " ArischeForschungen," III.f From Bartholomae's translation in " Arische Forschungen.II.

THE GATHAS. 103"5. Then of these two Spirits the lying one elected to do evil,while the holiest Spirit {Spenta-Mainyu), he who is clothed with thesolid heavens as with a robe, elected the Right (asha), and with himall those wlio wish lo do right in the eyes of Ahura-Mazda." 6. And to his side came willi Khshathra, Vohu-mano and Aslia,.and Aram.aiti tlie eternal, who made the earth her body.In thesemayest thou have a share, that tliou mayest outdo all others inwealth."" 7. The daevas also made not the right choice (between good andevil), for, as they were debating, folly overcame them, so that theychose the Worst Mind {ako-mano, opposed to vohu-man6 ).And theyassembled in the house of violence (aeshma) to destroy the life ofman ;' (i. e., lliey joined with the enemies of the Zarathustrians, theplunderers and destroyers of their settlements, farms, and cattle.)" 8. But when the vengeance comes for their deeds of violence,then, O Ahur.a-Mazda, surely the sovereignty will be given by thyGood Mind to those who will have helped Truth (asha) to o.vercomeLie (druj).' ' g.Therefore will we belong to those who are in time to lead thislife on to perfection.Grant us then, O Mazda, and ye gods, youras.sistance, and tliou also, O Asha, tliat every man may be enlight¬ened whoso understanding, as yet, judges falsely," 10, For tlien the blow of destruction shall fall on the liar, whilethose who keep the good teaching will assemble unliindered in thebeauteous aliodo of Voliu-mano, Mazda, and Asha," 11. If, O men, you lay to your hearts tlicse ordinances whichMazda instituted, and llio good and the evil, and tlie long tormentswhich await the followers of falsehood, (dnijvan), and tlie bliss thatmust come lo llie holders of tlie true faith, (ashavaii), it will go wellwith you."8. We have here the essence of Mazdeism in itssublime simplicity, its absolute i^urity, as it shapeditself in the mind of the founder.All further devel-* This last sentence would seem to be .iddressed to the king. Thebenediction, in plain words, amounts to this: "Mayest thou beendowed with the sovereign power, the peace of mind, and the pietythat go hand in hand with the true religion, and thus deserve a sharein the dominion of the earth, and outdo all other kings in wealth,"

I04MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.opments as given in the rest of the Gathas maywell be said to be but commentary. The Dualismhere announced is absolute : the two Spirits aretwins, not hostile in the beginning, nor separated,and together create the world, material and spiritual,visible and invisible ; the result is of necessity a mix¬ture of opposites, for we can know a thing only byits contrary : how should we know light, warmth,health, but from their contrast with darkness, cold,sickness ? Life, then, must be balanced by Death ;Truth by Falsehood ; in other words. Good by Evil.So far there is no right or wrong, only necessity.But now comes the choice. Notu the twin spirits,having each taken his part, become the " Spirit whichis all Life " and the " Spirit which is all Death "(life and death being considered the supreme expres-,sions of Good and Evil), to be foes for evermore ;and now begins the warfare in vvhich nothing is in¬different or purposeless, but every move tells for oneor the other, and in which all mankind, without ex¬ception, "each man for himself," must freely choosehis side, fight on it, and abide the consequences. Itis noteworthy that even the daevas, the uncompro¬misingly abhorred fiends and demons of later Maz¬deism, are not presented by the prophet as evil origi¬nally and in themselves, but only from the evil choicethey make when, as free agents, the choice is beforethem as before the two Supreme Twins. So absoluteis his belief in the free-will and responsibility ofevery being, whether of the spirit world or the ma¬terial world.- 9, Little could be added to the great Declaration

* THE GATHAS. 105of Faith known as " Chapter XXX. of Yasna," inpoint pf doctrine, by ransacking the rest of theGathic poems.sent missionA profound conviction of his heaven¬(" I am thy chosen one from the be¬ginning ; all others I consider as my opponents ") -outpourings of personal feelings in the days of per¬secution and distress, appeals for help and enlighten¬ment often worded with great pathos and tenderness(" To thee I cry : Behold, O Lord, and grant meassistance, as a friend grants it to a dear friend ! ")such is the strain that runs through all. these ancienthymns, lending them athoroughly human, livinginterest.One of them (chapter XLIV.) especiallybreathes the purest poetical feeling, and keeps on alofty level rarely maintained for so long a stretch inthese often crude literary efforts.The questionings,the doubts, the longings of the prophet's spirit areput in the form of a series of questions addressed byhim to his heavenly " friend " and teacher.Somebear upon points of doctrine, some on the issue of acoming struggle :" This I will ask ; tell it me right, O Lord (Ahura) will the gooddeeds of men be rewarded already before the best life comes ? . . ,"(The " best life "future life, for the good.)~^ "This I will ask thee ; tell it me right, O Lord are those thingswhich I will proclaim really .so?Will the righteous acquire holinessby their good deeds ? Wilt thou award them the kingdom (ofheaven Khshathra) through the good mind ? (vohu-mant>) . . .How will my soul att.ain to bli.ss ? . . . Will piety (ar)naili)come to those, O Mazda, to whom thy faith is declared ? . . ." This I -\vill ask thee ; tell it me right, O Lord who of those towhom I am speaking here is a friend of Truth (asha), who of False¬hood (druj) ? On which side stand the wicked ? And are they notwicked, the unbelievers, who make thy benefits vain ? (by attackingand robbing the followers of Ahura-Mazda) . . ,

I06MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PgRSIA."Plow .shall I turn from un the Spirit of \.\e'i(druj) .How shall I procure the triumph of Righteousness (asha) over theSpirit of Lie (druj) so that it may, according to the ]iromise of thyteaching, inflict on the unbelieving a fell defeat, and deal unto themdeath and destruction ?" This I will ask of thee ; tell it me right, O Lord canst thouindeed protect me when the two hosts meet ?. , , , To which ofthe two wilt thou give the victory? . . ."Some of the questions are a poetical form of hom¬age to the Creator of all things, whose glory they in¬directly proclaim :"This I will ask thee ; tell it me right, O Lord:Who sustainsthe earth here below, and the space above, that they do not fall ?Who made the waters and the plants ? Who to the winds has yokedthe storm-clouds, the two fleetest of things ? . . . Who skilfullycreated light and darkness ? Who sleep and wakefulness ? Whothe noontide and the night, and the dawns that call the wise lo theirwork ?". , . Who created the blessed Armaiti and Khshathra ?* Whomade the son to be the image of the father? I will proclaim, OMazda, that thou, O lieneficent Spirit ! (Spenla-Mainyu), art IheMaker of all things."lo. These specimens of the Gathic hymns are suf¬ficient to show, besides the doctrine, the character¬istic drift and the tone of Zarathushtra's ownteaching : a great directness of speech, a studiedavoidance of even the famfliar language of poeticalimagery, as tending to perpetuate that spirit ofmythical redundancy which it was the object ofhis reform to eradicate. Nor are passages wantingwhere he denounces in direct terms the false andevil teachers, doubtless the priests of the naturedeitiesof India and the unbelieving Eranian tribes.* " Earth and Heaven " in this place. See Bartholomae, "ArischeForschungen," II., p. 163.

TIIE GATHAS. 107Most noticeable is the fact that the prophet scarcelyever lapses even into the religious allegory whichsupplanted the Aryan mythology in the later devel¬opment of Mazdeism, peopling the unseenworldwith a theological hierarchy of Archangels, Angels,and Saints (Amesha-Spentas, Yazatas, and Frava¬shis) in the place of the ancient nature-deities.The Fravashis do not occur at all in the Gathas,nor the Amesha-Spentas as a body of spiritualpersons. We see " good mind," " righteousness,"" piety " (" vohu-mano," " asha," " armaiti "), used ascommon abstract names, in their direct and propermeaning, not asnames of allegorical persons, evenin a remarkable passage where all skv are mentionedas the gifts of Ahura-Mazda.Thus " obedience tothe Law of Mazda " {sraosha), the cardinal virtue ofthe Mazdayasnian, is spoken of only as such, and notyet allegorized into the Chief of the Yazatas, thechampion " fiend-smiter," a sort of Eranian SaintMichael.Nor, on the other hand, is "Aeshma," thelater leader of all the demon-host,Aeshma-Daeva,the special opponent of Sraosha, the leader of theYazatas,mentioned in any sense but the direct oneof " violence " or " spirit of violence."There is nofaintest trace of superstition or idolatrous worshipin the reverence paid to " Ahura-Mazda's Fire," thesymbol and rallying sacrament of a pure faith ;sac¬rifices and " meat-offerings " are spoken of, but thereis no insisting on a tiresomely minute ceremonial ;no mention of either Mithra or Haoma ;the heath¬enish rites connected with the use of the intox¬icating drink of the same name are not encouraged ;

I08MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.indeed, there is one passage (Yasna, XLVIIL, lo)which is interpreted as expressing abhorrence ofthose rites, and classing them with the sacrifices tothe daevas, " the seed of Evil," as an act of impiety."When, O Mazda ! shall the men of perfect mind come? Andwhen shall they drive from-hence this polluted drunken joy wherebythe Karpans (hostile priests) with angry zeal would crush us, andby whose inspiration the tyrants ofthe provinces hold their evilrule ! "And though the prophet repeatedly speaks of the" open Chinvat Bridge " (Bridge of the Gatherer),which the soul of the righteous cross with ease ontheir passage into Ahura's own , abode of bliss, theGaro-nmana, while the wicked fall from it " into theabode of Lie forever," he abstains from imaginativedescriptions that might too easily slide back intomythology and polytheism.In short, to use thewords of an eminent scholar, the latest translator ofthe Gathas* : " In the Gathas all is sober and real ;. . . . the Karpans, etc., are no mythical mon¬sters ;no dragon threatens the settlements, and nofabulous beings defend them.Zarathushtra, Djamaspa,Frashaostra f . . . are as real, and arcalluded to with a simplicity as unconscious as anycharacters in history.Except inspiration, there areno miracles.All the action is made up of the exer¬tions and passions of living and suffering men. . . ."II. "With the 'Yasna of Seven Chapters,' " re-* L. II. Mills, in vol. XXXI. of "The Sacred Books of theEast."f Two great nobles and chiefs of Vishtaspa's following, ardent andpowerful supporters of Zarathushtra, whose daughter one of then}married.

THE GATHAS.IO9marks the same scholar, " which ranks next inantiquity to the Gathas, we already pass into anatmosphere distinct from them. The dialect stilllingers, but the spirit is changed." The fact is thatall history shows how impossible it is for any religionor doctrine to maintain itself on the level of absoluteloftiness and purity on which it was placed by the.founder or reformer. He is one man in a nation,above and ahead of his time, his race, nay, mankindin general ; so are, in a lesser, degree, his immediatefollowers, his first disciples. But the mass of thosewho learn from him and themthe herdis com¬posed of average minds, which, after the first enthu¬siasm has cooled and the novelty has worn off, feelbut ill at ease on an altitude that makes too greatdemands on their spiritual powers. Then there arethe old habits, which, as the strain is irksomely felt,reassert themselves with all the sacredness of eariynay, ancestral, association, all the sweetness of fa¬miliarity. Then begins the work of adaptation ; thenew religion is half uncon.sciously fitted to the old ;there is a gradual revival of ancient idea.s, ancientpoetry, ancient forms and usagesand scarce a life¬time has elapsed after the reformer has passed away,when his work is changed beyond recognition, andthe doctrine and practice of those who still callthemselves his followers, have become a medley ofwhat he taught and the very things against which herose in protest. Still, on the whole, there is realprogress : the new spirit remains, the standard hasbeen raised, and a new step taken towards the ideala step which can never be retraced.

iiOMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.12. Of this process of adaptation the collection ofprayers in Gathic dialect, set apart in the body ofthe Yasna-liturgy under the name of " Yasna ofSeven Chapters," offers a striking illustration, thoughit is of course impossible to surmise how long aninterval separates them from those older Gathaswhich may be said to embody the ZoroastrianRevelation. Set forms of invocation and a regularworking ritual, presupposing a strictly organized classof priests, have gathered round the substance whichalone engrossed the prophet ; his abstract specula¬tions have become greatly materialized, and theallegorical forms of speech in which he but sparinglyindulged have crystallized into personifications solidenough to start a new myth-development. The at¬tributes of the Deity and the qualities it vouchsafesto its pure-minded followersGood Mind, Righteous¬ness, Piety, etc. have become the fully organizedbody of the Amesha-Spentas ; Fire has become theobject of a special worship somewhat idolatrous inform ; and surest sign of future decadencethemythical taint begins to crop up in the worship andsacrifice expressly paid to natural objects: " we sacri¬fice to the hills that run with torrents; and the lakesthat brim with waters, ... to both earth andheaven and to the stormy wind that Mazda made,and to the peak of high Haraiti, and to the land andall things good." We have here the whole Aryannature-pantheon in subdued form ; indeed so stronglydoes the old mythical habit of speech reassert itself,that the Waters are called " the Wives of Ahura "and " female Ahuras " (see p. 62). The Fravashis,

THE GATHAS.Illnot once mentioned in the original Gathas, arehere invoked and "worshipped" together withAhura-Mazda himself and the Bountiful Immor¬tals, although their number is restricted to those " ofthe Saints, of holy men and holy women " (fol¬lowers and propagators of the new religion).LastlyHaoma reappears, " Haoma golden-flowered thatgrows on the heights, Ilaoma that restores us . . .that driveth death afar." We shall see, however,that the rites of this, one of the most primevalAryan deities, were not restored in the coarse formwhich Zarathushtra seems to have particularly de¬nounced (see p. io8).13. The Yasna has preserved to us an importantdocument the jDrofession of faith which was re¬quired from each Mazdayasnian convert, thetrueAvestan Creed.Although too long to be reproducedhere entire, some of the principal verses will proveof interest :" I, I curse the d.ievas, I confess myself a worshipper of Mazda,a follower uf Zarathushtra, a foe lo the daevas, a believer in Ahura,a praiser of the Aiuesha-Speiilas, ..." 2. I believe in the good, holy Armaiti, ni.ay slie abide with me.I forswear henceforth all rolibing and stealing of eatll* and theplundering and deslruclion of villages belonging to -\vorshippers ofMiizda."3. To householders I promise that they may roam at will andabide unmolested wherever upon the earth they may be dwellingwith their herds. Humbly with uplifted hands to Asha I swear this. .Nor will I hereafter bring plunder or destruction on the Mazda¬yasnian villages, not even to avenge life and limb. . . ." 8. I confess myself a worshipper of Mazda, a follower of Zara¬thushtra, professing ' and confessing the same. I profess goodthouglits, good words, good deeds.

112 Media, babylon, and Persia." g. I profess the Mazdayasnian religion which, while girded witharmor, resorts not to weapons, and the righteous marriage amongkindred ;which religion, as established by Ahura and Zarathushtra,is the highest, best, and most excellent among those that are andthat are to be. . . . This is the profession of the Mazdayasnianreligion." *14. The last verse contains an allusion to a singularcustom, sanctioned, if not originated, by Mazdeism,and which has drawn much censure on its followers:the custom of intermarriage between kindred, evenso near as brothers and sisters.It is not only per¬mitted, but absolutely enjoined and invested with apeculiar sanctity. This notion possibly had itssource in the necessity of drawing the family ties,the clanship, asclosely as possible, in self-defence,and also of fostering matrimonial alliances withinthe circle narrow at first of the faithful. Any¬how, the defenders of this to us abominable customclaim that, if mankind be descended from one couple,the first marriage must have been one betweenbrother and sister.Besides, it should be rememberedthat it was not regarded with uniform horror by re¬mote antiquity, and was in general use as late asamong the Egyptians, that mostintellectual andcertainly not immoral people.The probabilities-arethat it was a very ancient Eranian custom, confirmedby the new religion on practical grounds.* Translation of Mr. A. V. W. Jackson, of Columbia College,New York.

VI.MIGRATIONS AND FOREIGN INFLUENCESTLlE VEN¬DIDAD HEATHEN REVIVAL THE KHORDEH-AVESTA.1. If with the "Yasna of Seven Cli^pters " wealready pass into an atmosphere distinct from thatof the Gathas (see p. io8), the Vendidad takes usinto another world.The most cursory perusal ofthe book shows us that the religion carried westwardby its Eranian bearers has wandered far from itscradle, and has assimilated many foreign elements inits wanderings.The Vendidad, the only book ofAvestan law preserved entire out of the mass ofAvestan literature, is devoted to only one subject,but that a most important one :the means of main¬taining the ideal Mazdayasnian purity and of fight¬ing and defeating the daevas.It is the extrememinuteness and iJuerility of most of the observancesprescribed, together with the importance given *tomere points of material detail, which produce sostartling a contrast between this later developmentof Mazdeism and the pure abstraction of Zarathush¬tra's own teaching.Still the spirit of that teachingis there in its essential features ;and the regulationscontain much that is excellent and wise under all113 I

114 media, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the rubbish of priestly discipline. Moreover, wemust bear in mind that Mazdeism in this particularform was not by any means adopted by all the fol¬lowers of Zarathushtra, and, indeed, seems to havebeen at first confined to the northern Eranians,especially the Medes, and to have become generallyenforced only at the revival of the national religionunder the Sassanian kings.2. Three fundamental principles underiie thispriestly legislatidn, and make it at once intelligible,even in its extravagances: (i) There is only onethoroughly noble and honorable calling, and that isagriculture and cattle-raising, for as much land as isreclaimed and made productive or used for pasture,just so much is wrested from Angra-Mainyu andhis daevas. (2) The entire creation is divided into" the good " and " the bad." Ahura-Mazda made alluseful creatures ; foremost and holiest among theseare cattle, the guardian dog and the vigilant cock.It is a duty to tend them and a sin to neglect them.Angra-Mainyu made all the noxious creatures. It isa duty to destroy them on all occasions. They areclassed under the generic name of KhRAFSTRAS, andwe are surprised to see the most harmless insects,and animals like the frog, the lizard, included in thedoom of destruction together with wolves, serpents,flies, and ants. Pleretics and wicked men alsosometimes come under this denomination. (3) Theelementsair, water, earth, and fireare pure andholy, and must not be defiled by the contact of anything impure. The priest, therefore, while officiatingbefore the fire, wears a cloth before his mouth, that

6. " taitidAna" (pen6m)cloth worn by the par¬sis before their mouthsin presence oe the sacredFIRE.5. PARSI IN PRAYING COS¬TUME.7-' KOSTI " SACRED GIRDLE WORN TV PARSIS WHILE rRAYINOOR DURING ANY SACRED CEREMONY."5

Il6MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.his breath may not sully the supremely holy ele¬ment. Such a cloth is worn to this day by everyParsi while tending the sacred fire of his own hornealtar,or even saying his prayers.3. Every thing in the Vendidad, as well as in thelater purely liturgical portions of the Yasna, and thelitany known as the "Vispered " (see p. 30), betraysthe authority of a long-established and all-powerfulpriesthood. This would be obvious enough, even8. " ATESH-GAII " OR " FIRE-ALTAR " OF MODERN PARSIS.without the evidence of a passage {Fargard e.," chapter" IX.) where Zarathushtra is made to com¬plain to Ahura-Mazda of the harm that is done by anyperson layman or heretic who, " not knowing therites of purification according to the law of Mazda,"presumes to perform the ceremony for any of thefaithful who have incurred uncleanness. Ahura-Mazda expressly states that "sickness and death,

THE VENDIDAD.~THE LESSER AVESTA.11^and the working of the fiend, are stronger than theywere before" in consequence of such sacrilegious in¬terference, and, on being asked " What is the penaltythat he shall pay ? " gives the following directions :" The worshippers of Mazda shall bind him ; they shall bind hishands first ; then they shall strip him of his clothes, they shall flayhim alive, they shall cut off his head, and they shall give over his9. "ATESH-GAH " OR " FIRE-ALTAR " ; SEEN liY ANQUETIL DUPER¬RON AT sOrAT.corpse unto the greediest of the corpse-eating creatures made byAhura-Mazda, unto the ravens,* with these words : The man herehas repented of all his evil thoughts, words, and deeds. If he hascommitted any other evil deed, it is remitted by his repentance. . for ever and for ever, '" -f* Although there is no worse pollution than touching a corpse,these birds are "made Iiy Ahura-Mazda," /, e., pure, because theyare necessary to remove the pollu.tion from llie face of the earth.t The punishment atones for ail offences, and the soul goesto Paradise free from taint or guilt.

Il8 MEDIA. BABYLON, AND PERSIA. ^4. The AthravanFire-priestis indeed a majestic ,figure, as he stands forth, in flowing white robe, thelower part of his face veiled, beside the dtesh-gcih, or"fire-altar," a metal vessel placed on a low stoneplatform and filled with ashes, on top of whichburns the fire of dry, fragrant chips, continuallytrimmed and replenished. In one hand he holds theKhrafstraghna (the " khrafstra-killer," an instru¬ment of unknown form for killing snakes, frogs,ants, etc.), in the other the Baresma, a bundle oftwigs, uneven in number five, seven, or nine prob¬ably divining-rods, without which the priest neverappeared in public.'" Near the atesh-gah stands astone table, set forth with the sacred utensils for theperformance of the daily Haoma-sacrifice, which,though ignored and probably abolished by theprophet,, has resumed its place of honor in the reli¬gious practice of this essentially Aryan people. Itshould be mentioned, however, that the sacrificialdrink was prepared from another plant than theHindu Soma, one that grows in Eran, and the juiceof which is far less intoxicating, nor is it subjectedto a process of fermentation. Besides, only a smallquantity was drunk by one of the officiating priests,after the liquor had been consecrated by being raisedbefore the sacred flame, "shown to the fire."t Themystic rite is thus shorn of its coarsest and most ob-Originally the twigs for the Baresma were to be cut, with cer¬tain ceremonies, from either a tamarind or a pomegranate tree, or anytree that had no thorns'. The modern Parsis have, very prosaically,substituted flexible rods of brass wire.f This is the identical Haoma-sacrifice of the modern Parsis, aswitnessed and described by Dr. Martin Haug.

TONGS TO 'PKIM SACRED FIRE.SAUCERS FOR MILK AND FRUIT OFFERINGS (" MYAZDA ").L.VULK FOR ABLUTIONS ANDPUUIFICATIONS.CUP FOK HOLY WATER("ZAOTHKA."HAOMA-KNIFE." IIARES.MA " (l!ARSO-M) WITH STAND,lO, SACRIFICIAL IMPLEMENTS USED IN PARSI WORSHIP.iig

I20MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.noxious feature, the intoxication in which it toooften ended in India, and b'ecomes purely symbolical.Such, too, is the character of the other offerings,consisting of a few bits of meat (to which the mod¬ern Parsis have substituted a little milk in a cup),some small cakes, and some fruit, all of which, more¬over (representing the various kinds of human food),are not consumed in the fire of the altar, but onlyheld up before it, presented, so to speak, as asymbolical offering and for consecration. TheYasna and Vispered continually invoke and glorifythese parts of the daily sacrifice ; the HAOMA, theMyazda (offering of meat or milk, cake and fruit),and the Zaothra (holy water), together with theBaresma (bundle of sacred twigs), and the sacrificialvesselsmortar and pestle, strainer, cups, etc.areexalted as the most fiend-smiting of weapons. " Thesacred mortar, the sacred cup, the Haoma, the Wordstaught by Mazda (manthras), these are my weapons,my best weapons ! " Zarathushtra is made to say (Ven¬didad, XIX.). Nay, in a poetical introduction to thelong and elaborate hymn to Haoma (Yasna, IX.), theheavenly Haoma, "the Holy One who driveth deathafar," appears to Zarathushtra, incarnate, in humanform, clothed with a body of marvellous beauty, atthe sacred hour of sunrise, while the prophet is" tending the sacred fire and chanting the Gathas."Whereupon a dialogue ensues, in which Haoma bidsZarathushtra " Pray to me, O Spitama, and prepareme for the taste " (?". e., press and strain the juice of theplant Haoma), and tells him of the heroes who, " thefirst of men, prepared him for the incarnate world,"

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 121and obtained as a reward glorious and renowned sons.The first of these was Vivanghat, father of the greatYima (see pp. 89-93), the king of the golden age ;and the last Purushaspa, the father, of Zarathushtrahimself, who, having heard the wondrous revelation,speaks : "' Praise to Haoma ! Good is Haoma, wellendowed,healing, beautiful in form. . . . goldenhued,and with bending sprouts. . . ." This longnarrative is one of the few passages in the Avestawhich are brimful of ancient mythic lore.5. " Which is the first place where the Earth feelsmost happy?" asks Zarathu.shtra of Ahura-Mazda,who replies (Vendidad, III.) : "It is the place where¬on one of the faithful steps forwaixl with the holywood in his hand, the baresma, the holy -meat, theholy mortar, fulfilling the law with love. . . ."The description of the other places where the Earthfeels most happy presents the complete Eranianideal of a prosperous and holy life." It is where one of the faithful erects a house with cattle, wife,and children, and wdicre the cattle go on thriving ; the dog, the wife,the child, the fire are thriving, and every blessing of life . . .where one of the faithful cultivates most corn, grass, and fruit ;where he waters ground that is dry, or dries ground that is too wet. . . where there is most increase of flocks and herds . . .and where they yield most manure."It is the iDcrfection of a farm." He who would till the earth " it is still Aliura who speaks"with the left arm and the right, wilh the right arm and the left, untohim will she bring forth plenty. Tike a loving bride unto her beloved.. . . Unto him thus says the Earth : ' O thou man who dost tillme with the left arm and the riglit, with the right arm and the left Ihere shall I ever go on bearing, bringing fortli all manner of food,bringing forth profusion of corn.'

.122 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.^" He who does not till the earth, O Spitama Zarathushtra ! with theleft arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto himthus says the Earth : ' O thou man ! . . . ever shalt thou stand atthe door of the stranger, among those who beg for bread ; ever shaltthou wait there for the refuse that is brought unto thee, brought bythose who have profusion of wealth.' "6. " He who SOWS corn sows holiness"(Vendldiid, III., 31). Where there is plenty andprosperity there- is no room for wickedness no roomfor envy, violence, rapine, and all evil passions ; be¬sides, honest toil leaves no time for evil thoughts,evil words, and evil deeds. This great truth is thusexpressed in quaint, truly Avestan phrase :"When barley is coming forth, the daevas start up ;when thecorn is growing rank, tlien faint the daevas' hearts ;when the cornis being ground, the daevas groan ;when wheat is coming forth, thedaevas are destroyed. In that house they can no longer stay ; fromthat house they are Ijcaten away, wherein wheat is thus comingforth. It is as though red-hot iron were turned about in theirthroats, when there is plenty of corn."Therefore, to " sow corn " is more meritoriousthan " a hundred acts of adoration, a thousand obla¬tions, ten thousand sacrifices."7. But, sowing corn and holines.s and routingthe daevas by the toil of " the left arm and theright, the right arm and the left," requires bodilystrength and endurance. So this most practical andrational of religious laws proceeds, with admirableconsistency, to enjoin proper care of that necessaryservant the body :" Then let the priest teach his people this holy saying : ' No onewho does not eat has strength to do works of holiness, strength to doworks of husbandry. . . . By eating every material creature -lives, by not eating it dies away.'"

TIIE VENDIDAD. TIIE LESSER AVESTA. 123Not only_ are practices of abstinence and asceti¬cism the so-called " mortification of the flesh " notpraised or encouraged, but and herein AvestanMazdeism differs from almost every other religionthey are condemned, denounced as a foolish andwicked error, that strengthens the hands of theArch Enemy."Verily I say unto thee, O Spit.ima Zarathushtra !the man wholuas a wife is far aliove him mIio begets no sons ; he who keeps ahouse is far above him wlio has none ;he who has children is farabove the childless man * ; he who has riclies is far above him whohas none. And, of two men, he who fills himself with meat isfilled with the good spirit much more than- he who does not do so.It is this man who can strive against the onsets of theDeath-fiend -|- ; that can strive against the winter-fiend, with thinnestgarments on ;that can strive against the wicked tyrant and smitehim on the head ;that can strive against the ungodly Ashemaogha(heretic, false teacher), who does not eat," \ (Vendidad, IV,)8. Symmetry, that inevitable characteristic of asystem of universal dualism, pervades the Vendidad* Herodotus tells us that in liis time prizes were given in Persia bythe king to those who had most children ;wdiile sacred texts of thePehlevi period expressly declare that ' ' he who hasno child, thebridge of paradise shall be barred to him."f Ast6-Vjdii6tu, " the bone-divider," who has a noose round everyman's neck, and is the immediate cause of death.So that we aretold (Vendidad, V.) that water and fire kill no man ;the holy ele¬ments could not do the work of Angra-Mainyu.No, it is Asto-Vidhotu who " tics the noose," then " the fiood Lakes the man up, ordown, or throws him ashore " ;or the fire burns up the body previ¬ously killed by the fiend.ITliis thrust, if the passage be comparatively ancient (B.C.), maybe pointed against the Hindu Brahmen, or Buddhists, both greatadepts at ascetic practices.If belonging to Sassanian Mazdeism, itwould be directed against the Manichaeans, aPersian sect, whichenjoined fasting and abstinence of every sort.

124 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.in form and substance. Every set of definitions, ofqueries and answers, is exactly matched by its cor¬responding opposite set. So, after ascertaining fromAhura-Mazda what are the places where the Earthfeels most happy, Zarathushtra proceeds to inquirewhat are the places where she feels sorest grief, andreceives, among others, the following replies : ". . .It is the place wherein most corpses of dogs and menhe buried. . . . It is the place wfiereon standmost of those Dakhmas, whereon corpses of menare deposited. ..."The Dakhmaalso called by the modern Parsis"the Tower of Silence" the burying-place, orrather, the cemetery, for the name of " burial " wouldill become the singular and, to us, revolting way inwhich the Mazdayasnians of Northern Eran disposedof their dead, religiously followed therein by theirParsi descendants. This brings us to the contempla¬tion of the most extraordinary refinement of logicalconsistency ever achieved by human brains.9. Given the two absolute premises: ist, that theelements are pure and holy and must not be defiled ;2d, that the essence of all impurity is death, as thework of the Angra-Mainyu, " the Spirit who is alldeath," and who takes undisputed possession of thehuman body the moment that the breath of life, thegift of Ahura-Mazda, has left it, the question," What is to be done with the dead .? " becomes anexceedingly complicated and difficult one. Thepresence of a corpse pollutes the air ; to bury it inthe earth or sink it into the water were equally sacri¬legious ; to burn it in the fire, after the manner of

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 125the Hindus and so many Indo-European nations,would be the height of impiety, an inexpiable crime,involving no end of calamities to the whole country.Only one way is open : to let the bodies of the deadbe devoured by wild animals or birds. Such, in¬deed, is the law : the corpses shall be taken to adistance from human dwellings and holy things, ifpossible into the wilderness, where no men or cattlepass, and be exposed " on the highest summits,where they know there are always corpse-eating dogsand corpse-eating birds," and there be fastened bythe feet and by the hair with weights of brass, stone,or lead, lest the dogs and birds carry portions of theflesh or bones to the water and to the trees and thusdefile them. The worshippers of Mazda are enjoined," if they can afford it, to erect a building for thepurpose of exposing the dead, of stone and mortar,out of the reach of the dog, the wolf, the fox, andwherein rain-water cannot stay*; if they cannotafford it, they shall lay down the dead man on theground, on his carpet and his pillow, clothed withthe light of heaven {i. e., naked), and beholding thesun."-10. Such is the origin of the Dakhmas or Towersof Silence. We give the description of one ofthese unique cemeteries in the words of the dis-* This hast clause, like many other minute prescriptions, isfounded on the very correct conclusion that it is moisture which re¬tains and carries pollution infection, and must be considered as?sanitary provision. A corpse of a year's standing and dried up doe^,not pollute ; even the site of a Dakhma is pure once more, when thebones are reduced to dust ; for it is said ; " The dry minglesnot withthe dry."

126 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA,tinguished Parsi writer who has been quoted oncealready "^ :"A circular platform about 3C0 feet in circnmferencc, entirelypaved with larcj-e stone slabs and divided into three rows of exposedreceptacles, called /«7//., for the bodies. of the dead.As^ there arethe same number of favis in each concentric row. they d.m.msh insize from the outer to the inner ring, so that by the sule of he wallis used for tlie bodies of males, the next for those of females, andthe third for those of children.These receptacles, 01 pams arcseparated from each other by ridges which are-about one inch mheight, and channels are cut into the/«Wx for the purpose of con¬veying all the liquid matter flowing from the corpses and ram-waterinto ^ihandar, or deep hollow in the form of a pit, the bottom ofwhich is paved with stone slabs.tower.This pit forms the centre of theWhen the corpse has been completely stripped of its fleshby the vultures, which is gcurally accomplished within an hour atthe outside, and when the bones of the denuded skeleton are perfectlydried up by the powerful heat of a tropical sun and other atmos¬pheric influences, they are thrown into the pit. where they crumbleinto dust-the rich and poor meeting together after death m onecommon level of equality. Four drains are constructed. ...They commence from the wall of the bhandar^-c.

SECTION,TOTAL HEIGHT Ai:OUT l6 FEET,/ ^^ ^^' '^f '\VIEW OF THE INTERIOR. OUTER DIAMETER ABOUT 70 FEET.THE " PAVI."__II. A "DAKHMA," OR " TOWER OF SILENCE."127

128 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.that only that particular portion of the ground shall be set apart forthe dead. . . . Iron nails are used.* . . . The structureis separated from the adjoining ground by digging a trench all roundit, about one foot deep and wide."It is evident from the tone of this passage that theauthor entirely approves of this peculiar treatmentof the dead. Certain it is that the Parsis contem¬plate it without repulsion for themselves, and claimthat it is at all events the most perfect solution ofthe sanitary question which it undoubtedly is,especially in hot, yet moist, tropical climes. As asolemn reminder of the equality of all men beforethe laws of nature, and an efficient preventive to thevanities of funeral pomp and posthumous distinctions,the custom is also entitled to respect.II. The attempt to carry out the exaggeratednotion of the purity of the elements and the impur¬ity of death with the most rigorous consistency,involves the priestly lawgivers in endless contradic¬tions, places them in the most puzzling predicaments.They become conscious that so many occasions ofpollution arise which are wholly beyond their con¬trol, that existence threatens to become impossible,unless they draw the line somewhere on this side ofwhat may be termed the reduction ad absurdum oftheir doctrines. This they do in the form of an extrarevelation, contained in a special chapter of theVendidad (Fargard V.), wherein Zarathushtra is made* Thus also the stretcher on which the dead are carried must beof iron. Metal is .supposed to retain infection less than any othersubstance. According to the laws of purificarion a tainted vessel ofmetal can be cleansed, while one of woocf cannot, but remains un¬clean forever and ever.

130 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.to propound nice and puzzling points, in the form ofhypothetical cases, for Ahura-Mazda to solve. Wegive the first part of this curious dialogue whole, asa ,specimen :" There dies a man in the depths of the vale : a bird takes flightfrom the top of the mountain down into the depths of the vale, andit eats up the corpse of the dead man there ; then up it flies from thedepths of the vale to the top of the mountain, it flies to some one ofthe trees there, of the hard-wooded or the soft-wooded, and uponthat tree it vomits, it deposits dung, it drops pieces of the corpse." Now, lo ! here is a man coming up from the depths of the vale tothe top of the mountain ; he comes to the tree whereon the bird issitting, from that tree he wants to have wood for the fire. He fellstree, he hews the tree, he splits it into logs, and then he lights iton the fire, the son of Ahura-Mazda, What is the penalty that. heshall pay ? "Ahur£i-Mazda answered:" There is no sin upon a man for .anydead matter that has been brought by dogs, birds, by wolves, bywinds, or by flies." For, were there sin upon a man for any dead matter that mighthave been brought by dogs, by birds, by wolves, by winds, or by flies,how soon this material world of mine would have in it only PeshStanus"(i. e., people guilty of death), "shut out from the way ofholiness, whose souls will cry and wail ! " (After death, beingdriven away from paradise.)In like manner the agriculturist is not to be heldresponsible for any dead matter that any animal mayhave brought into the stream that waters his field.Zarathushtra next takes Ahura-Mazda himself totask for apparent violation of his own laws :" O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One ! Is it true tliatthou, Ahura-Mazda, sendest the waters from the sea Vouru-Kashadown with the wind and with the clouds, and makest them flowdown to the corpses ? That thou, Ahura-Mazda, makest them flowdown to the Dakhmas, to the unclean remains, to the bones ? Andthat thou, Ahura-Mazda, makest them flow back unseen ? . . ."

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVEST.'i. 13ITo which Ahura-Mazda answers :" It is even so asthou hast said, O righteous Zarathushtra ! " but ex¬plains that, when the rain-water, thus polluted, re¬turns unseen to whence it came (by evaporation), itis first cleansed in a special heavenly reservoir, calledthe sea POlTIKA, from which it runs back into the seaVouru-Kasha as pure as ever, and as fit to water theroots of the sacred trees that grow there (the Gaok¬erena and the tree of All-Seeds, see p. 65), and torain down again upon the earth, to bring food tomen and cattle.12. The same inevitable inconsistency shows itselfin the feeling about the Dakhmas.Although theexistence of these constructions is a matter of abso¬lute necessity, we saw above that the sites on whichthey are erected are numbered among those places"where the earth feels sorest grief."Nay, they aredenounced, on unimpeachable hygienic grounds, asthe trysting places of all the fiends " where thetroojDS of daevas rush together, to kill their fiftiesand their hundreds, their thousands and their tensof thousands. . . . Thus the fiends revel on thereas long as the stench is rooted in the Dakhmas.Thus from the Dakhmas arise the infection of diseases,fevers, humors. . . . There death has most power onman from the hour when the sun is down."And, al¬though the building of Dakhmas has at all times beenconsidered a meritorious act of piety, we are told thatthe man who gladdens the earth with greatest joy, is,first, " he who digs out of it mo.st corpses of dogs andmen," and, second, " he'who pulls down most of thoseDakhmas on which corpses of men are deposited."

132 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA." Urge every one in the material worid, O Spitama Zarathush¬tra ! " Ahura-Mazda is made to say, " to pull down D.akhmas, Hewho should pull down thereof, even so much as the size of his ownbody, his sins in thought, word, and deed are atoned for. Not forhis soul shall the two spirits wage war with one another, and whenhe enters the blissful world, the stars, the moon, and the sun shallrejoice in him, and I, Ahura-Mazda, shall rejoice in him, saying:' Hail, O man ! thou who hast just passed from the decaying worldinto the undecaying one ! ' " (Vendidad, VII.)13. And yetsuch is the tyranny of circum¬stances only must the earth endure the pollu¬tion of Dakhmas, and men go on building them,but there may arise even worse complications, whichhave to be met in some way. There is no desecra¬tion, no calamity equal to the presence or vicinity ofa corpse ; but men die at all seasons, and what is tobe done in winterthose terribly severe winters ofCentral Asiawhen the Dakhma, built at a more orless considerable distance from the villages, cannotbe reached ? Zarathushtra places the case beforeAhura-Mazda, (Vendidad, Fargards V. and VIII.):" O maker of the material worid, thou Holy One ! If in thehouse of a Mazdayasnian a dog or a man happens to die, and it israining or snowing, or blowing, or the darkness is coming on, whenflocks and men lose their way, what shall the Mazdayasnians do?"Ahura-Mazda's instruction is, to choose the mostsequestered and driest spot near the house, at leastthirty paces from the water, the fire, and the inhabitedparts of the dwelling, and there temporarily to placethe body in a grave dug half a foot in the groundif it be frozen hard, or half the height of a man if itbe soft, covering the grave with dust of bricks, stones,dry earth :

THE VENDIDAD. TIIE LESSER AVESTA. 133" And they shall let the lifeless body lie there until the birds be¬gin to fly. the plants to grow, the floods to flow, and the wind to dry upthe waters off the earth. . . . Then the worshippers of Mazda shallmake a breach in the wall of the house, and they shall call for twomen, strong and skilful ; and those having stripped their clothesoff, shall take the body to the building of clay, stones, and niortar,where they know there are always corpse-eating dogs and corpseeatingbirds."IIn another place, (Fargard V.) Ahura-Mazda di¬rects that in every borough there shall be raised, inthe prevision of such an emergency, " three smallhouses for the dead," large enough that a man stand¬ing erect in such a house should not strike his skull,nor, should he stretch out his hands and feet, strikethe walls with them.14. Proportionate to the merit of relieving theEarth from the pollution which is " sorest grief " toher, is the sin of wilfully inflicting such grief on herby burying the corpse of a dog or of a man ;and asany sin or guilt is removed by the former act, so nopunishment, not even death in this world, can atonefor the latter, if the offender does not repent anddisinter the corpse before the end of two years :"For that deed there is nothing that can pay . . .nothing than can cleanse from it ;it is a trespass forwhich there is no atonement for ever and for ever " ;which means that the offender's soul must go tohell and stay there until the general resurrection.Provided always that he is a professer of Mazdeismand has been taught the law, for contrariwise hedoes not know that he is committing a sin, and can¬not in justice be held responsible for it.15. This principle, sound as it is in itself, culmi-

134- MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.nates in strange anomalies, when applied with thetenacious but one-sided logic of the race :thus it isonly the corpses of Mazdayasnians and animals be¬longing to the good creation of Ahura which defilethe elements and endanger the living.The corpseof a Khrafstra is harmless :" as its life was incarnatedeath, the spring of life that was in it is dried upwith its last breath ; it killed while alive, it can doso no more when dead it becomes clean by dying."The same is said of an Ashemaogha or heretic.(Vendidad, V.)16. Very nearly one half of the Vendidad isfilled with prescriptions about purification andatonementfor every kind of uncleanness, involun¬tary or unavoidably incurred. Sickness of everykind is looked upon in the light of possession, andthe sick, accordingly, are treated more like criminalsthan suffering brethren :sequestered in rooms builtfor the purpose, away from the fire, from the lightof the sun, nourished sparingly, asthe food theytook would strengthen the fiend who has taken uphis abode in them, scarcely permitted to touchwater evento drink, for fear of defiling the pureclement, unapproached by the inmates save in case ofabsolute necessity and with humiliating precautions,-^such as having the food passed to them in ladleswith very long handles,and covered.- with coarseclothes thriftily kept on purpose for such occasions.17. Thriftiness, indeed, is enjoined on the faithfulas a matter of salvation :" Ahura-Mazda does not allow us to waste any thing of value thatwe may have, not even so much as. a small silver coin's weight of

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. I35thread, not even so much as a maid lets fall in spinning. Whosoeverthrows any clothing on a dead body " (because it would be wasted,as nothing could cleansethem of the pollution of such contact)," even so much as a maid lets fall in spinning, is not a pious manwhilst alive, nor shall he, when dead, have a place in the happyrealm.He shall go away into the world of fiends, into that darkworld, made of darkness, the offspring of darkness."The modern Parsis, indeed, do clothe their dead,but the shroud must be made of old, worn-out mate¬rial, the older the better, only well washed.18. But the most horrible and dangerous offiends is the fiend of corruption and contagion, per¬sonified in the Druj Nasu, who takes possession ofthe body at the very instant that' the breath leavesit, " rushing upon it from the regions of the north,*in the shaj^e of a raging fly, . . . the foulest ofKhrafstras," and thence, as from a citadel, deals " in¬fection, pollution, and uncleanness " on all around,even to the tenth row of those near the corpse, andfurther still, for each manimparts the uncleannessto his neighbor, only it growsweaker with eachremove from the centre of infection,the corpse.It has been very plausibly remarked that " in the flywhich is attracted by the smell of dead flesh theysaw the fiend which takes possession of the corpsein the name of Angra-Mainyu." (Justi, " Geschichteder Perser.")It is to exorcise the Nasu that thesagdid ceremony is performed (see pp. 93-94), andthose same " four-eyed or yellow-eared dogs " must bemade to pass several times along the way by which'* Hell lies in the North, where its entrance is in the mountains o£the daevas, Mount ArezOra.

136 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the corpse has been taken to the Dakhma beforemen or flocks are allowed to tread the same way.As for those who have been compelled to toucha corpse, (whether of a dog or a man, the dog beingan eminently sacred animal), they have to undergoa thorough process of purification, by means ofrepeated ablutions. As the " good waters " reachthis or that part of the body, the Druj Nasu is sup¬posed to leave that part and rush to the next nearest,until from spot to spot, beginning with the forepartof the skull, the left toe is reached, from which theNasu at length flies off " to the regions of the north "in her proper shape as a hideous fly. The enumera¬tion of these different. spots of the . human' body,together with the repetition of the formula of ex¬pulsion, all in the usual dialogue form, continuesthrough several pages, and strikes one, it must beconfessed, as the most ludicrous and puerile piece ofabsurdity. It is in reading such passages as this thatone understands the objections raised by AnquetilDupeiTon's enemies (see pp. 12-13). The purificationsprescribed and regulated in the Avesta, and still ob¬served by the Parsis, are very peculiar and exceed¬ingly disgusting. Their essential feature is the ablu¬tion W\t\\ gdmi:z, the urine of cows or steers, a liquidequally held sacred and cleansing by the BrahmanicHindus. The person to be purified washes his or herentire body ^^'I'Ca.gomh, then rubs it dry with handfulsof earth or dust, and lastly washes it again, thistime with water. The performance is repeated sev¬eral times. The great purification takes nine nights(the Barashmhii). Of course these ceremonies are

THE VENDIDAD. TIIE LESSER AVESTA.I37performed and directed by priests, and we saw above(p. 1 16) how jealously, even fiercely, the clergy guard¬ed the privilege. Gome';! is used to purify houses,clothes, drinking vessels, just as we use a disinfec¬tant ; the lips of new-born children are moistenedwith it, and the mothers are made to swallow a con¬siderable quantity mixed with ashes before they areallowed to touch water.19. Never is the corpse-fiend so dangerous aswhen it finds one of the faithful alone, unprotectedby the presence and prayers of another Mazdayas¬nian. Therefore a man who would carry a corpsealone were irretrievably lost ; the Nasu would rushupon him, and enter into him, and make him uncleanfor ever and for ever ; he would become, so to speak,a Nasu incarnate, and must be set apart from allhuman intercourse. The directions concerning thetreatment of a "carrier-alone" are the following:an- enclosure shall be erected on a dry and barrenspot, at a distance from the fire, the water, and allholy things ; there the " carrier-alone " . shall beestablished and shall be supplied with the coarsestfood and the most worn-out clothes, and there heshall live until he attains an advanced old age, whenhe shall be put to death in the same manner as theunlicensed purifier (see p. 1 17), his death atoning forhis offence both in this world and the next. Thewords used in both passages are identical.20. Although diseases are looked upon in theAvesta as forms of demoniac possession, yet we finda short chapter of the Vendidad on physicians, theirmodes of treatment, and the fees they are entitled

138 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.to.As might be expected, the precedence is givento the treatment by spells, the reciting of sacredtexts manthras :" If several healers offer themselves together, namely one whoheals with the knife, one who heals with herbs, and one who healswith the holy word, it is this one who will best drive away sicknessfrom the body of the faithful."A Jate commentator, with the sceptic shrewdnessborn of more fastidious times, remarks :" It may bethat he will not relieve, but he will not harm " ;soadvises to give the conjuring doctor a trial by allmeans. As to the surgeons the " healers with theknife "they do not seem to have enjoyed unlimitedconfidence, as they were allowed to practise subjectto a sort of examination which does credit to theshrewdness of that eminently practical people, theEranians : they were to try their skill first on aliens,followers of false religions, who were abandonedto the tender mercies of the graduating studentsmuch as condemned criminals were sometimes usedin the Middle Ages for experiments in animd vili :" On worshippers of the daevas shall he first prove.hiniself. . . .If he treat with the knife a worshipper of the daevas and he die,"and a second and a third" he is unfit to practise the art of heal¬ing for ever and for ever. . . . If he shall ever attend any worship¬per of Mazda . . . and wound him with the knife, he shall payfor it the same penalty as is paid for wilful murder."" If he treat with the knife a worshipper of the daevas and he re¬cover," and a second and a third " then he is fit to practise theart of healing for ever and for ever.He may henceforth at his willattend worshippers of Mazda . . . and heal them with theknife."At all events this is a notable improvement on the.

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 139treatments in use in ancient Chaldea and later Baby¬lon.*The fees are all valued in kind : oxen, asses, mares,camels, sheep,and graded according to the rank an'dwealth of the patient, so that while " he shall healthe lord of aprovince (a king) for the value of achariot and four," "he shall heal a sheep for thevalue of a meal of meat,"for the duties of a physi¬cian were not separated from those of a veterinarysurgeon.The only fee required of a priest was " aholy blessing."21. Not the least peculiar feature of the Vendidadlegislation is the exceeding honor paid to the dog.We have repeatedly seen the dog associated withman, asequally sacred, possessing equal rights torespect, in such phrases as :" The corpse of a dog ora man " ; " the murder of a dog or a man." But thatis not enough ; we find several chapters devoted tothe treatment of the animal in health or sickness,and the explanation of this extreme solicitude isplaced in the mouth of Ahura-Mazda himself:" The dog, O Spitama Zarathushtra ! I, Ahura-Mazda have madeself-clothed and self-shod, watchful, wakeful, and sharp-toothed,born lo take his food from man and to watch over man's goods. Ihave made the dog strong of body against the evil-doer and watch¬ful over your goods, when he is of sound mind. And whosoever shallawake at his voice, neither shall the thief nor the wolf steal any thingfrom his house wilhout being warned ; the wolf shall be smitten andtorn to pieces ; he is driven away, he flees away. . . .If those two dogs of mine, the shepherd's dog and thehouse-dog pass by the house of any of my faithful people, let themnever be kept away from it.For no house could subsist on the earth* See " Story of Chaldea," p 163.

I40MEDLA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.made by Ahura, but for those two dogs of mine, the shepherd's dogand the house-dog."It is because of his dependence on man and hisdisinterested service, -^ " watching goods none ofwhich he receives "that the dog should be tendedand fed with "milk and fat with meat," and givingbad food to a dog is accounted as great a sin as serv¬ing bad food to a guest ; nay, it is a sin of the firstmagnitude to give a dog too hard bones or too hotfood, so that the bones stick in his teeth or throatand the food burns his mouth or his tongue. And" if a man shall smite a house-dog or a shepherd'sdog so that it gives up the ghost and the soul partsfrom the body," not only will that man be severelypunished for the deed, but his soul shall not in theother world be defended from the howling and pur¬suing daevas by the dogs that guard the ChinvatBridge. If there is in a house a scentless dog or amad dog, " they shall attend to heal him in tlie samemanner as they would do one of the faithful," and ifthey fail, they shall put a wooden collar round hisneck and tie him to a post, lest he come to harmand the owners of the house be held responsible forhis death or wound. In like manner a dog-mothermust be looked after exactly as a woman ; she andher litter must be supported by the man on whoseproperty the whelps were borUi until they are capableof self-defence and self-subsistence, and if he fails inthis, he shall pay the penalty as for wilful murder."Young dogs," it is explained, " ought to be sup¬ported for six months; children for seven years."Lastly

THE VENDIDAD.TIIE LESSER AVESTA. I4I" If a man shall smite a shepherd's dog or a house-dog so that itbecomes unfit for work, if he shall cut off its ear or its paw, andthereupon a thief or a wolf break in and carry away sheep from thefold or goods from the house without the dog giving any warning,the man shall pay for the lost goods, and heshall pay for thewounds of the dog as for wilful wounding,"The stray clog who has no home or master isranked somewhat below those canine aristocrats, theshepherd's dog and the house-dog ;still he is entitledto respect as he is more especially used for the Sagaid;he is compared to a holy man of the wanderingclass, a sort of "begging friar," remarks Darmesteter.The same author informs us that " the young dogenters the community of the faithful at the age offour months, when he can smite the Nasu."22. Other animals are mentioned in the same chap¬ters as varieties of dogs, but the passages are fancifuland obscure.Of greater interest are those that re¬fer to the merits of the cock, the bird of Sraosha,the router of daevas, the messenger who calls mento the performance of their religious duties :" . , , the bird n.amed Par6darsh, , , . that lifts up his voiceagainst the mighty Dawn : ' Arise, O men ! . . . Lo ! here isBilshyansta,* the long-handed, comiiig upon you, who lulls to sleepagain the whole living world, as soon as it has awoke : ' Sleep, shesays, sleep on, O man ! the time has not yet come, . . .'"... And then bedfellows address one another : ' Rise up,here is the cock calling me up,'Whichever of the two first gets up,shall first enter paradise, whichever of the two shall first, with wellwashedhands, bring clean wood unto the Fire, the sonof Ahura-Mazda , . ."... And whosoever will kindly .and piously present oneof the faithful with a pair of these my Parodarsh birds, male and fe-* A female fiend, personifying sloth, immoderate sleep.

142 MEDIA, BABYLON. AND PERSIA.male, it is as though he had given a house with a hundred columnsAnd, whosoever shall give my Parodarsh bird his hU t.fmeat, I, Ahura-Mazda, need not interrogate him any longer ; heshall directly go lo paradise."-73 The merest perusal of the Vendidad sufficesto^show the threefold alteration which Mazdeismhad undergone from the lofty simplicity of theGathic period : 1st, an excessive development in thedirection of dogmatism and discipline ; 2d, the re¬vival of certain old heathen associations and ten¬dencies ; 3d, the adoption of certain foreign elementsThe latter fact is easily accounted for. if weremember that the race of which the Avesta is thememorial did not work out its spiritual life as acompact, permanently settled nation, but while stillin a nomadic, fluctuating, migrating condition. 1 hisis abundantly shown by such passages as, for in¬stance, that which prescribes (Vendidad, VIII.) whatshould be done with the corpse of a dog or a man,if there is no Dakhma within reasonable distance :" If they find it easier to remove the dead than to remove the housethey shall take out the dead, they sh.all let the house stand, and shallperfume it with sweet-smelling plants."// they find it easier to remove the house than to remove the dead,they shall take away the house, they shall let the dead lie on the spot,and shall pcriume the house with sweet-smelling plants.What can such a movable " house " be but a hutof branches or a tent, the nomad's temporary shelter?24. Now we know not only what, in a generalway, the direction of the Eranian migration wasfrom east to west,but we also know about whattime they began to reach the term of that migration,

i I1 ', 'I'lv I / ''lim

144 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the eastern spurs and valleys of the Zagros region,andthe still more rugged highlands between theCaspian Sea and the great lakes of Urartu Urumiehand Vanthe district now known as AdeR-BEIDJAN, corrupted from the classic ATROPATIiNE,itself a transformation of an older Eranian namemeaning " Dominion of Fire." We have monu¬mental proof that the Eranian branch then alreadyknown as MEDES (Madai) were dislodging the tribesamong the eastern ridges of Zagros, and were them¬selves attacked by the Assyrian arms as far back asthe ninth century E.C. under Raman-Nirari III.,'^^' andwere probably mentioned already under that king'sgrandfather, the great Shalmaneser II. We arefurther led to suppose that portions at least of theadvancing Medes must have passed through or nearthe territories of various savage and semi-barbarouspeople in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea, the regionknown to later, classical antiquity as Hyrcania.All this knowledge enables us to do more than guessat the origin of certain observances prescribed andcertain conceptions inculcated, in the Vendidad, andflowing from no Aryan sources assuredly :the use ofthe Baresma, the treatment of the dead, the treat¬ment of diseases by conjuring-spells, the exaggeratedreverence paid to the elements, the belief in num¬berless hosts of fiends always on the watch topounce on men and draw them to perdition.Nowall these customs and conceptions, foreign to theAryan spiritual bent, are in perfect accordance withwhat weknow of the Turanian religious system;* See " Story of Assyria," p. 194.

146 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND .PERSIA,some of them indeed are extremely familiar to usfrom the texts and spells of Shumir and Aecad,-ancient Chaldea,* and the presumption is very strongthat the populations of the Zagros and Caspian recrionswhich the Medes, in^the course of some threehundred years, dislodged or reduced under thenrule,belonged in great part to the division of man¬kind which the Eranians sweepingly designated as"Turan "(the Yellow Race),t in opposition to them¬selves.25. There is nothing unnatural in the fact that theAryan conquerors should have been influenced by thepeople amongst whom they came ;indeod the con¬trary would have been rather remarkable, since theywere comparatively few in number, and it was nomore than sound policy to conciliate the new subjects,whom a military rule unsoftened and unaided bymoral influence would surely have been insufficientto keep under control.For the conquerors to imposeon them their own religion was the first and mostnecessary step towards asserting that moral influence,but it was a step which could not be achieved without* See " Story of Chaldea," Chapter HI.+ This presumption would now be considered an established factbut for the violent opposition it has met from the Assyriologist andSemitistMr. Halevy, who strenuously denies the Turanian elementin the tribes conquered by the Medes and even in ancient Shumiro-Accad itself. For a long time Mr. Halevy stood entirely alone ; hewashowever, joined by the late S. Guyard, and another Frenchscholar, Mr. Pognon, now supports his views.however eminent, will scarcely prevail in the end.Still this minority,Besides, the viewsheld by the two opposing camps are not, in some cases, as irrecon¬cilable as tliey seem at first sight-at least as respects the Medianconquests. .

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 147numerous concessions to the local, already long es¬tablished, religions. No new religion, however su¬perior, ever supplants an older one without suchconcessions ; in making them, it grows familiarwith the lower standard, and such is the innatepropensity of things to deterioration inevitably be¬comes tainted with the very beliefs and practiceswhich it is its loftier mission to abolish. Thus wesaw the rudimentary goblin-worship of Shumir andAccad with all its train of degrading superstitions(conjuring, divining, spell-casting, etc.) incorporatedinto the far higher and nobler religious system ofSemitic Babylonia.'^'^Moreover, the Eranians we'renotoriously fond of novelty and prompt to imitate.26. This question of Turanian influences trace^able in the Avesta, a question so important for thecomprehension of what we might call the geological "stratification of the religion that grew out- of theGathic revelation, has been made the object of ex¬haustive research by Mgr. C. de Hariez, the Frenchtranslator of the Avesta.f We can do no betterthan follow his conclusions, point by point, as faras the peculiar character of a popular work willallow.1st. "The incantations, of which the Vendidad supplies a fewspecimens, assuredly have their origin in Shumir and TuranianMedia. Such long and monolonous enumerations as the followingrecall the Accadian formulas : ' To thee, O Sickness, I say avaunt !to thee, O Death, I say avaunt ! to thee, O Pain, I say avaunt ! to-thee, O Fever, I say avaunt ! to Uiee, O Disease, I say avaunt I* See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 235-237-f "Les Origines du Zoroastrisme." See also the same writer'smonumental " Inlroductiou " to his translation of the Avesta.

148 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. .-, -I drive away sickness, I drive aw.ay death, I drive awaypain and fever, I drive away the disease, rottenness, and infectionwhich Angra-Mainyu has created by his witchcraft against thebodiesof inorlals. . . .'" (Vendidad, XX.)*"The multitude of dae-vas in the Avestan world, the belief intheir unremitting action, in their continual attacks, in the necessity ofincantations and conjurarion to defeat them, the superstitions such asthat about the parings 'of nails being turned into weapons for thedaCvas,-|all this dark and gruesome side of Zoroastrism is certainlythe product of Chaldean and Turanian habits of thoughtTo the Clialdeans disease was the work of the fiends ; magic wordswere the surest cure. Just so the Avesta tells us that the bestphysician is he who heals with the holy word (manthra). . . ."2d. The Baresma is probably due to the same in¬fluences. All Turanian peoples have used diviningrods, and the peculiar direction, to the priest to holdthe bunch of twigs extended before him during di¬vine service points to the notion that it keeps theevil spirits from his person and from the altar. Thiswould -also explain why the Median priests, theMagi, were never seen in public without the Bar¬esma. Here another question suggests itself in con¬nection with the outer forms of the Mesopotamianreligions, about which so little is known from lack ofdocuments. There is, on Assyrian sculptures, a verypeculiar object, which frequently recurs in scenes ofworship and sacrifice, where it appears deposited on* For this and all that follows, compare "Story of Chaldea," Ch.IV., " Turanian Chaldea."f Every Mazdayasnian is directed to bury the parings of his nailsin a hole dug on purpose in tlie eartli, leciling ceriain prayers at thesame lime. If he neglects this precaution, " the nails shall be inthe hands of the daevas so many spears, knives, bows, falcon-wingedarrows, and clingstones." The combings of hair and the hair that iscut or shaved off are to be buried in like manner. (Vendidad, XVII.)

THE VENDIDAD. TIIE LESSER AVESTA. I49the altar.The use of it, or the nature, has neveryet been explained. But on close inspection itlooksextremely like a bundle of twigs, uneven innumber, tied together with a ribbon. Is it notrather likely that it may represent the sacred divin¬ing rods and be the original of the AvestanBar¬esma ?It were a question certainly well worth in¬vestigating.15. ASSYRIAN ALTAR (COMPARF, ILL, lO, " llARESMA WITH STAND ").3d, " The belief in llie Druj Nasu, or corpse-fiend, in the irreme¬diable pollution caused by corpses and all that follows therefromconcerning the funeral riles and purifications, the setting out of thedead to be devoured by wolves and vulturesthese conceptions andcustoms belong neither to the Aryas, nor to the Chaldeans, nor to theAccadians,Tliey must have originated in a mountainous country,very little civilized, and under the inspiration of a Turanian people.The Greeks expressly tell us wdicre they were in force. . . .They have ascertained that only theBactri^ns and Caspians fol¬lowed them, the former partially, the latter entirely."The later name of this region, Hyrcania,, hasbecome a byword for savage fierceness, and itwasun-

I50MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.doubtedly aportion of the vast extent known as"Turan."Mgr. de Hariez further points out that the Nasuclosely corresponds to those evil spirits of Shumirand Accad from whose persecution men are neversafe,who fall as rain from the sky,who spring fromthe earth, who creep in at the door like serpents,who steal the child from the father's knee,whowithhold from the wife the blessing of children.*Besides, the Nasu-Druj is not alone ; here, as inTuranian Chaldea, their name is Legion. ChapterXI. of the Vendidad, which is entirely compo.sed ofincantations and. exorcisms to repel the evil influ¬ence from the house, the fire, the earth, the tree, thecow, the faithful man and woman, etc., gives a longlist of fiends whose names have not yet been identi¬fied or explained. Here, as there, too, the Northis the fateful region ; in tlie north lies Mount Arezura,the meeting-place of the daevas, with its gateof hell opening from the west.27. The excessive reverence shown to Fire andexpressed in observances so strict and ritualistic asto have gained for the Zoroastrians the name of"Fire-worshippers" from superficial ob.server.s, alsoappears to have been a later development. Theword Athravan (" Keeper of the Fire "), whichdesignates the priest throughout the later Avesta,does not occur once in the Gathas. The priest isthere designated by a descriptive periphrasesuchas " Master of Wisdom," " Messenger of the Law."Now the worship of the elements is a well-known* See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 155. i56.

5il6. RUIN OF ATESH-G.^H AT FIR0Z-«AD,

152 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.Turanian feature, and as regards specially that" ofFire, it is quite likely that the Eranians alreadyfound it in full force in the region bordering on theCaspian Sea from the west.That maze of moun¬tains and valleys, uniting the foot of the Caucasianrange and the head of the Zagros, abounds in under¬ground springs and reservoirs of naphthaa perfectlyinexhaustible wealth of fuel, which a very little la¬bor could bring to the surface by means of pipes, andutilize for entertaining quenchless fires.Thus theinstitution of sacred fires is absolutely suggestedby the nature of the country, and is accordinglyintimately associated with that country even in itsname Atropatene = Aderbeidjan to our own day.(See p. 144.) Some few so-called " Gebers " or " Fireworshippers" still linger among the mountains of Ad¬erbeidjan and Upper Kurdistan, attracted by the flamewhich still glimmers on the top of some of the ancientFire-towers, the gigantic Atesh-gahs or Fire-altars con-.structed in the times of their fathers' glory; uniqueand most impressive constructions, now mostly inruins.The sacred flame, kindled in the pure moun¬tain air, high above all defiling contact, drew itsnourishment by a pipe that passed straight upthrough the centre of the building, directly from theinvisible store below. Truly, few forms of worshipappeal more to our imagination and pur sense ofreverent awe than the homage paid to this purest ofsymbols on the stainless mountain tops, by whiterobedAthravans, raising their voice in song amidthe silence of a wild and undesecrated nature.28. More traces of Turanian influence might eag-

«rf^-!f*> »vft' -1t^^'=?r^>!^»'153 17, RESTORATION OF THE PRECEDING.

154 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.ily be adduced, but they are too indistinct and sub¬tle to allow of discussion in a merely popular work.There is one, however, too peculiar and striking tobe passed over; it is the strange transformation un¬dergone by the Fravashis, or glorified spirits of thedeparted, who, as we can establish cleariy, and with¬out straining a point, originally answer to the Pitrisof the Veda (see pp. 83, ff.).' That of the host of " thegood, strong, 'beneficent Fravashis of the faithful,"those of the first and sainted champions of the truefaith should be honored with a special reverence, isright and natural, and there is nothing startling inthe long litany (over twenty pages) which recallsthem all by name, repeating the same form of invo¬cation, beginning with " the.Fravashi of the holy Zara¬thushtra, who first thought what is good, who firstspoke what is good, who first did what is _good.... who first knew and first taught,"and end¬ing with this beautiful proclamation of universalbrotherhood : " We worship the Fravashis of the holymen in the Aryan countries, ... of the holywomen in the Aryan countries, ... of theholy men, of the holy women in the Turanian coun¬tries, ... of the holy men, the holy women inall countries." From these unsubstantial spirits tothe host of heavenly warriors, " with helms of brass,with weapons of brass, with armor of brass, whostruggle in the fights for victory in garments of light,arraying the battles. and bringing them forwards, tokill thousands of daevas," who help their own peo¬ple in their wars, who fight for the waters to be dis¬tributed to their clans, the transition, by 'a bold

THE VENDIDAD. TIIE LESSER AVESTA. I 55touch of anthromorphism, is .easy, the proceedingfamiliar and thoroughly Aryan.But when, in thesamehymn (Yesht XIIL), we find a long string- ofinvocations to the Fravashis of the living, of thoseto be born, nay, of animals and inanimate objects,when, indeed, Ahura-Mazda and the Amesha-Spentasare said to have their own respective Fravashis, weare no longer in an Aryan worid.Here are some ofthe passages :"Of all those .incient Fravashis, we worship the Fravashi ofAhura-Mazda, who is the greatest, the best, the fairest, etc. ...We worship the good, strong, beneficent Fravasliis of the Amesha-Spentas, the bright ones, etc. ... We worship the souls ; thoseof the taiiie animals ; those of the wild animals ; those of the animalsthat live in the waters ; those of the animals that live under theground ; those of the flying ones ; those of the running ones : thoseof the grazing ones ; we worship their Fravashis.* . . . We wor¬ship the good, strong, beneficent, Fravashis ... of the mostrejoicing Fire, ... of the holy, strong Sraosha, who is the in¬carnate Word, a mighty-speared and lordly god, . . . that ofMithra, the lord of wide pastures ; that of the Holy Word (Manthra-Spenla) ; that of Ihe sky ; that of'the waters ; that of the earth ; thatof the plants ; that of the Bull ; ... We sacrifice unto theFravashis of those that have been ; of those that will be ; all theFravashis of all nations, and most friendly to those of the friendlynations."" The most powerful amongst the Fravashis of the faithful, OSpitama ! are those of the men of the primitive law, or those of theSaviours not yet born, who are to restore the worid.f Of the others,the Fnavashis of the living are more powerful than those of thedead."We see here in the Avesta the beginning of a de-* The soul is to be imagined as distinct from the Fravashi.f In the fulness of time three prophets, or " Saviours," miracu¬lously born from Zarathushtra are to appear on earth, to prepare theworld for final regeneration.

156 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. 'velopment which is worked out far more thoroughlyin the Bundehesh and other Pehlevi books of theSassanian period, and which would beinexplicablebut for the affinity which the student of Chaldeanantiquity cannot but instantly detect between thesespiritual doubles and those which the primitive faithof the Shumiro-Accads ascribed to every individ¬ual, whether human or divine, and to every materialobject or phenomenon.""*The influence is unmistak¬able, though there is far from Turanian goblin-worshipto the nobler form which the same conception as¬sumed when received and reproduced by the morerefined Aryan intellect. In their last developmentthe transformed P'ravashis came to be, as one mightsay, the pre-existing prototypes created in heavenof all that is ever to be born or have visible shape onearth,the abstract form, to be at some time incar¬nated in a body.The most intelligible and exhaust¬ive definition of this class of beings is that givenby Dr. E. W. West, perhaps the greatest living Peh¬levi scholar: "... A preparatory creation of em¬bryonic and immaterial existences, the prototypesfravashisspiritual counterparts or guardian angelsof the spiritual andmaterial Creatures afterwardsproduced." f29. We lastly come to the affinities, betweenAvestan andHebrew conceptions, which are manyand striking. The almost identity of the Angra-* See, in " Story of Chaldea," the explanation of the expression" the son of his god," pp. 176 ff., and Turanian spirit-worship- in thesame chapter, pp. 151 ff.f In a note to Chapter I. of the Bundehesh,

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 1 57Mainyu of Mazdeism with the Biblical Satan, aswell as the close approach of Ahura-Mazda in sub¬limity and supremacy to Jehovah himself, (notYahveh, the tribalgod of the eariy Hebrews, butYahveh, the One God and Lord of the greatprophets), has long been acknowledged by thegreatest scholars; some of whom "'^ are much inclinedto attribute the similarity to direct Hebrew influ¬ences. All that can be said here on this very farreachingsubject is that we have historical evidenceof the possibility of contact and intercourse betweenthe Eranian and Semitic minds at least as eariy asthe eighth century B.C. ; since we know that Sargonof Assyria, when he carried Israeh away into captiv¬ity after the fall of Samaria, sent a number of Jewsto " the cities of the Medes." \ Also, the scene ofthe dramatic story told in the Book of Tobit, as oc¬curring in the reign of King Sennacherib, is placedin " Ecbatane, a city of Media," and in " Riiges ofMedia " (Rhagae), where we are shown Jewish fami¬lies residing permanently, keeping their law, andtransacting the varied business of life. The fiendAsmodeus, with whom young Tobias wrestled forhis wife, is no other than the Eranian Aeshma-Da¬eva, very slightly disguised by foreign pronunciation.So if the Jews borrowed from the Medes, the reverseis by no means improbable. Only we must remem¬ber that Ahura-Mazda stands forth in all his great-* Foremost among these, indeed too absolutely and sweepinglyFriedrich Spiegel ; also, within much more reasonable bounds Mgr.de Harlez." Story of Assyria," pp. 2.48, 249. ' ,

158 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. .ness, as the One God, Omniscient Lord, the Creator,in the primeval Zoroastrian revelation, as embodiedin the Gathas, consequently anticipates by severalhundred years the possibility ofHebrew contactand influences.To these, therefore, Mazdeism mayhave owed some later developments, some finishingtouches, but in no case its original and fundamentalconceptions.30. It may have been noticed that in this necessg.rilycondensed, but not therefore incomplete,sketch of the Avestan legislation (as much of it ashas reached us) no mention has been made of anypenal regulations, or code of punishments.The factis that, although the Vendidad does contain such acode, it is the most incomprehensible part of thewhole book ;its provisions, if they have been rightlyinterpreted, being so wildly extravagant as almost towarrant the severest strictures of Duperron's ene¬mies.The penalty always consists of a certain num¬ber of stripes, applied first with one instrument and,in equal number, with another.The names of theseinstruments the Aspahe-ashim and the Sraosho-Charana *become very familiar after perusing cer¬tain portions of the Vendidad, where they occur atevery other line ;but no one has ever yet found outwhat they really were, or looked like.Furthermore,scholars are not yet agreed as to whether the stripesso many with the one, as many with the otherwere to be received by the culprit, or givenbyhim, i. e., given to unclean animals or insectskhrafstras in which case " so many blows or stripes "Ch pronounced as in " Church."

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 1 59would mean " so many khrafstras killed," the act ofpenance being turned to the profit of the " goodcreation " by so much damage done to the " badcreation." De Hariez, Spiegel, Justi, hold this latterview, while most other Avestan scholarsAnquetil,Haug, Darmesteter, and several moreadvocate theother. As long as we have to do with a reasonable -gradation of punishment, such as from five stripes toten, fifteen, thirty, fifty, seventy, ninety, up to twohundred, there do not seem to be any objections onthe plea of humanity or possibility ; but when itcomes to a thousand stripes, and in one case tenthousand (for the killing of a particularly sacred ani¬mal, called " water-dog," but not yet perfectly iden¬tified), feeling and reason equally revolt and promptus to look for some other interpretation. One isthat corporal punishment, though extensively usedeven now among the Parsis, as throughout the East,was very eariy commuted to the payment of fines,according to a corresponding, strictly graded scale."The Pehlevi Commentary," we are told,"-* " expresslydistinguishes three sorts of atonement : the atone¬ment by money, the atonement by the Sraosho-Charana, and the atonement by cleansing." Andfurther"In later Parsism, every sin (and everygood deed) has its value in money fixed, and maythus be weighed in the scales of Rashnu" (theAngel of Justice). It has been calculated that a stripeis equal to about fifty cents of our money.31. Altogether this is certainly one of the mostpuzzling and unedifying portions of the Avesta, es-* Darmesteter, " Introduction to the Zend-Avesta," p. xcix.

l6oMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.pccially when we consider what seems to our modernand uninitiated eyes the preposterous disproportionbetween offence and punishment. We can under¬stand the infliction of from five all the way to twohundred stripes for assault and battery, manslaughter,and premeditated homicide, according to the injurysuffered, from "drawing blood " to "a broken bone,"or " giving up the ghost," and think the punishmentjust, and even moderate ; we can understand a maxi¬mum of two hundred stripes for any act that defilessacred things, such as tilling land wherein a corpsehas been buried within the year, performing a sacri¬fice in a house where a man has just died, throwingon the ground a bone of a corpse, etc., because suchpollution was believed to affect the whole com¬munity, and to give power to the Evil Ones; butwhen we find the same punishment two hundredstripes awarded for giving bad food to a shepherd'sdog, we " feel uncomfortable,-" as Darmesteter says;and when it comes to five hundred stripes for killinga puppy-dog, six hundred for killing a stray dog,seven hundred for a house-dog, eight hundred for ashepherd's dog, one thousand for a hedge-hog, and tenthousand for' the mysterious "water-dog" (otter?),we give it up, and are fain to confess our incapabilityof identifying ourselves with all the workings of ourfar-away ancestors' minds. ''* A young Avestan scholar, Mr. A. V. Williams-Jackson (of Co¬lumbia College, New York), thus sums up tlie jnoper^attitude towardsall such special questions : " Tlie query as lo the 10,000 stripes I donot feel at all ceriain in answering. I had always held the view thatthe practice denoted in the Sraosho-Charatta was much the same ashas survived in the honors of the modern Persian bastinado, and that

THE VENDIDAD. THE LES.^ER AVESTA. l6l32. When, in a preceding chapter (Ch. IV.), weattempted to trace out the mythical elements con¬tained in the Avesta and to connect them with thenature-myths of a primeval Aryan religion, the illus¬trations were drawn almost entirely from the Yeshts,or hymns, which, with a few fragmentary collections'form the so-called Khordepi-AVESTA ("LesserAvesta").It is therefore unnecessary here to dwellon this portion of the book further than to pointout how that, being undoubtedly a late growth, yetunmistakably polytheistic in tendency, it bears' witnessto that heathen revival, that reaction againstthe pure spiritualism of the Gathic revelation ofwhich we saw the first indications in the " Yasna ofSeven Chapters" (see pp. 108, ff.), and more decidedsigns in the Vendidad.No matter that the formergods are now called Yazatas, spirits, and are said tobe not only subject to Ahura-Mazda, but created byhim,* the tendency is there and the saving clause isthe e.Uraordinary figures 10,000, etc,, were little more than Orientalplaying with numbers , . , while, on the other hand, the regularseries, 5, 30, 50, 90, 100, 200 miglit be literally taken, . . . Theidea is neariy what is expressed by Darmesteter in the ' Introduc¬tion,' . . . parriculariy what he says about the money payments.Yet in spite of tliat, I now see objections . . . hence uncertainty.It IS hard at best, in the present condition of Avesta subjects, tohave decided views. It is more liberal to' avoid as yet being dog¬matic in this field. . . . Where progress is being made eachday, we may think thus and tkus muh, but in a month may learn theerrors of our views, and must abandon them, , , , This is theright ground to hold, is n't it ?" a private letter),* " We sacrifice to Verethraghna, made by Ahura,'We sacrifice to the awful Hvareno, made by Mazda. . . ."" We sacrifice unto the powerful Druaspa (same as Geush-Urvan,M

l62 MEDIA, BABYLON. AND PERSIA. 'introduced merely as a salve to conscience. A-s.Mgr. de Plariez says in his masteriy summing up * :" Zoroastrism at first attempted a far more radical reform, ofwdiich the Gathas give us the measure ; but the reaction of the na¬tional spirit restored the worship of the ancient genii to its formersplendor, and revived eariy traditions. Later Mazdeism foundnothing better than to force the genii into the heavenly hierarchy,proclaiming them to be creatures of Mazda, and the Eranian heroesinto the dualistic order of things, re-handling the stories about themas needful. ... ." Three grades are distinguishable in this evolution. Eranian reli.rionpassed from polytheism to dualism . . . then rose towardsm'onothcism, lo fall back again into spirit-worship. Zoroastrismproper belongs to the first or second phase-ralher to the second, themovement towards monotheism."It is to be expected that every conception,even the most inherent and deeply rooted in theEranian spiritual consciousness, must be affected bythese successive evolutions before it reaches its finalform. Such is the case with the belief in a future life,an existence after death, which is to bring the re¬ward or punishment earned by every soul during itsearthly career. This belief is as old as any withwhich we can credit the Eranian mind. It is continu¬ally expressed in the Gathas, but, quite in accordancewith the spiritual character of that stage of religiousthought, it does not assume there any materialfeatm-es, even though the Chinvat Bridge is re-=ee p lOo), made by Mazda and holy, who keeps the flocks inj^^,^i|ij ." " When I created Mithra,. tlie lord of wide pasmres'. '.' says Ahura. And again: "I have created thatstar Tishtrya. . .* See De Harlez, " Les Origines du Zoroastrisme, pp. 317-319-

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 163peatedlymentioned*; the nature of the bliss orsuffering which awaits the departed spirit is leftvaguely undefined, and sometimes almost seems tobe conceived rather as a state of mind than anactual existence with sensations and feelings, f Notso in the Vendidad. The ancient dreamlike specu¬lation has already materialized into the very beauti¬ful and poetical vision which later Mazdeism presentsto the faithful, with clear and well-established de¬tails, as the revealed picture of the trial and judg¬ment that every soul is to encounter. Nor areheathen features wanting :the mythical dogs thatguard the bridge and escort and defend therighteous spirit, the celestial mountain, the godMithra. Every detail of the thoroughly worked outvision is real and thrilling in the extreme. It ispartly given in the Vendidad (Ch. XIX.) in theconsecrated form of a direct revelation to theprophet, and what is wanting there is completed in* " And wdien they approach there where the Chinvat. Bridge is,in the Lie's abode (Hell), forever shall their habitation be,"(Yasna, XLVL, ii,)"The righteous man's conscience will trulycrush the wicked man's, while his soul ragesfiercely on the openChinvat Bridge, , , ," (Yasna, LI,, 13,)f " The truth is that the mental heaven and hell with which weare now familiar asthe only future states recognized by intelligentpeople, and thoughts, which, in spile of their familiarity, can neverlose their importance, are not only used and expressed in the Gathas,but expressed there, so far as we are aware, for the first time.While mankind were delivered up to the childish terrors of .-i futurereplete with horrors visited upon them from witliout, the earlyEranian sage announced the eternal truth that the rewards ofHeaven and the punishments of Hell can only be /to/« within."(L, H, Mills ; Introduction to his translation of- the Gathas,")

164 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.one of the last Yeshts (XXII.), so that, by combiningthe two, we obtain a beautifully complete narrative,if such a word may be applied to a vision of thefuture." Zarathushtra asked Ahura-Mazda : ' O thou all-knowing Ahura-Mazda !Should I urge upon the godly man and upon the godlywoman, should I urge upon the wicked daeva-worshipper wholives in sin, that they have once to leave behind them the earth madeby Ahura, that they have to leave the waters that run, the corn thatgrows, and all the rest of Uieir wealth ? ' Ahura-Mazda answered ;Thou shouldst, O holy Zarathushtra,'" ' O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One ! where are therewards given . . . that, in their life in the material worid, theyhave won for their souls ? '" Ahura Mazda answered : ' When the man is dead, when histime is over, then the hellish, evil-doing dae-vas assail him, and whenthe third night is gone, when the dawn appears and brightens.up,and makes Mithra, the god with beautiful weapons, reach the allhappy mountains, and the sun is rising-then the fiend namedVl-ZARESHA carries off in bonds the souls of the wicked daevaworshipperswho live in sin.*The soul enters the way made byTime and open both to the wicked and the righteous.' " (Vendidad,XIX.)During three nights the soul is said (Yesht XXII.)to have its seat near the head of the body it has justquitted.If the deceased was a righteous man, " hissoul in those nights tastes as much of pleasure as thewhole of the living worid can taste."During thesethree nights the relatives offer prayers andfices to Sraosha, Rashnu, and Vayu.sacri¬* C6mmentai-y : " Every one has a noose cast, .around his neck :when a man dies, if he has been a righteous man, the noose, fallsfrom his neck ; if a wicked, they drag him with that noose down intohell." The good and evil spirits struggle on the bridgefor the pos¬session of the soul. "

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 165At the end of the third night, when the dawnappears, it seems to the soul of the faithful one asif it were brought amidst plants and scents ; itseems as if a wind were blowing from the region ofthe south,* a sweet-scented wind, sweeter scentedthan any other wind in the world.And it seems tothe soul of the faithful one as though he were in¬haling that wind with his nostrils, and he thinks:" Whence does that wind blow, the sweetest-scentedwind I ever inhaled ?"(Yesht XXII.)" Then (at the head of the Chinvat Bridge, the holy bridge madeby Mazda) comes the well-shapen, strong, and tall-formed maid . . ."(Vend., XIX.) " fair, while-armed, beautiful of body, of the size of amaid in her fifteenth year, as fair as the fairest things in theworld . . ." (Yesht XXII.) " with the dogs at her sides. . . ."(Vend., XIX.)"And the soul of the faithful one addresses her,asking :' What maid art thou, who art the f.airest m.aid I have everseen ? ' And she answers him : ' O thou youth of good thought,good words, and good deeds, of good religion, I am thy own con¬science. . . ." (Yesht XXII.)" .She makes tlie soul of the righteous one go up above the Hara-Berezaiti ;above the Chinvat Bridge she places it in the presence ofthe heavenly gods themselves.Up rises Vohu-mano from his goldenseat ; Vohu-mano exclaims : ' How hast thou come to us, thou holyone, from that decaying world into this undecaying one ? 'Gladlypass the souls of the righteous to the golden seat of Ahura-Mazda,to the golden seat of the Amesha-Spcnlas, to the Garo-n.mana, theabode of Ahura-Mazda, the abode of the Amesha-Spentas, the abodeof all the other holy beings."(Vend., XIX.)In the Yesht it is one of the faithful that had de¬parted before him who welcomes the righteous soul,* The south is the auspicious direction, since Mount Arezura, thefiends' mountain, containing the entrance to hell, is in the north.The daevas alw.ays come "from the region of the north" andretire thither when baffled and driven away.

l66MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.and asks : " How didst thou come from the abodesfull of cattle and full of the wishes and enjoymentsof love ? From the material world into the woridof the spirit? From the decaying worid into the un¬decaying one ? " But Ahura-Mazda, interposing likea courteous host, who will not have a weary guestdisturbed, says : " Ask him not, ^o has just gonethe dreary way, full of fear and distress, where thebody and the soul part from one another. Let himeat of the food brought to him. . . ."34. After enjoying the exquisite poetry and imageryof this description, it is somewhat of an anti-climax,though quite in accordance with the rules of a sys¬tem of perfectly balanced dualism, to read the wholeover again, word for word, only reversed, for thewicked soul. It tastes as much suffering during thethree first nights " as the whole living worid cantaste," a foul-scented wind meets it from the regionof the north, it is confronted by the man's evil con¬science in the shape of a hideous hag, and so on tothe end. We may be very sure that the beautifulcreation is the .spontaneous one, and that the ug\y pen¬dant has been added in the days of symmetry anddogmatic rehandling of older materials.35. We have now arrived at the end of what mayat first sight appear in the light of a long digression.In reality it is not so. If Carlyle's saying be true,that "the main fact about a man is his religion," itis truest when extended to nations. For nationsare more apt than individuals to act up to theirreligion. A nation sets up its religion as a stand-

THE VENDIDAD. THE LESSER AVESTA. 167embodying its loftiest and holiest ideals,worked out collectively and unconsciou.sly by itsmembers, and summed up by some great teacherand leader. By those ideals, by that standard, a na¬tion should be judged, its historical mission and in-^fluence appraised, not by the fallings-off and short¬comings of individuals,just as an individual's in¬trinsic worth can be fairiy estimated only by notingthe high-water mark his spiritual consciousnessreaches in moments of insight and uplifting, not bythe shallows and lowlands in which existence dragson, more from necessityor at least feebleness of pur¬pose choice, nor by the leaps and convulsivestarts occasioned by moments of passion and generaldisturbance. Nor should a religion be judged bythe amount of ancient mythic dross clinging to it,or its puerilities of superadded theological dogma¬tism and priestly discipline, but from the amount ofpure spiritual food it contains, also the practical helpit gives towards righteous and happy living.There are two short Avestan texts, which wouldalone suffice to atone for all the dross contained inthe book, and establish a moral elevation that can,hardly be overrated for the people who could thinkand feel thus. The first is a verse towards the closeof the great hymn to the Fravashis, (Yesht XIIL):'" We worship the souls of the holy men and women,born at any time or in any place, whose consciencesstruggle, or will struggle, or have struggled for thegood." The other text is a prayer (in the LesserAvesta) which, for conciseness, comprehensiveness,and depth of thought, has never been surpassed ;

l68MEDIA. BABYLON, AND PERSIA." Give us knowledge, sagacity ; quickness of tongue ;holiness of soul ; a good memory ; and then theunderstanding that goeth on growing, and that tinderstanding,which Cometh not through learning. " Judgedby all these tests and standards, the Eranian race andtheir religion hold a very high standing indeed ;anda thorough comprehension of the latter will be of nolittle help in duly estimating the former's triumphantprogress through the ancient world, which we nowprepare to follow, taking up the thread of historicalnarrative where we last dropped itat the Fall ofNineveh and the Assyrian Empire.

VII.THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH.1. While As.shur, the dying giant, lay in thethroes of dissolution, the last ebb of animat-ionfeebly surging in Nineveh, the still throbbing heart,a stir, as of returning life, passed over the remoterprovinces as the pressure of the iron hand that heldthem down relaxed in death. Of the number wasSyria. Once more the procession of familiar namespasses before us : Hamath and Judah and Dam'ascus,Moab and Ammon and Edom, spectres offormer greatness, roused into a brief spell ofenergy by a draught of that " wine of fury," whichthe last of Jerusalem's prophets was bid to cause allthe nations to drink that they might " reel to andfro and be mad," one with another (Jeremiah, XXV.).Egypt too, with wounds scarce healed, and totteringstUl, but undaunted and aggressive as ever, .appearsonce more, for the last time, in Asia, on the scenewhich she had swept triumphant through so manycenturies, but was now to abandon, stricken andcrestfallen, like an actor his.sed off the stage.2. Psammetik, the deliverer of Egypt,* 1^-"^ been*See "Story of A.ssyrin," p, 395,J69f^:,^KISRD£(/;:^,0::>/?j:icth62;

170 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.succeeded in 610 by his son, Neclio II., who im¬mediately set to work to carry out his father's pol¬icy with regard to Syria.True, Psammetik's longyears of warfare had not brought him farther thanthe Philistine cities, * but he had been interruptedby the downpouring of the Scythian and Cim¬merianhordes and the necessity of retreating intohis own equally open country to be in readiness foran invasion. That obstacle was now removed ; in¬terference from Assyria was the lastthing to befeared, and a warm welcome from the Syrianprinces, judging from precedents, could be countedupon.Necho's plan probably was to assure himselfof their allegiance, and, his rear securely co\f*red bya breastwork of tribute-paying friends, to proceed tothe Euphrates, to the main business of the cam¬paign the actual conquest of Assyria itself. Thereisno reason why this plan should not have beensuccessful, but that others were beforehand with theEgyptian.3. Moreover, the princes may not have been soready to welcome him.Now that their colossalfoe lay at the last gasp, their dreams musthavebeen of total emancipation, not of exchanging oneforeign rule for another, even though probably amilder one.That such was their feeling, and thatNecho's progress was not a peaceful one, we mayconclude from the fact that it took him four yearsto get to the Euphrates, and from the 'hostile atti¬tude of one of them, Josiah, King of Judah, recorded*See " Story of Assyria," pp. 4iS, 423.

THE LAST DAYS OF fUDAH.17Iat length in the Bible books, (Second Kings, SecondChronicles, and Jeremiah).4. Since the unexpected deliverance from Sen¬nacherib's host in 701,* Judah had, on the whole,with the exception of Manasseh's short-lived rebel¬lion,! and the descent of the Scythians, enjoyed apretty quiet time.The now reigning king, Josiah,Manasseh's grandson, had come to the throne in638, a child only eight years old. Eariy mouldedlo the double influence of the priests and theprophets, he grew up into a religious reformer, whoseholy zeal restored the worship of Yahveh in morethan ancient purity and splendor.of the Egyptian army heAt the approachroused himself from hispeaceful and pious occupations to oppo.sethe in¬vader imprudent step, since his material nieanswere unequal to it, and taken, it would appear,against the advice of his wisest councillors.tle was fought in the valley of Megiddo.Here where, a thousand years before, thegreat Dhutmes HI. had broken the Can-A bat¬jfegVado"!j°silh*by, t r 1 i-l Necho.aanite league,:]; fortune again prospered the 609 b.cEgyptian arms ;Necho's victory was com¬plete, and Josiah himself fell on the field.His sonand successor Jehoahaz, who came to humble him¬self at the victor's feet in his camp by the Orontes,found no favor in the Pharaoh's eyes, but was byhim deposed andcarried captive into Egypt, andthere was great mourning foe him :" Weep ye not* See " Story of Assyria," pp. 305-311.f See " Story of Assyria," pp. 34i. 342-X See " Story of Assyria," p. 27.

172 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.for the dead, neither bemoan him ; but weep sore forhim that goeth away, for he shall return no more,nor see his native country" (Jeremiah, XXII., lo).5. Having appointed another of Josiah's sons,Jehoiakim, to reign in Judah, and taken muchgold and silver out of the land, Necho followed inDhutmes' .steps, and pursued his way to theEuphrates, probably conquering the countries as hewent. In 605 he reached the great river ; but herehe was confronted by a foe for whom he was littleprepared.Things had gone faster than he had ex¬pected, and differently: Nineveh had fallen theyear before under the united efforts of the Medesunder Kyaxares and the Babylonians under Nabopolassar.*It was therefore not the worn-out old lionof Asshur whom the Pharaoh encountered, but the.strong and victorious lion of Babel, with threateningfangs and ominous growl.The Babylonian army,commanded not by Nabopolassar, who was old andinfirm, but by his young son,Nebuchadrezzar, al¬ready a renowned warrior and accomplished general,met the Egyptian force near Karkhemish,Karkhemish ; and Completely routed it. How NechoNlclTJbyreturned to the Nile after this disaster,Nebuchadrez- j i i '._ i_ t ^ * ,zar.-6o5 B.C. and liow loug it took him, we have nohint,he is heard of no more.6. The victory of Karkhemish would have beenfollowed up more vigorously and immediately, hadnot Nebuchadrezzar, soon after he started in pursuitof the routed Pharaoh, been hastily summoned toBabylon.His father, Nabopolassar, had died after* See " Story of Assyria," pp. 427, 428.

THE LAST DAYS OF fUDAH. 173a short illness, and though a competent regent wasappointed by the priesthood, the presence of thenew king was urgently required, and affairs at homefor a time took the precedence over foreign wars.It was a new and vast inheritance which Nebuchad¬rezzar was called upon to receive and organize. Forat the division of spoils which followed on the de¬struction of Nineveh, the ancient empire of Asshurhad been pretty equitably divided between the twoprincipal championsthe kings of Media and Baby¬lon. The former, true to the tendency of his peo¬ple, which had always been drawn on in a westeriydirection, retained the long-disputed Zagros region,the land that might be called Assyria proper, downto the alluvial line, and such power or claims as- Assyria possessed over the entire mountain-landof Nairi, from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean,from the highlands of Urartu to those ofMasios and Amanosor, in other words, all thatlay ea.st and north of the Tigris. This, joined tothe Medes' vast dominions in their native Eran,made up the new and, for a short while, powerfulMedian Empire. The Babylonian Empire was formedof ttee rest of Mesopotamia, with Chaldea proper,down to the Gulf, and all'that lay westward of theEuphrates to the sea. This empire, if inferior in ex¬tent to the other, was superior in so far that it wasmore homogeneous, including countries of one race,one culture, and almost one languagethe Semitic.It will be seen that both these empires, in transfer¬ring to themselves the possessions and claims of As¬syria, burdened themselves with its wars, especially

174 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the southern empire, which could not possiblyforego the sovereignty over the lands of Syria, as itwas a matter of vital importance to Babylon, bothfrom a military and commercial point of view, tohold control over the two great caravan routestheone across the desert to the Phoenician cities of thesea-shore, and the other, from these cities, throughDamascus and Karkhemish, to Asia Minor.As forElam, it seems, at this time, to have been alreadyoccupied in part by an advanced detachment of anew nationthe PERSIANS, Aryan Eranians like theMedes to whom they were subject. This detach¬ment was commanded by a branch of the royal familyof Persia ;but not for fifty years yet were they tocome forward in any way.Through all this time wenever hear of Elam.It is more than probable that itwas tributary to Media, and did not court notoriety.7. We are not told to whom Judah and the otherSyrian princes paid tribute during the five years thatelapsed between the battle of Karkhemish and thesurely not unexpected coming of Nebuchadrezzar.One thing must have been clear to them :that thequestion for them could only be between two mas¬ters.Nor would that question be left in doubt kjng,as it was. not likely that the king of Babylon wouldsuffer the rivalry of Egypt one moment longer thanhe should be kept busy at home.So that his com¬ing in 600 B.C. was more like that of a sovereign re¬turning to claim his own than the invasion of a conc^ueror.Jehoiakim of Judah, wisely hastened totender his submission, and Nebuchadrezzar seems tohave spent, the next three, years in Syria, in desultory

THE LAST DAYS OF fUDAH. 1/5warfare, graphically described by a contemporary-.the prophet Habakkuk :Lo I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, whichmarch through the breadth of the earth, to possess dwellings that arenol theirs. They are terrible and dreadful. . . . Tlieir horses areswifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves.They fly as .an eagle that hasteth to devour. They come,all of ihem, for violence ; their faces are set eageriy as the east wmdand they gather caprives as the sand. Yea, he scofteth at kings, andprinces are a derision unto him he derideth every stronghold .He shall sweep by .as a wind; . . even he whose might is InsHe taketh men with the angle, he catcheth them mhis net', and galhereth them in his drag ; therefore he rejoices and isglad. ..."8 The leading spirit in Jerusalem at this time wasthe prophet Jeremiah. Like Isaiah, but with infi¬nitely greater violence, he opposed and denouncedall plans of resistance. He was profoundjy con¬vinced that Judah's only chance of safety lay in ab¬ject submission and discouraged, nay, cursed in tliename of the Lord, all attempts which could onlybrin" destruction on the city, death and ruin on thepeople. His preaching was considered unpatrioticand was far from popular.Besides, the accusationsand invectives which he never ceased to hurt at tnewealthy and powerful, not sparing the king himself,reproving their evil ways, made him bitter enenriiesin the ruling classes. So the policy which he advo¬cated, though it had prevailed under the pressure ofimminent danger, was soon abandoned. The samepitiable old farce with the tragic ending was enactedonce again : foriorn hopes centred on promises fromEgypt; revolt, then disappointment, asJhe^roken

176 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. 'reed " failed to give support,and retribution, swiftand terrible.9. Three years after his submission Jehoiakimappeared in arms and refused the tribute.Nebu¬chadrezzar, who had other matters onFirst taking . -ofjerusaiem his liauds just then, sent against TudahbyNebuchad- ' o jrezzar- bauds of Chaldcaus, Moabites, Ammon-597 B.C. , ' 'ites, and other loyal Syrian nations, andonly when he had driven out the Pharaoh so thor¬oughly that he " came not again any more out of hislands," and " when he had taken, from the river Eu¬phrates to the Brook of Egypt, all that pertained tothe king of Egypt," did he join the besiegers beforeJerusalem. Jehoiakim meantime had died. Froma passage in Jeremiah it would appear that therehad been a revulsion of popular feeling against him,which had vented itself in indignities perpetrated onhis body." They shall not lament for him," saysthe prophet ; . . . "he shall be buried with theburial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond thegates of Jerusalem."Nor had the prophet any butwords of wrath for Jehoiakim's son and successor,Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah) :saith the Lord, though Jeconiah were"As I live,the signetupon my right hand, yet would I laluck thee thence ;and I will give thee into the hand of them of whomthou art afraid. . . ." The poor youth (onlyeighteen years old) did not attempt further resist¬ance, but went out to Nebuchadrezzar's camp andgave himself up, with his mother, his princes, andhis servants.Jerusalem was not destroyed yet thistime, but its population was thinned of 10,000 cap-

THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH. 1 77tives, chosen among the " mighty menof valor,"including a thousand craftsmen and smiths,- " all ofthem strong and apt for war."The prophet Ezekielwas one of this first batch of captives, who weretaken to Babylon together with the king and hishouse.Nebuchadrezzar made an uncle of Jeconiah,ZEDEKiah, a son of Jehoiakim, king in Judah, en¬tered into a covenant with him, and made him swearthe oath of allegiance.10. Four years now passed peacefully enough,but it was a peace fraught with fears, forebodings,and dissensions.The spirit of Judah was not brokenyet, and popular feeling was all for revolt.Jere¬miah's persistent- warnings scarcely sufficed to holdit in check, all the more that they were counteractedby other prophets, who foretold that the yoke ofBabylon should be broken and the captives shouldreturn after a short interval, some said within twoyears.At times Jeremiah was actually forbiddento speak in public.But the consciousness of hismission was strong within him and banished fear..Bitterly he complains of the persecutions to whichhe was subjected, curses the day that he was born," the man who brought tidings to his father, sayingA man-child is born, making him very glad," butspeak he must, even though his life be the forfeit :" I am become a laughing-stock all the day, everyman mocketh me ; . . . the word of the Lordis made a reproach unto me, and a derision all theday. And if I say I will not make mention ofhim, nor speak, then there is in mine heart as it werea burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am. weary

178 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.with forbearing, and I cannot contain. . . ." When,in the fourth "year of Zedekiah's reign, messengerscame from the kings of Moab, Ammon, and Edom,and from those of Tyre and Sidon, to propose arenewal of the usual combinarion, the prophet opposedtheir errand with even more than his usualvigor and explicitness. He " gave them a chargeunto their masters," saying :" Thus sailh the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel : . . . I havegiven all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar the king ofBabylon, my servant. . . . And it shall come to pass that the na¬tion and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadrez¬zar that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king ofBabylon, that nation will I punish with the sword and with thefamine and with the pestilence. ... And hearken not unto thewords of the prophets thjit speak unto you, sayingYe shall notserve the king of Babylon, for they prophesy a lie unto you. I havenot sent them. . . . Bring your necks unto the yoke of the kingof Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. ..."And when, about this very time, Zedekiah wentto Babylon, it was probably by the advice of thecautious prophet, and to clear himself from any sus¬picion of complicity in a conspiracy which could notbe unknown to the king.II. Not content with preaching in Jerusalem,Jeremiah sent written words to the captives in Baby¬lon, exhorting them to bear their lot in patience andto make the best of it ; to " build houses and dwellin them," to plant gardens and eat the fruit of them,to marry and multiply and " not be diminished."" And," he added, " seek the peace of the city andpray unto the Lord for it, for in the peace thereofshall ye have peace." And yet was the prophet's

THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH. 179soul filled with wrath against the conquerors, and hetook comfort in the prevision that their turn wouldcome, expatiating on the future ruin of Chaldea withvindictive- delight, as the fit retribution for the woesbrought on Judah. The last chapters of Jeremiah,written after the final catastrophe had been enacted,breathe this spirit of revengeful exultation through¬out, and are full of dire predictions, in the usuallofty strain of prophetic poetry,passages the sub¬stance of which can be summed up in the followingextract :" Israel is a scattered sheep ; the lions have driven him away ;first the king of Assyria hath devoured him ;and last this Nebuchad¬rezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones. , . . Behold, Iwill punish the king of Babylon and his land as I have punished theking of Assyria. . . ."And even while preaching resignation and cheer¬ful endurance under the hardships of captivity, evenwhile prevailing on the unwilling king to gotoBabylon on his humiliating errand, Jeremiah man¬aged to convey to his captive brethren the assurancesof coming retribution.He " wrote in a book all theevil that should come upon Babylon," and gave thebook to one of the royal officers, bidding him readout " all these words " when he should have arrivedat Babylon, then bind a stone to it and cast it intothe midst of the Euphrates, saying, as he did so :" Thus shall Babylon sink and not rise again."12. Thus, at his own imminent peril, the prophetsucceeded in putting off the evil hour for a fewyears more. But when, in 589, the grandson of

j8oMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.Necho II.,* HOPHRA, (the Greeks call him AprIES),succeeded to the throne of Egypt and immediatelyshowed signs of meditating a Syrian campaign, thetemptation was too strong for the war party in Je¬rusalem : Zedekiah, perhaps rather unwillingly, butunable to withstand the pressure of popular feeling,openly rebelled. It was not long before Nebuchad¬rezzar was reported to be on the march. More thanever Jeremiah inveighed against this recklessness,upbraiding the king moreover for his breach of faith,and no messages or enquiries could draw from himany but the one obnoxious advice," submit." " Thussaith the Lord : I myself will fight against you withan outstretched hand and a strong arm. Behold,I set before you the way of life and the way of death.He that abideth in this city shall die, by the sword,and by the famine and by the pestilence. But hethat goeth out and falleth away to the Chaldeans,he -shall live."_13. Egypt, as usual, was not ready in time. Be¬fore her^army had crossed the frontier, Nebuchad¬rezzar already stood under the walls of Jerusalem.The Pharaoh, however, now made up for lost timeby rushing onward with such energy and swiftnessas to claim the Chaldeans' immediate attention, sothat they raised the siege of Jerusalem in order tohasten southwards with undivided forces. Greatwas the joy in the doomed city, but Jeremiah sternlychid all hope, saying to those who were sent from* Necho had died in 594 and been succeeded by his son Psam¬metik II, who did not come out of Egypt at all during his short

THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH.iSlthe king to enquire of him : " Behold Pharaoh'sarmy, which is come forth to help you, shall returnto Egypt, to their own land.And the Chaldeansshall come again and fight against this city ;andthey shall take it, and burn it with fire."And to asecret message from the king, asking :" Is there anyword from the Lord ? " he replied : " There is : thoushalt be delivered into the hands of the king ofBabylon."In vain his life was threatened almostdaily ;in vain he was lowered by cords into a noi¬some dungeon filled with mire, by order of theprinces of the city, who said :" This man weakeneththe hands of the men of war that remain in this city,and the hands of all the people, speaking such wordsas these :for he seeketh not the welfare of the peo¬ple, but the hurt."When secretly rescued by thecommand of the king, and brought into his presence,he steadfastly repeated the same message in thesame words.At last the king, unable to protecthim otherwise, bade him remain in the palace, andthere he stayed in the court of the guard, untilJerusalem was taken, when Nebuchadrezzar orderedhim to be treated with honor and set at liberty.14. P'or it came to pass according to the prophet'swords. The host of Egypt was struck1 AT 1 1 1 Destructiondown at one blow and Nebuchadrezzar ofjerusaiem,.,,,,. ... byNebuchadreturnedwith all his army and besieged rezzar.^ ^ 686 B.C.Jerusalem, establishing his own head¬quarters, however, at somedistance, at Riblah onthe Orontes, in the land of Hamath, whence he couldnot only overlook the operations against Judah, butkeep an eye on all the lands of Syria and the cities

l82MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.of the sea-coast.The siege lasted nearly a year anda half and the horrors of it pass description. Ac¬cording to the account given by Jeremiah, (in theLamentations), hunger was the worst."The priests andthe elders," he writes, " gave up the ghost inthe city, while tliex sought them meat to refresh their souls. . . .The young children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of thecity ; they say to their mothers. Where is corn and wine ? Whenthey swoon as the wounded, . . . and their soul is [joured outinto their mothers' bosom. . . . Her nobles were purer thansnow, they were whiter than milk. . . . Their visage isblacker than a coal ; . . . their skin cleaveth to their bones ;it is withered, it is become like a stick.They that be slain with thesword are better than those that be slain with hunger.The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children ;they were their meat in the destruction of the people."At last abreach was made in the wall, and theChaldeans gained possession of one of the gates.The king and his men of war then made a bold sallyand attempted to cut their way through the be¬siegers. They had actually broken through thelines, out into the open country, but were pursued,overtaken, and scattered.As to king Zedekiah, hewas taken before the king of Babylon, to Riblah,where he suffered the most barbarous treatment.His sons were slain in his presence, after which hiseyes were put out and he wascarried in chains toBabylon, there to end his days in prison.The wallsof Jerusalem were broken down ;the temple andthe royal palace built by Solomon were burned en¬tirely, as well as the houses of the wealthy inhabi¬tants, and all their treasures and works of art werecarried away ;those that were cumbrous by reason

THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH. ' I S3of their size, like the pillars of brass and the brazensea, were broken in pieces. All the people of Jeru¬salem were carried into captivity, with the exceptionof the very poorest, who were left behind to be vine¬dressers and husbandmen.15. We have already seen that the Hebrew prophrets, although deeply versed in the politics of theirtimes, and foretelling with unerring insight the ruinwhich, in the course of history, was inevitably toovertake the various states, great and small, whichformed their political world, were sometimes misled,by their eager impatience to see the wrongs theywere powerless to avert avenged on their rivals andenemies by a higher power, into appointing too earlya date for their destruction.* Ezekiel especiallyrepeatedly falls into this error. Thus the defeat in¬flicted on the Pharaoh Hophra did not result in theChaldean invasion and total destruction which hedepicts in his otherwise inagnificent dirge overEgypt. (Ezekiel, ch. XXXII. and other passages.)No less premature is his eloquent prophecy of thefall of Tyre (ch. XXVI.-XXVIIL), which Nebuchad¬rezzar proceeded to blockade as soon as he had donewith Judah. The Jews suspected the proud queenof the seas of being at heart rather pleased thangrieved at the disaster which struck them from theroll of nations, and their captive prophet accordinglydenounces her and calls down destruction on herhead :"Because that Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, Aha! she isbroken that was the gate of the peoples ;I shallbe replenished now* See " Story of Assyria," p. 429.

1 34 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.that she is laid waste ;therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, Iam .against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come upagainst thee, .as the sea c.auseth his waves to come up. And theyshall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers.I willalso scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock. ... Forbehold, I will bring upon Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, andwith horsemen. . . ." (Ch. XXVI., 2-14.)That the Phoenician capital suffered severely ismost probable, since the siege is said to have lastedSiege of Tyre, 1, J,,, J -^1-^^.nigh on thirteen years. On the otherygrv fact that it could last soby Nebuchad- ' ^T^^''-^ r lone and not end in conquest even then,been very close.mained open ?shows that the blockade could not haveHow should it, when the sea re¬It seems to have ended in a capitu¬lation, the people of Tyre acknowledging the king ofBabylon's overiordship and accepting anew kingfrom his hands, in place of the "rebel" who wasdeposed.16. The prophet Ezekiel, seeing his prediction, forthe time being, only half fulfilled, takes aview of the event.the sackpeculiarHe appears to have consideredof Tyre as a reward due to the king ofBabylon for the work he did as instrument of theLord's vengeance against Judah, and speaks in aone of disappointment of his being deprived of it :" Nebuchadraezar, king of Babylon, caused his army to serve agreat service against Tyre ; every head was made bal.l, and everyshoulder was peeled* ; yet had he no w.ages, nor his army, from Tyre."Then the prophet promises the conquest of Egyptas a compensation :* By the long friction of the helmet and the shield-strap.

THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH. 185'' Therefore, thus saith the Lord God : Behold, I will give thelandof Egypt unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shallcarry off her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey ; andit shall be the wages for his army. I have given him the land ofEgypt as his recompense for which he served, because they wroughtfor me."But Nebuchadrezzar never invaded Egypt.Though a good general, he was not a conquerorafter the pattern of the Assyrian kings. He was astatesman as well, inclined by preference to works ofpeace, and gave the most unslackening attention tothe establishment of his home-rule at Babylon onbroad and solid bases an object which could be bestachieved by a continuous personal residence in hisown native state, Chaldea, and its capitalBabylon.War, therefore, was always with him a matter ofnecessity, not of choice, and he strove to ensure gen¬eral peace even by acting as peacemaker between hisneighbors.

VIILLYDIA AND ASIA MINORTHE BALANCE OF POWERIN TIIE EAST.I. A GLANCE at the map shows that the doom ofJudah and the other .Syrian states was inevitable.Their position made it a necessity for whoever ruledin Mesopotamia to take and to hold them. Theyreally were part and parcel of the Assyrian inheri¬tance, and when the founders of a Chaldean mon¬archy at Babylon entered into that inheritance, itwas but natural that they should reach out for theseashore and keep a heavy master's hand on allthat lay between. The case was different withsuch countries as were separated by natural barriersfrom what may be called the Semitic and Canaaniticregion such as lay in and beyond the highlands ofTaurus and Na'i'ri, i.e., in Asia Minor and the moun¬tain land between the Black and Caspian seas.2. Of these countries some had been only partlysubject to Assyria, like the kingdom of Van and theother principalities of Urartu on one hand, Ciliciaand Cappadocia on the other, while some had neverbeen subject to it at all, but only endangered by itsnearness; these were the countries of that advancedpart of Asia Minor, of which the course of the riveri86

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR * 1 87Halys (the modern Kizil-Irmak), according toHerodotus' just remark, almost makes an island.For, it is very certain that the Assyrians never sawthe Mge&n Sea (that part of the Mediterraneanwhich flows amidst the Greek islands and along theIonian shores) any more than the Black Sea. Andif Lydia, at a moment of sore distress, exchanged herindependence against Assyrian protection, the sub¬mission was only temporary and almost immediatelyreiDcnted of.*3. We saw that soon after that passing triumph,Asshurbanipal became too much engrossed withvital struggles nearer homeagainst Chaldean Baby¬lon and Elam and the advancing Medes to repressthe risings of his outlying subjects and vassals.Much less were his feeble successors able to attendto any thing but their mo.st immediate interests, andwhile the Scythian invasion was acting on the totter¬ing empire as an earthquake on an already ruinousbuilding, changes were taking place in and beyondits northern boundaries, which it is impossible "totrace in those unrecorded years, but which we findaccomplished when the darkness is lifted and somedegree of order restored. Thus we hear no moreof Urartu. It is certain that, in the course of theseventh century B.C., the Hittite Alarodians weresupplanted by that Thraco-Phrygian branch of theAryan race, which is represented in the enumerationof the Japhetic family given in Chapter X. of Gen¬esis, as Togarmah, son of G6mer,t and has beenfamiliar under the name of Armenians ever since* See "Story of Assyria," pp. 37S-382. \Ibid., pp. 367; 368.

l88MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the Greek writers introduced them to the wprld bythat name.4. Lydia, from its greater remoteness, was still inmore favorable conditions, and, being governed bya wise and enterprising royal house, made the bestuse of her opportunities, enlarging her territory atthe expense of her neighbors.This dynasty wasthat of the MERMNAD./E, the founder of which, Gugu(Gyges), we saw calling in As.syrian help against theCimmerians, and who fell in the struggle. TheMermnad^ were anative Lydian family who hadbeen raised to the throne by a revolution.Gygesmurdered Kandaules, the last king of the preced¬ing dynasty, which had ruled the country throughseveral hundred years, and probably married themurdered man's widow, to create for himself a claim,not neglecting, however, the support. of some troopsfrom the adjoining land of Caria. The story ofthis revolution is told in several ways, one more un¬believable than the other. The favorite version,and also the least improbable in itself, though thereis absolutely no real authority for it, is given byHerodotus.He tells us, in his usual discursive butalways charmingly entertaining way, how Gygeswas Kandaules' bosomfriend, and how the king,being violently in love with his own wife, and think¬ing her beauty peerless among women, was so an.xiousto convince his friend that his praise of her wasno exaggeration, that he insisted on placing him be¬hind the door of her apartment, so that he shouldsee her through the chink when she disrobed atnight.In vain Gyges protested against being forced

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR. 189into an action which, if discovered, must bring onhim the queen's deadly vengeance. " For," adds thenarrator, " among the Lydians, and indeed among theBarbarians {i.e., the Orientals), it is reckoned a deepdisgrace, even for a man, to be seen unclothed."Gyges had to comply, and as he was gliding out at amoment when the queen's back was turned, she justcaught sight of him, but had the presence of mindto make no sign. The next morning, however, shesent for the unwilling culprit and placed before himthe alternative, either to die on the spot, or to killthe husband who had so beyond pardon affrontedher, then to marry her and reign. After some hesi¬tation andto spare his foolish and unfor¬tunate friend, he chose life and crown for himself.The deed was done that very night, and the newking proclaimed the next day.*5. Herodotus adds that the people at first flew toarms, to avenge their king, but the matter wasreferred for arbitration to the oracle of the GreekSungod Apollo, in his own shrine at Delphi. Theoracle was given in the usurper's favor, only addingthat vengeance should come in the fifth generation" a prophecy," says the historian, " of which nei¬ther the Lydians nor their princes took any accountuntil it was fulfilled." Of all the more or less fabu-- lous incidents which Greek historical gossip has re¬ported in connection with this revolution and change* Herodotus, Book I., Ch. 8-14.A very popular tradition givesGyges an invisible-making ring, which he uses on the occasion, but isa little too quick in turning on his finger, so the queen sees him. Themiraculous finding of the ring on a dead giant's finger in a cave,is also reported.

igOMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.of dynasty, this last statement is the one which thereis least reason to doubt.For Lydia, like most ofthe adjacent countries of Asia Minor, wasat thistimealready deeply permeated with Greek influ¬ences and culture ; indeed their population wasmuch mixed with Greek, or, at any rate, Aryan ele¬ments.6. There are few regions of which the early his¬tory is so inaccessible as this of Western Asia Minor.Literary sources we have none, save Greek historiesand legends written down so late as to be muchposterior even to the period at which we have nowarrived.Monuments have been discovered not afew, but of a peculiar nature, and offering a deplor¬able want of variety.They are, firstly those rock,sculptures, with inscriptions in a hitherto undecipheredla'nguage, which have been mentioned in apreceding volume*; secondly, a large number oftombs. Of these, some like the tombs of the kingsof Lydiaare constructed im the primeval form ofhigh mounds or " barrows," containing a good-sizedsepulchral chamber in solid masonry. The rest andsuch are found in bewildering numbers in Lyciaare hewn in live rocks.These tombs are real worksof art, andunlike any others in the world, beingelaborate imitations of the dwellings of the living,which, as we can see from these reproductions, wereof wood, of well-joined timberwork. The tomb usuallyrepresents the front of a houseporch, pillars, door,windows, roof-gable closely copying the joining,even the dovetailing of the timber and the protruding*See " Story of Assyria," pp. 362-366,

1 8. LYCIAN K0(

X-TOMBS AT MYRA. Face page 1 90.

1 8. LYCIAN KOCK-TOMBS AT MYRA,Face page 19a

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR. 191ends of the beams that run through the building';the copy is perfect in every detail ; thus where aclosed door is represented, not only are the panelsindicated, but frequently the nails also that studdedthe original ; even the knocker. (See ill. 19.) Onedoor, or, if large, part of one, isleft open, to serve as19. LYCIAN ROCK-TOMB AT TELMESSUS.entrance into the grave-chamber behind, which, fromthe height at which these excavations are hewn in thequite, or nearly, perpendicular rocks, can have beenreached only by means of ladders, except where stepshave been cut for the purpose. There is no doubtbut that the entrance was closed with a well-fittingslab or block, but the rapacity of generations of

192 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.plunderers and conquerors was sure to be attractedby these retreats of the dead, which might well besupposed to contain valuables of various kinds, andin no case have the modern explorers found the rock-20. LYCIAN ROCK-TOMB AT TELMESSUS.(The block has been detached at some time, and slid down to the foot of themountain.)chambers occupied by their silent tenants. Theserock-hewn house fronts vary much in elaborateness,ranging from plain timberwork (see ill. 19 and20) to highly ornamented porches, the architectural

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR. 1 93character and figure decorations of which betraya late and thoroughly Greek period of art. (Seeill. 21 and 22.) It is easy to see that these differ¬ences cover a span of many centuries ; nor canone help surmising that each particular rock-tombmay have been a conscious imitation of the deceased'sown dwelling.This original variety of sepulchralmonuments -found imitators not only among theGreeks, but among the Persians.(See further on.Chap. XIIL) Some of these monuments standisolated, presenting copies of entire wooden houses,not facades only (see ill. 18, left side), or assuming theform of towers.Such is the famous tower-shapedmonument at Xanthus, in Lycia ;it rises above thegraves, which, though rock-hewn, have been clearedby cutting away and removing the blocks immedi¬ately surrounding them ; and the four sides are cov¬ered Avith sculptures referring to the fate of the soulafter death. The winged death-goddesses, the Har¬pies, carry the soul away in the shape of a new-bornchild, and above the opening of the grave-Chamberwe see the sacred cow, the emblem of life-givingnature, a grateful and consoling reminder. (Seeill. 23.) Some few of the isolated tombs represent asarcophagus (the model being, like the houses, evi¬dently of wood.) The sculptured lid shows fourhandles, in the shape of lion heads. (See ill. 24.)**It seems scarcely credible that a certain style of building .shouldendure in the same locality through thousands of years ; yet that suchis the case in Lycia, is proved by ill. 25, 26, and 27, representingrural and excessively rude constructions, but of a character unmis¬takably identical with that of the -^dwellings reproduced in theearlier rock-tombs.^

oH'4uaiu.-MO7-rt^>.ACkO'Ay

22. KOCK-TOMIJ AT MYKA.(Figures outside tlic huii^e sculptured in tlie rock ; those inside the porch paiiued a /rcsco.)

196 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.7. Interesting and important as these sepulchralmonuments are, they do not supply us. with what weseek. Wc find no clue to help us date the mostarchaic of them, as these are not generally furnishedwith inscriptions. Many of the late ones, indeed,make up for it by presenting us with a double set,what has been called " bilingual inscriptions," i.e.,inscriptions in two languagesthe native, and Greek.From these we see that the alphabets used for thetwo languages have much resemblance. The sameremark applies to such Phrygian inscriptions as havebeen discovered. The languages of this group ofnations, i.e., such scraps as the few inscriptions havepreserved, although they can be deciphered with butlittle difficulty, owing to the familiar alphabet, havenot been reconstructed to any satisfactory extent,mainly from scantiness of material. Even theseslender resources, however, establish the existenceof at least two different groups among the languagesof ancient Asia Minor in historical times: those ofPhrygia, Mysia, and others in the west and thenorthwest are found to incline towards a very ancientAryan philological type, the Pelasgic, from whichthe Greek language is descended, while there is greatuncertainty about those of Lycia and the neigh¬boring Caria.*8. It is evidently impossible, from such slight andscattered data, to gather materials for any thing thatcould be called history, yet perhaps not quite im-* I'rofessr A. H. Sayce. in one of his latest works, positively de¬clares that the Lycian language "is not Aryan,' in spite of .all theattempts that have been made to show the contrary."

I9§ MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.practicable to reconstruct, in very broad outlines, theperiods of formation through which Asia Minor musthave passed before it stands out in the full light ofhistory, with its division into numerous more or lessindependent states, its mixed population, its compli¬cated combination of religions and cultures as differ¬ent as the races which originated them.The oldesttraditions, repeated by the writers of classical an¬tiquity, represent all Western Asiaof which AsiaMinor is undoubtedly a partas having been occu¬pied, in immemorial time, during a number of centu¬ries, by Turanians ;a report which modern sciencesees little reason to dispute.* The immense chasmbetween fhis remote, misty past and the dawn ofrecorded historical times, though still greatly mixedwith myth, we can partly bridge over, owing to Pro¬fessor Sayce's Hittite discoveries.He has shown, bya comparative study of the peculiar rock-sculptiiresat Boghaz-Keui in Cappadocia, at Ibriz in Cilicia, atXarabel, near Smyrna, and in many more places ofAsia Minor, with their inscriptions incharactersidentical with those found at Hamath,f that thispowerful and gifted Harhitic race, the Hittites, atone time covered and ruled the whole of the regionbetween the Black aild Mediterranean seas, as fareast as the Halys, and ^probably somewhat beyond,leaving their traces not only in those sculptures, butin several sanctuaries of their religion, devoted tothe worship of the nature-goddess common to themand their Canaanitic and Semitic brethren, and whose*See ' Story of Chaldea," Chapter II., 'especially pp. 136-139.f See " Story of Assyria," ill. 5, p. 36,

igg 24. SEPULCHRAL MONUMENT AT XANTHOS (MAKbl-E).

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR. 20 1temples, with their crowds of ministering women,gave rise to the Greek legend of the Amazons.* Thefabled empire of these much-famed warrior-womenhead-quarters, so to speak, of the legend wasplaced on the banks of the ThermODON, at no verygreat distance from the present ruins of Boghaz-Keui,and we know that the goddess, here named MA, hadone of her principal temples served by no less than6,000 women, in that same neighborhood, at Ko-MANA in Cappadocia, a province which in very olden26. GRANARY IN MODERN LYCIA.times stretched farther towards the Black Sea thanat a later, classical period. The Amazons were saidto have founded cities. Wherever this is the case,we may be sure that ancient Hittite sanctuaries existed.Ephesus, Smyrna, Kyme, and several otherplaces along the Ionian coast come under this head.f9. It is probable that the Hittite rule and culturereached their widest westward expansion soon after* See " Story of Assyria," pp. 30, 36, 2.05, 206, and 360-367.+ See A. II. Sayce's "Ancient Empires of the East," p. 430.

202 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the fifteenth century B.C., and' maintained theirsupremacy until about the year looo B.C., at lea^t inAsia. Minor, as in Syria The Land of Khatti " of theinscriptions,they had already begun to recede be¬fore the aggressive advance of Assyria, and the pres¬sure, of Semitic elements generally. But even inAsia Minor the greatThraco-Phrygian migration hadoverspread the forgotten Turanian subsoil and Hit¬tite cultivated ground with an IndolEuropean toplayer,*and apart from this movement, during thecentury ranging from somewhere in the tenthz>..J:'^i5'5as«5^si»^:!35^^S:'%!Ji,'P27. GRANARY IN MODERN LYCIA. .soon after looo B.C. to the middle of the ninth orlater, Asia Minor was subjected to a continuous flowof Indo-European influences from a far more con¬genial and civilizing quarterthe continent andislands of Southern Greece and Peloponnesus. '10. An important revolution was then slowly, butby no means peacefully, changing the face of therather motley assemblage of small states, republics,and free cities which was a couple of hundred yearslater to glory in the common name of Hellas. ^-The*See " Story of Assyria," pp. 360 and 267-369.

»..3-oH»^

204 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.people, whose differences and hostilities were to "bemerged in the proud and all-embracing nationalityof the Hellenes (whom we have learned from theRomans to designate, less correctly, as GREEKS),were as yet broken up into a variety of tribes, allhighly gifted, and all descended from the old stockof the Pelasgi.Two of these, the AciDEANS andthe lONIANS, were in possession of the Peloponnesosand of a considerable strip of sea-coast north of theIsthmus of Corinth, including the peninsula of Attica.A third tribe, the DORIANS, had, for times untold,dwelt in the higher belt of Epirus and Thessaly,mountain-lands where they developed the sternand rugged temper, the love of war, and contemptof trade and crafts so generally characteristic ofhighlanders.Some time about looo B.C., there wasa great stir among them.Moved by awakening am¬bition of conquest and power, perhaps also crowdedby their increasing numbers in their numerous butnarrow valleys, they began to descend southward,into the milder, morebeautiful land by the sea.Where they passed, they appropriated the soil, en¬slaving its former owners, who were now expectedto work it for the conquerors ;in cities they estab¬lished an iron rule, and wherever they met resist¬ance, they waged war, even to extermination. Ittook this movement, known in history as " TheDescent of the Dorians," about a hundred years toreach the Corinthian Isthmus, that short and narrowcauseway which alone prevents Peloponnesus frombeing an island, torn from the Greek mainland, asSicily is from that of Italy.They poured into the

a £z %" a! SO_-1 1< M> u

206 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.peninsula through this entrance, and also in ships,across the long and narrow gulf, and there their ad¬vent produced the effect of a heavy body falling intoa vessel filled with liquid :there is a splash, a .spurt,and the liquid overflows on all sides.There was nogetting rid of the Dorians, for they were n:ocom¬mon invaders. Their genius for war made themproceed after a uniform and systematic fashion thatcrushed resistance, while, being equally possessed ofthe qualities that organize governments and ensurethe duration of states, their watchfulness and energybaffled conspiracies and made popular risings hope¬less. The ancient Achjean commonwealths andmore recent Ionian confederations of free cities hadbut one alternative before them :submission or selfbanishment.Thousands of people, led by noblefamilies of oldest and most firmly established stand¬ing, chose the latterand the age of colonies began.Greek ships bore away detachment after detachmentof exiles, of all stations in life and all pursuits, andlanded them at innumerable points along the shoresof the surrounding seas :at various parts of Sicilyand Southern Italy, on the coasts of Illyria andEpirus on one side, of Macedon and Thracia on theother, as far as the mouth of the Bosporus, nay, theinside of the Black Sea itself.Many such detach¬ments stopped on this or that of the many islandswhich seemed scattered broadcast over the bluewaters on purpose to receive them.. And wherever ahandful of sad-faced emigrants raised their huts andtents, bearing with them out of the old life nothingbut a few family relics, a little of their native earth,

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR. 207and a spark of the sacred fire, kindled at the old cityhearth,there,in an amazingly short time, blossomedand pro.spered first a settlement, then a thriving city,the colonies becoming so many stations of Greekcommerce and Greek culture.So that after a whileit became customary for Greek cities to send outcolonies without any mournful occasion, simply toextend their influence and increase their own pros¬perity, by opening out new channels of trade andenterprise in distant and only partially' exploredcountries.Many, indeed, were founded by the Do¬rians themselves.II. Of all these outposts of Hellenic culture,- nonerose so rapidly or prospered so luxuriously as thecolonies, founded chiefly by fugitive lonians, alongthe shores of Asia Minor, to which they gave theirname.The movement, an immediate consequenceof the Dorian conquests, began soon after lOOO B.C.,and continued through more than two centuries.The emigrants selected the sites of their settlementswith admirable skill, mostly at the mouth of riversthe Hermos, the Kayster, the M^landerat thefoot of sheltering mountains, on commanding prom¬ontories, on points that invited commerce, yet en¬sured defence and seclusion if necessary, by no meansa secondary consideration, since the new-comers didnot plant their tents in waste and unclaimed lands,but in the midst of populous and already civilizedcountries, where they could not expect to obtain afirm footing without encountering resistance on thepart of the native people.Both the Lydians andCarians were nations renowned in war, and were not

208 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.likely to allow strangers to have possession, un¬opposed, of their choicest territories, their sea-coast,and the mouths of theirrivers.Yet we have nopositive knowledge of thewars which must of ne¬cessity have accompaniedthe establishment of theGreek settlers.Nor dothey appear to havebeen as long andfierce asmight beexpected, for when realhistory begins, it shows usthe Greek cities clusteredin well organized con¬federacies, individuallyflourishing, mutually pro¬tected, and apparently un¬molested by thesurroundingpopulation,withwhichthey seem to have, to agreat extent, mingled byintermarriage and socialintercourse. Even reli¬gion does not appear tohave formed any impass¬able barrier be¬30. STATUE OF THE ARTEMIS OF EPIIESUS,tween them. At(For the Kerubim winged bull's headswithinthe disk, compare " Story of Chaldea," p. 164.) SMYRNA KVIVIEMyrina, Ephesus, the Greeks found sanctuariesof the ancient Hittite nature-goddess, with the.

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR.2O9to them so novel, Amazonian worship, and unhesi¬tatingly adoptedthe deity, merely changing hername to the familiar one of their own Artemis.*The Oriental origin of the conception embodied inthe goddess issufficiently shown by the uncouthbut transparent symbolism of her statue in her greattemple at Ephesus, foreign to all Greek principlesof beauty in art (see ill. 30), yet so expressive ofwhat It IS meant to convey : the idea of nature asthe source of all life and nourishment. The sun-godof the Asiatics, too, in his different aspects, theGreeks easily identified with their own youthful andradiant god ApOLLO, or their toiling, travelling semihumansolar hero, Herakles, himself an inheritanceof Phoenicia and Chaldea, a revised edition of theSyrian Melkarth and the Babylonian Izdubar.f TheLydian name of the sun-god was Sandon, and hehad ahighly revered national sanctuary near theplace where the Greeks built MiLETUS, the queen ofIonian cities.This sanctuary was served by a nativehereditary priesthood of the family known as theBranchiD/E.When the Greeks came, they at onceadopted the sanctuary, which became asfamous asthat of the Ephesian Artemis, under the name of tem¬ple of " Didyma^an Apollo," and was left in the chargeof Its high-born guardians.Nor were the people ofAsia Minor at all unwilling to acknowledge the spir¬itual kinship on their own side ; and so it came to passthat, being moreover attracted by the surpassing lovehnessof Greek culture and myth, they fell into the* See above, p. 208, and " Story of Assyria," pp. 365, 366.t See " Story of Assyria," p. go ; and " Story of Chaldea," Ch. VII.V

2IO ' MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. ,habit of sending presents to the most renowned centresof Greek worship, and consulting the Greek godsthrough their oracles 2. e., through those of theirministers who were considered to possess the giftof divine inspiration and to deliver the messagesof the god or interpret the signs sent by him. Thetemple and oracle of Apollo at DELPHI was themost widely famed and.revered, and became a favor¬ite resort of the " Barbarians," whose lavish offeringsgreatly enriched its treasure-houses. This is whywe may consider the report of Gyges referring hisclaim to the Lydian throne to the arbitration of theDelphic Apollo as the least doubtful of the state¬ments made concerning the revolution which trans¬ferred the royal power to the dynasty of the Mermnada;.Plerodotus specifies the gifts sent by Gygesto the Delphic shrine, in gratitude for the verdictwhich confirmed his title ; they consisted in a largequantity of silver and " a vast number of vessels ofgold." Gyges, according to the same historian, " wasthe first of the barbarians whom we know to havesent offerings to Delphi," with the exception of acertain king of Phrygia who, even before his time,sent thither and dedicated to the god the royalthrone whereon he was accustomed to sit and to ad¬minister justice an object," Plerodotus adds, " wellworth looking at."12. In point of material civilization, the Lydianswere probably far ahead of the new-comers, at theeariy period of Greek emigration. They were pos¬sessed of great skill in various industrial arts, espe¬cially those of dyeing wool and weaving ; and Lydian

31. RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF THE UIDYM^EAN APOLLO, NEARMILETUS.^jT^URDf rfe^?211^^'^15iiothE^^\

212 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.carpets and rugs enjoyed a reputation which we seesurviving even to our own day, after so many agesand vicissitudes, in the great demand for Smyrnarugs. The influence, then, must have been mutual,more spiritual on the Greek side and more materialon that of the Lydians. The country, moreover,abounded in precious metals, and that led to an in¬vention which opened a new era to social and inter¬national intercourse and made a revolution in thecommercial ways of the worid : the invention of coin¬ing money. It is most probably to Gyges, the firstof the Mermnada;, that the credit of this inventionis due, so simple in its principles, yet so portentousin its results.13. Even so late as this, the seventh century B.C.,a vast proportion of the active trade between nationswas still carried on on the primitive basis of barter,i. e., exchange of one commodity for another, of rawmaterials for manufactured products, of art luxuriesfor the necessaries of life, or other luxuries, etc.This must have necessarily been the case especiallyin the commercial transactions between civilized na¬tions and savages or semi-civilized peoples, to whomdirect exchange was the only intelligible, and safefinancial operation. But in the transactions betweenmerchants of the same nation or of different equallycivilized nations, the need of some less cumbrousmeans of doing business had long been felt,andsupplied. It consisted in substituting /z^rc/^^^t' forbarter, i. e., exchanging merchandises^ not againstother merchandise, but against something 'of equalvalue, convenient in shape and volume, which at any

o.-IowXazoIti->Z»QZU. HO

2;i4 media; babylon, and persia.moment could be in its turn exchanged for whateverwares the owner needed. Ofcourse the intrinsic value ,of such a medium of exchange must be a universallyacknowledged one, determined by general agreement.It has from times immemorial been found expedientto invest with such standard value the so-called pre¬cious metals, gold and silver. Once the positivevalueof a given weight of the metal had been settled,it only remained to divide masses of it into a greatmany smaller pieces, each weighing a certain fractionof the standard weight, and consequently represent¬ing a certain, well-defined fraction of the standard unitvalue. I-Ienceforth the merchant who sold a rug, ora dagger, or a vessel of fine glass, was not forced to. take in payment a number of live sheep, or of sheep¬skins, or of measures of grain, or a wagon-load of hay,or any other ponderous and cumbersome waresthat his customer might happen to have on hand ;nor need a farmer, disposing of his' surplus stockor grain, take in exchange for it articles that, per¬haps, were not at all what he wanted. A bar, or acertain number of rings of gold or silver did the busi¬ness much better and could be put away and kepttill needed for a purchase. The facility thus offeredfor transfer of bulky property such as land, houses,etc., was immense ; and how early it was made useof, we see from that curious statement in Genesis(Ch. XXIII.) which shows us Abraham, a contempo¬rary of the Elamite Khudur-Lagamar,* paying hisHittite hosts, for the field he requested of theircourtesy, 400 shekels of silver, " such as are currentwith the merchants.""See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 222-224.

lydia and ASIA MINOR. 21 514. Gold and silver, used in this manner with awell-defined unit-weight of standard value dividedinto corresponding fractional weightsevidentlyanswered the purpose of money in commercial tran.sactions.Can, then, those bars, ingots, and rings becalled " money" ? They might but for one thing:they are not zvarranted. Who is to assure the sellerwho receives them in payment, of the fulness of theweight and the purity of the metal? No one. Ac¬cordingly we see that Abraham weighs out the 400shekels which he pays for the field. After this man¬ner by. weighing were all payments made, andthe quality of the metal was tested by means of atouchstone. And it remained with the seller toaccept or reject the bars or rings, according as hethought the weight full or short, the quality pure orinferior. Now tue do not weigh the coins we payand receive, nor are we allowed to reject them. Wetake them on trust. Wc arc bound so to take them,because they are warranted of good weight andstandard purit\', by our governments, who, in tokenthereof, stamp each coin with a certain device andlegend which private persons are forbidden to use.Guarantee and trust this is the mutual contract be¬tween ruler and ruled which at once converts a meremerchandise into money or state currency.Therewas just this one step to take, and it seems strangethat the Phrenicians, those matchless traders, shouldhave missed it. Nor can we well account for the factthat so momentous an improvement should have beenmade in Lydia rather than anywhere else, except bythe large quantities of precious metals which this

2l6MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.country yielded, almost for the trouble of pickingthem up. Not only were easily accessible veins ofprecious ore worked in the principal Lydian moun¬tain ridges, Tmolos and SiPYLOS, but the sandsof the river PacTOLOS, which flowed throughthe capital, Sardis, carried along a bountiful per-33. EARLY AND LATER LYDIAN COINS.centage of a peculiar kind of pale gold, largelymixed with silver, obtainable by the easy process ofwashing. This mixture, in which the proportion ofsilver ranges from twenty to over forty per cent., isknown under the special name of ELECTRON, whether

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR. 21?natural, as found in Lydia, or imitated artificially, asit has been at various times. Of this electron, whichwas cpnsidered inferior in value to gold, but superiorto silver, the first Lydian coins were made. Num¬bers of them, and also of pure gold and silver coins,have been found within a circuit of thirty milesround Sardis, and very rude they were, showing onlythe square punch mark. Only after a series of grad¬ual improvements, we see the well-drawn device ofroyal Lydia a lion's head, or a lion and bull makeits. appearance, under Gyges' fourth descendant, thecelebrated Kroisos. The invention, however, hasremained associated with the name of the former,and late Greek authors speak of ancient coins which.they call "gold pieces of Gyges." Thus it is thatof the half-dozen great inventions which, each inturn, can be said to have changed the face of theworid the alphabet, coining, printing, gunpowder,the use of steam and electricitywc owe two to re¬mote antiquity and to Oriental nations. *15. When the dynasty of the Mermnada; came tothe throne in the person of Gyges, the change madeitself felt at once in the greater energy, ambition,and sounder statesmanship which were exerted-, bothin foreign and domestic affairs. A steady policy ofterritorial aggrandizement was inaugurated by theannexation of Mysia. The blunder that had beenmade by former kings, in suffering the Greek settle-* Several writers, both .ancient and modern, claim the inventionof coining for the Greeks and attribute it to a Greek tyrant, PllEl-DON. oi' Argos, who seems to have been a contemporaiy of Gyges.The probabilities are that Plieidon was the first to appreciate the newinvention and to introduce it into his own country.

2l8MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.ments to extend their chain of many links all'alongthe sea-coast, was to be retrieved, and Gyges began asystematical attack against the Greek cities, com¬mencing with those nearest to him, with the firm intentof making them subject to Lydia, that the countrymight repossess itself of the mouths of its own riversand the harbors of its own sea-coast.But the citieshad become populous and strong, and valiantly heldtheir own.Moreover, the operations were unexpect¬edly interrupted by that Cimmerian invasion of whichwe know the fatal issue for the Lydian king.*i6. His son Ardys, however, and his grandsonSadyattes, when freedfrom the inroads of theobnoxious freebooters, resumed the thoroughly na¬tional war against the Greek cities.Some they took,others repulsed them, and Miletus especially, whichhad defied Gyges, was still as unconquercd as everhalf a century later, under Sadyattes, actually send¬ing out colonies, and generally living its busy, pros¬perous life under the very . eyes of the besiegingLydians.Then Sadyattes, not to weary his soldiers'strength and patience, invented a new and most in¬genious mode of warfare, which is best described inHerodotus' own entertaining narrative :" When the harvest was ripe on the ground, he marched his armyinto Milesia to the sound of pipes and harps and flutes. Thebuildings that were scattered over the country he neither pulleddown nor burnt, nor did he even bear away the doors, but left themstanding as they were. He cut down, however, and utterly de¬stroyed all the trees and all the corn throughout the land and tlienreturned to his own dominions. It w.as idle for his army to sit downbefore the place, as the Milesians were masters of the sea. The reason* See "Stovy of Assyria,'' pp. 378-3S1.

LYDIA AND ASIA MINOR.21Qthat he did not demolish their buildings was, that the inhabitantsmight be tempted to use them as homesteads from which to go forthand till and sow their lands, and so each time he invaded their conntryhe might find something to plunder. In this way he carried onthe war for eleven years, in the course of which he inflicted on themtwo terrible blows."17. Of these eleven years, six only fall to the reignof Sadyattes ; the other five belong to that of hisson Alyattes. This was the greatest of the Lydiankings. Under him the dynasty of the Mermnada:,which was to end 'so tragically already in the nextgeneration, reached its culminating point of glory.The Lydian monarchy had gradually absorbed allthe surrounding countries of Asia Minor as far asthe river Halys, which now marked its eastern boun¬dary. There, however, it was confronted by thenewly formed Median monarchy, which had reachedthe .same line moving towards it from the oppositedirection. There can be no doubt that each poten¬tate was anxious to cross the slight dividing line andtherefore looked grimly and threateningly on theother, and that the only question was: Which of thetwo would find a plausible pretence for aggression ?Chance gave this advantage to Kyaxares of Media.A body of Scythian soldiers, probably a pickedguard composed of survivors of the massacre whichdelivered the Medes from their troubles'ome guests,had been some time in Kyaxares' service, lefthim secretly, being discontented with something orother, and, crossing the Halys, sought the protectionof Alyattes. Kyaxares demanded that the desert¬ers should be sent back to him, and, on the Lydian'srefusal to do so, declared war.

220 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.i8. Alyattes was ready for him, having some timebefore closed the conflict against the Greek cities, ina manner, on the whole, satisfactory to himself: thesmaller cities had submitted to' Lydian supremacyand agreed to pay tribute, but with the proud andunconquerable Miletus he had been fain to makepeace and to enter into a treaty of friendship andalliance.He was therefore free to give his wholeattention to a war from which perhaps he was notaverse in the beginning, but which soon grewinto a vital conflict.It is probable that he foundin the young and aspiring power of the Medesa more formidable foe than he had counted upon.Still Lydia stood her ground most bravely, and thesuccess of the war kept evenly balanced between thetwo adversaries through five whole years ;but the 'final victory was about to incline towards Kyaxares,and he would surely have annexed at one stroke thewhole of Asia Minor, but for the timely inj:erferenceof neighbors, who saw great danger to themselves inthe sudden aggrandizement of their risingEc"pse°.-"'^ rival. An unlooked for accident gave themDea^ii*^of "^^^ ^^^* possible opportunity. A great584 b'cJ'^^' battle was fought, which would probablyhave been decisive, when the sun suddenlywas obscured, and such darkness set in that the daywas turned into night.An eclipse of the sun waseventhen no very terrible thing, and the Greeksclaim that this particular one had been' predicted byone of their wise men, TllALES OF MiLETUS. Butthe Medes, on one side, were very much behind theirtime in knowledge of all sorts, and so, for that mat-

LYDLA AND ASIA MINOR. 221ter, was the bulk of the Lydian army.So there wasa general panic, and both armies refused to con¬tinue an engagement begun under such disalstrousauspices.Here was a chance for peace-makers . tobe heard. Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon and SyeN-NESIS, King of Cilicia, a country that had recoveredits independence by the fall of Assyria, and main¬tained it, like Lycia, against all comers, undertookthe task of reconciliation. They seem to havespoken to willing ears, and arranged a marriagewhich was to cement the friendship between the twokings who had learned, at all events, to respect eachother, and to prefer an alliance to further hostilities.AryeNIS, the daughter of Alyattej, was .given inmarriage to ASTYAGES, eldest son of Kyaxares andheir presumptive to the Median Empire. As Kyax¬ares' daughter, Amytis or Amuhia; was alreadyqueen of Babylon,* these three great powers Media,Babylon, and Lydia, now formed a triple alliance,which could not but carry all before it, and againstwhom any small principality had little chance indeed.Western Asia was now pretty evenly divided be¬tween them, for what might be wanting .to Lydiain mere extent of territory, was amply made up for bythe extreme fertility of her dominions, her flourishingtrade and boundless natural resources, as well asby her dense population and the exhaustless wealthof her cities, among which she now numbered mostof the Greek colonies. Thus a real balance of powerswas established in the East the first known in¬stance of that jealous policy which has now for so* See "Story of -Assyria," p. 428.

222 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.long been the leading principle of European states¬men.19. The date of the Battle of the Eclipse has been^the subject of unending discussion, because, unfor¬tunately, there have been several eclipses about thattime, within some thirty years, and it was found verydifficult to determine which was the one predictedby Thales.Scholars, however, influenced by varioushistorical and chronological considerations, at presentgenerally incline to give it the latest possible datewhich would be 585, as Kyaxares died in 584.

IX.BABYLON THE GREATTHE HOUSE EGIBl.I. Where possessions and power are nicely bal¬anced by common consent, the natural consequenceis mutual watchfulness and suspiciousness. An asso¬ciation is formed, the members of which agree to becontent with what they have and not to seek aggran¬dizement at one anotheris expense. But even as theymake the agreement, each knows perfectlywelljudg¬ing from his own inclinationthat they will all keepto^it just as long as they will think proper or until atempting opportunity offers, and not one momentlonger. For this opportunity each of the associateswatdies with a double eagerness : not to miss it hhn-, self and to prevent any of the others availing him¬self of it. Moreover, as a balance of power is morefrequently organized for the unavowed purpose ofrestraining the excessive growth of some alarminglyvigorous and enterprising neighbor than simply ongeneral principles, there is usually a sense of dangerimpending from some particular quarter, which quar¬ter naturally becomes the object of more jealoussupervision and suspicion. Usually, too, all thewatching and fencing serves but little in the end, forwhere strength is, it will be put forth and prevail by223

224 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.a necessity as unfailing as the law of nature whichmakes the greater weight draw down the scale. Andif there is a lesson which history teaches more glar¬ingly than another, it is that races and nations havetheir turns, and that when a race's "turn" has come,all the opposition in the worid could no more hinderIt from taking it and running its appointed course,than the same race could be kept alive by all pos¬sible propping and supporting once its day was doneand its possibilities exhausted.2. It was the Eranians' turn now in Western Asia.The race was in its prime of vigor, adventurous reck¬lessness, and youthful curiosity to see and take morelands, and more still. Fresh from its long migra¬tions, which could not be said to be ended even yet,their forward push was irresistible and could be re¬strained only temporarily. . No one felt this betterthan Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, the far-seeing, thewary, who, with a wisdom born of age,the ageof his race rather than his own,forswore the de¬lights of conquest for its own sake, drew the line atinvasion, and centred all his care on the consolida¬tion of the empire which he never doubted but hewould transmit to a long line of descendants, if onlyhe could guard it from Media, of whose eventualadvance he felt so sure that he spent his life prepar¬ing against it. Kyaxares was dead, the great or¬ganizer and conqueror, who, though by no mciins thefirst Median king, was considered by posterity thefounder of the monarchy. His son and successor,whom the Greeks have called AsTYAGES,we findhis name given as ISHTUVEGU on cuneiform monu-

BABYLON THE GREAT. 22$ments, was Nebuchadrezzar's brother-in-law andnot formidable in himself, being as inferior to Kyax¬ares, as great men's sons usually are to their fathers ;yet the Babylonian never relaxed in his vigilance.Ever alive to the danger from the north, he soughtto avert it by works of fortification on a giganticscale, and skilfully combined them with works ofpublic utility and adornment.3. He first of all undertook to fortify Sippar, themost northern of Babylonian cities, exposed to be¬come a dangerous centre of operation in an invader'shand, and did so in a way which at the same timefurthered commerce and agriculture.With this viewhe not only had the half-choked-up canals of ancientkings cleaned out and their sluices and dams repairedand put into working order, but created a new sys¬tem of canals :four he cut across land, to unite theTigris and Euphrates, each wide and deep enoughto carry merchant ships, and branching into a net¬work of smaller canals and ditches for irrigating thefields.In order fully to control the increased massof waters which he thus obtained, he had a hugebasin or reservoir dug out near Sippar, on the leftbank of the Euphrates, some thirty-five miles in cir¬cumference and as many feet deep,* provided, ofcourse, with an elaborate and complete set ofhydraulic works, to fill or empty it as needed.Tocomplete the subjection of the mighty river, thecourse of its bed was slightly altered, being made towind in a sinuous line by means of excavations made* These are the figures given by Herodotus ; they are more mod¬erate and seem more probable than some given by later writers.Q

226 MEDLA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.at some distance from one another. This b^okethe force of the current, which is very great in thehigh-water season, and not only made navigationup the stream easier, but gave fuller control of theriver, when a great part of its waters had to bediverted into the basin of Sippar in times of inunda¬tion. Thus, by the same act which remedied theevils of spring floods, a provision of water was laidup for distribution in times of drought. So admi¬rably were these various forces calculated and bal¬anced, and so perfectly did they work together, thatwhen Nebuchadrezzar built his celebrated bridgeacross the Euphrates in Babylon, he could emptythe bed of the river, so as to allow his workmen toconstruct the mighty buttressed piers of quarrystones clamped with iron and soldered with moltenlead, and to line the banks with masonry of thebest kiln-burned brick.4. It is evident that these waterworks the fourcanals and the reservoir at Sippar were at the sametime part of a very efficient system of defence againstpossible invasions from the north. Not only didthey present obstacles which it would take time toovercome, but in a case of desperate emergencywhole regions could be flooded and thus made inac¬cessible or untenable. But even this did not seem asufficient safeguard to the king's anxious foresight.The boundary so slightly marked by the alluvialline * had never been much respected, and he determinedto strengthen it by the more tan'gible additionof a wall, which he built across the valley, froij^ river" Story of Assyria," p. I.

BABYLON THE GREAT. 22/to river, somewhat below that line, but above thatformed by the canals and the now well fortified cityof Sippar. A wall childish as the contrivance mayappear in our time of scientific warfare was nomeandefence, if sufficiently strong and properlymanned, before the daysof artillery; and severalcenturies later we see the Romans, the finest strate¬gists of antiquity, build walls across the narrow partof Britain asa defence against the inroads of thenorthern tribes. This of Nebuchadrezzar's wasbuilt entirely of burned brick held together byasphalt cement ;and Xenophon, who saw some por¬tions of it standing still and calls it the " MedianWall," values its height at a hundred feet, its thick¬ness at twenty.5. In all Nebuchadrezzar's inscriptions that havebeen found and we have a great many he espe¬cially glories in his constructions.He seems to haverepaired almost every great temple in the land andbuilt not a few new ones.From the detailed accounthegives of the condition in which he found the"Temple of the Seven Spheres" at Borsip and ofthe work he did there, it is evident that he considersthe completion and adornment of this his patron'sZiggurat and shrine (temple of Nebo) as one of hisbest claims to fame and the favor of the gods.*Butwhat he did at Babylon not only surpasses all hisother works, but eclipses those of all former kings,even those of Sargon at Dur-Sharrukin, not so muchin splendor as in the vastness and originality of hisconceptions, an originality due probably to that*See "Story of Chaldea," p. 72, pp. 280-283, and p. 293.

228 MEDLA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.besetting idea of coupling adornment with militaryrequirements, which consistently underiies most ofthe public works he undertook. In this, however,he appears to have followed a line traced out first byhis father. Of some of his greatest constructions,such as the new palace, the great city walls, and theembankments of the Euphrates,he especially men¬tions that they were begun by Nabopolassar, butleft unfinished at his death. Babylon, sacked onceby Sennacherib, then rebuilt by Esarhaddon, hadgone through a conflagration when besieged andtaken by Asshurbanipal, and must have been in a sadcondition when the Chaldean usurper made it oncemore the seat of empire. Hence, perhaps, thethought of reconstructing it in such a manner aswould make it a capital not only in size and mag¬nificence, but in strength : it was to be at once thequeen of cities and the most impregnable of fortresses.6. The last time that Babylon had been taken ithad been reduced by famine.* This was' the firstcontingency to be guarded against. For this pur¬pose the city was to be protected by a double en¬closure of mighty walls, the inner one skirting itsoutlines narrowly, while the outer was moved to sucha distance as to enfold a large portion of the land,which was to be cultivated so that the capital couldraise enough grain and fodder for its own consump¬tion. This vast space also would serve to shelter thepopulation of the surrounding villages in case of aninvasion. It has not been possible to trace the line ofthis outer wall, which received the name of NlJVHT-See " Story of Assyria," p. 396.

BABYLON THE GREAT. 229TI-Bel, nor consequently to determine how manysquare miles it protected, and the reports of ancientwriters are somewhat conflicting, as none of them, ofcourse, took exact scientific measurements after themanner of our modern surveyors.Herodotus givesthe circumference as somewhat over fifty Englishmiles. A large figure certainly. But it has been ob¬served that it scarcely surpasses that yielded by thecircumvallation of Paris ;and besides the arable andpasture land, it must have embraced suburbs, notimpossibly Borsip itself, which was also well fortifiedat the same time. This is the highest estimate.The lowest (and later) gives forty miles.The .Nimitti-Belrampart was protected on the outside by awide and deep moat, which at the same time hadsupplied the material for the wall.In mentioningit Herodotus stops to give a very faithful and vividaccount of the local mode of construction, now sofamiliar to us, but which, when described to him,seems to have considerably astonished him :" And here I may not omit to tell the use to which the mould dug outof the great moat was turned, nor the manner wherein the wall waswrought.As fast as they dug the moat, the soil which they got fromthe cutting was made into bricks, and when a sufficient number werecompleted, they baked the bricks in kilns.Then they set to build¬ing and began with bricking the borders of the moat, after whichthey proceeded to construct the wall itself, using throughout for theircement hot bitumen, and interposing a layer of wattled reeds at everythirtieth course of the bricks."The reports about the height and thickness of thiscelebrated wall vary still rpore considerably.. Herodo¬tus says it was 350 feet high * (apparently includ-* Calculation of Mr. J. Oppert ("Atliena;um Eranyais," 1850, p.370).

230 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.ing the height of the towers, which were built atregular intervals on the top of it), with a thicknessof 75 feet.Now no effort of imagination, even withthe knowledge that the walls of Babylon were num¬bered among the " Seven Wonders of the World,"can well make us realize a city wall, nigh on fiftymiles long, surpassing in height the extreme heightof St. Paul's of London.*The estimates of variouslater writers range all the way between that exorbi¬tant figure and that of 75 feet, very possibly toomoderate. For the fact remains undisputed that theNimitti-Bel rampart was stupendous both in heightand in thickness ;that towers were built on the topof it, on the edges, two facing each other, and thatthere remained room between for a four-horsedchariot to turn. And the contemporary Hebrewprophet, Jeremiah, speaks of Babylon as " mountingup to heaven," of "the broad walls of Babylon " andher " high gates."Of these there were a hundred inthecircuit of the wall, according to Herodotus," and they were all of brass, with brazen lintels andside-posts." f7. This outer wall Herodotus calls " the main de¬fence of the city."The second or inner wall, namedImgur-Bel, he described as being " of less thicknessthan the first, but very little inferior to it in strength."Then there were the walls which enclosed the tworoyal palaces, the old one on the right bank of the*See Geo. Rawlinson's " Herodotus "(third edition, 1875), vol. L,p. 299, note g.\ Prob.ably cased with worked brass, like the gate of Balawat. See" Story of Assyria," p. 190 and ill. No. 34.

BABYLON THE GREAT. 23 1Euphrates, and the new one on the left, and madeof each a respectable fortress ; for it was part of theplan of reconstruction that the city should be ex¬tended across the river, to gain a firmer seat and fullcontrol of this all-important thoroughfare ; and anentire new quarter was built on the left bank aroundthe new and magnificent palace. And as it was de¬sirable, both for convenience and defence, that thetwo sides should be united by permanent means ofcommunication, Nebuchadrezzar, built the greatbridge mentioned above (p. 226), but so that it couldbe kept open or shut off at will, as a further safe¬guard against surprises. This was effected by meansof platforms made of beams and planks, which werelaid from pier to pier in the daytime, and removedfor the night. Of course one solitary bridge couldnot suffice for the traffic of a population which can¬not have been under half a million, and the riverwas gay with hundreds of boats and barges dartingwith their load of passengers from bank to bank, orgliding down the current, or working against it.There were many landing-places, but no quays orbroad paved walks bordered with handsome build¬ings, such as in our ideas appear as the necessary ac¬companiment of a beautiful river in a great city.The Euphrates flowed along imprisoned between adouble wall, of burnt brick like the others, which fol¬lowed its course on either bank and close to theedge from end to end of the city. Only where thestreets abutted on the river and these were disposedat regular intervals, in straight lines and at right an¬gles there were low gates to allow pedestrians to

232MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.descend to the landing-places. The general effectmust have been peculiar and rather gloomy.8. The site of Nebuchadrezzar's own palace-^the" new palace" been fully identified ; it is themound known as the Kasr, one of the first explored,and which drew travellers' attention by its excep¬tionally handsome, neatly moulded and stampedi^ii& Al''--^%. "3kiLi^i^aJfii2Mifuite..*!"''t' 134. BRICK OF NEBUCUADRl.ZZ.AP..(One foot square ; thickness, 3 inches.)bricks, as well as by the cement which joined them,and which is considered the finest in the world, notexcepting the best that England produces in ourday. What best served the purpose of jdentificarionwas the accumulation in the rubbish of countlessfragments of painted and glazed tiles, showing por¬tions of figures, human and animal ; here a lion's

BABYLON THE GREAT. - 233paw, there a horse's hoof, there again a bit of curlybeard or filleted hair.As we are told by ancientwriters that the outer walls of the palace wereadorned with hunting scenes in many colors, the in¬ference was not, difficult to draw.Some of these'fragments are large enough to show the number nearthe top and part of the inscriptionwhite, on blueground.The Jewish historian, JOSEPHUS, who livedin the first century A.D., has a short mernorandumto the effect that " the palace was built in fifteendays," a statement which appeared so palpable an ex¬aggeration that not much attention was ever paid toit.What, then, was the amazement of the decipher¬ers when on a cylinder of Nebuchadrezzar, now inLondon, they read these words :" Li fifteen 'days Icompleted the splendid work." Even supposing allthe materials to have been brought together, all theart work fo have been done beforehand, and only -placed and put together in this space of time, whata command of human labor does not such a state¬ment represent !9. The most characteristic of Babylonian mounds,from its well-defined flat-topped outline, is also theonly one that has retained the old name, and is stillknown as Babil.*For a long time it was supposedto be the Ziggurat of the celebrated temple of Bel-Marduk, although oriented, contrary to custom, withits sides to the cardinal points, not with its angles.fBut the researches undertaken by Mr. H. Rassam afew years ago (1883-84), with such rich and varied re¬sults, have somewhat shaken that belief :he thinks*See " Story of Chaldea," ill. 4.f -^*''^-' PP- ^84 ff-

234 MEDLA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.that the constructions entombed in this mound were'of a very different nature.Sloping towards the riverand on two sides, while the back presented a per¬pendicular wall, probably not much lower than thatof the city, this mass of solid brick masonry, accord¬ing to him, represents one of the few truly poeticalcreations of the age ; poetical alike in its natureand in the circumstances which gave rise to itthefamous Hanging Gardens.*It is said that Nebu¬chadrezzar's Median queen, Amytis,f ijined for themountains of her native land, with their cool shadesand verdant bowers, in the wearisome flatness andprostrating sultriness of the Chaldean lowlands ;whereupon her royal lord, with a chivalrous gallantrythat would have done honor to a far later time, or¬dered the construction of an artificial hill, disposedin terraces, which, being covered with alayer ofearth, were planted with the handsomest trees,amidst which, on the topmost terrace, avilla-likeresidence was erected for the queen, where shecould enjoy, not only purer air and pleasant shades,but a vast and beautiful prospect. If this prettylegend be true and why should we deny ourselvesthe pleasure of believing it, since there is nothingto disprove it ?the woman so loved might well feelcompensated even for the loss of her, native sceneryin the Zagros wilds, for which, of course, her terracedbower, some 500 feet square, could be but a poorsubstitute.428.Kaulen, " Assyrien und Babylonien," p. 76.A daughter of the great Kyaxares. See " Story of Assyria," p.

236 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.10. Yet, poor as it may have been when comparedto nature's own mountain architecture, as a piece ofhuman art it was a marvel which the Greeks thoughtworthy of a place among their "Seven Wonders,"along with the walls of Babylon, the temple of Bel,that of Artemis at Ephesus, and a few other monu¬ments. The terraces are described by Greek andRoman writers to have been borne on arched vaultssupported by pillars, all of well cemented bricks.On the topmost terrace was the pump-house, withthe hydraulic machinery for raising the water throughpipes from the Euphrates, or rather, from canalswhich brought the water within easy reach, and sothat the contrivance should not be noticed from theoutside. "Mr. Rassam found some of the pipes, cutthrough hmestone, and having cleared one of therubbish that choked it, actually came upon waterwhich still partly filled it. It is said that the earthwas carted up in loads and spread out on a layer ofplates of lead, for the protection of the masonryfrom the destructive action of the moisture whichhad to be kept up around the roots of the trees.The terraces were four in number, the pillars sixtyfeet apart, and twenty-two feet in circumference, ascould be verified from the remains. On the whole,this Paradeisos, as the Greeks called it, disposedsomewhat on the principle of the Ziggurat, was notan innovation, and we have seen in a preceding vol¬ume that similar constructions terraces upon arches,bearing groves or gardens and forming artificiallywatered slopes have been portrayed long beforeNebuchadrezzar on Assyrian wall-sculptures, the

aOSUiWCOguToOa

238 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.type of both Ziggurat and hanging gardens havingbeen carried north in remote antiquity from Chaldeawhere, beyond doubt, it originated, and was closelyconnected with the religious traditions of the Holy-Mountain and Sacred Tree.*II. If the mound of Babil has been correctlyidentified as the site of the hanging gardens, thatof the great temple of Bel-Marduk will have, untilfurther discoveries, to remain doubtful. Both tem¬ple and Ziggurat, the latter with a chapel on thetop stage, are thus described by Herodotus :" The sacred precinct was a square enclosure two stadia (i200feet) each way, with gates of solid brass, which was also remainingin my time.In the middle of the precinct there was a tower ofsolid masonry, a stadion (5oo feet) in length and breadth, uponwhich was raised a second tower, and on that a third, and so on upto eight. The ascent to the top is on the outside, by a path whichwinds round all the towers,f When one is about half-way up, onefinds a resting-place and seats, where persons are wont to sit sometime on their way to the summit. On the topmost tower there is aspacious temple, and inside the temple stands a couch of unusualsize, richly adorned, with a golden table by its side. . . . Theydeclare but I for my part do not credit it that the god comesdown in person into this chamber, and sleeps on the couch. . . .In the same precinct there is another temple, in which is a sittingfigure of Zeus " (i. e., Bel-Marduk), "all of gold. Before the fig¬ure stands a large golden table ;and the throne whereupon it sits,and the base on which the throne is placed, are likewise of gold.. . . Outside the temple are two altars, one of solid gold, onwhich it is lawful to offer only sucklings ;the other a common altar,but of great size, on which the full-grown animals are sacrificed. Itis also on this great altar that the Chaldeans burn the frankincense,which is offered every year at the festival of the god. . . ."* See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 274-280, and ill. 68.f See'' Story of Chaldea," ill. 70, "Ziggurat Restored,"

BABYLON THE GREAT. 239Four hundred years later the great temple wasonly a memory. " In the middle of the city," thehistorian, Diodorus of Sicily, reports,* "used tostand the sanctuary of Bel. As different writershave said different things about it, and the buildingitself has broken down with age, nothing certain canbe found out concerning it. On one thing, however,all agree : that it was of stupendous height, and thatthe Chaldeans used to take astronomical observa¬tions from the top of it, as the height of the structuremade it convenient for them to observe the risingand setting of the stars." Alexander of Macedon, .who lived only one hundred years after Herodotus,already found the temple a ruin. We are told that,he intended to repair and rebuild it, but could notspare the time and the labor on the work, as the re¬moval of the rubbish would alone have employed10,000 men during two months. And besides, theyoung conqueror died before he could accomplisheven so much. It was thus that all these costly andstupendous, but unwieldy and perishable structurescollapsed and literally crumbled to dust and rubbishthe moment they were left to themselves, even whenthe work of destruction was not accomplished orhelped by the hand of man as was too often thecase in these countries, exposed as they were to con¬tinual invasions and change of masters. The wonderis that Herodotus should have found Babylon stillso much the city that Nebuchadrezzar left it, for, inthe hundred years that separated him from that* Herodotus died about425 B.C., and Diodorus was a contemporaryof Julius Ca;sar and of Augustus.' '?cy J

240 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.monarch, the great capital had been taken thrice byforce of arms, once after a long siege.12. It is curious that the works which we know tohave been carried out by Nebuchadrezzar shouldhave been credited by the Greeks of almost the nextgeneration not to him, but to two queens, one ofthem entirely fabulous, even mythical, and the other,if not exactly unreal, still more or less apocryphal.The legend of Semiramis (see " Story of Assyria,"p. 198) ascribes to her the building of Babylon gen¬erally, the construction of the hanging gardens, thegreat walls, the temple of Bel, and the bridge.He¬rodotus, on the other hand (Book I., 184- 1 86), claimsthe latter, as well as the basin at Sippar, and theturning of the Euphrates, for a certain queen,Nitokris, of whom contemporary records knownothing whatever.This perversion of history is themore to be wondered at, that there certainly wasintercourse between Babylon and Greece at thetime, since we know of Greek volunteers serving inNebuchadrezzar's army, and among these of at leastone illustrious namea brother of the poet Alkman.13. The pride which Nebuchadrezzar took in thecity wellnigh created by him, has become proverbialfrom the celebrated passage in which the prophetDaniel presents the lifelike picture of the king walk¬ing upon the terraces of his palace, surveying theunspeakably gorgeous prospect around him and athis feet, and exclaiming :" Is not this great Babylon,which I have built for the royal dwelling-place, bythe might of my power, and for the glory of mymajesty?"How well these words, reported by the

BABYLON THE GREAT.24IHebrew eye-witnes.s, accord with the tenor of certainpassages in the great king's inscriptions.the astonishment of men I built this house ;"... Forawe ofthe power of my majesty encompasses its walls.The temples of the great gods I made brilliant as thesun, shining asthe day. ... In Babylon alone Iraised the seat of my dominion, in no other city."This excessive pride in his works is betrayed in allhis inscriptions, which, on the other hand, arestrangely silent about his wars and victories, and wewould not know that he had reduced many Arabianpeoples to submission but for some vague passagesin the book of Jeremiah. It is obvious, howev^'er,that the main feature of this great monarch's reignis his admirable home-rule. When to his vast systeinof fortifications and irrigation in the north we add '"the improvement and regulation of the drainage ofthe Chaldean -marshes by the mouth of the rivers,the foundation of a commercial city with harbor-^Teredon or TiRiDOTisat that of the Euphrates,and of a colony, Gerrha, on the Arabian coast ofthe gulf, we shall see that he did as much for tradeas for agriculture, national defence, and the adorn¬ment of his cities, opening a most convenient thor¬oughfare by water, for the transport of wares fromArabia and India all the way up the Euphrates toKarkhemish.The restoration of the Chaldean mon¬archy in more than its ancient glorythat dream of .national revival and greatness which the princes ofKalduhad pursued, openly or in secret, throughmore than three centuries,* for which Merodach-* See " Story of Assyria," pp. 170-174.

242 media: BABYLON, AND PERSIA.Baladan and his heroic house of Bit-Yakin hadplotted and fought, suffered and died,* had at lengthbecome a reality. And if the glory was fleeting, theempire short-lived, it was because one man, howevergreat his genius and power, cannot stay or turn thecurrent of historical law. Nebuchadrezzar and hispeople belonged to a race whose day of leadershipwas done, and when he died, things resumed theircourse on the incline down which they were drawnby natural gravitation.14. Babylon, like the great cities of Assyria, hassurvived only in the ruins of her principal public orroyal buildings. Of her streets, squares, privatedwellings, we vainly seek a trace. We only knowfrom Herodotus that the streets all ran in straight'lines, not only those parallel to the rivers, but alsothe " cross streets which lead down to the water¬side," where they ended in the low gate alreadymentioned (see p. 231). The same traveller describesthe houses as being mostly three or four stoneshigh. It is probable that our curiosity on manypoints will never be satisfied, and until quite latelywe knew scarcely more of the Babylonians' privatelife than of that of their northern neighbors. Infact, for a long time we had to be content withscraps of information from Greek sources, like thefollowing, also from Herodotus :" The dress of the Babylonians is a linen tunic reaching to the feet,and above it another tunic made of wool, besides which they have ashort white cloak thrown around them, and shoes of a peculiar*See "Story of. Assyria," reigns of Tiglath Pileser II. and theSamonidos.

BABYLON TIIE GREAT. 243fashion. . . . They have long hair, wear turbans, and anoint theirwhole body with perfumes. Every one carries a seal, and a walking-stick,carvetl at the top into the form of an apple, a rose, a lily,an eagle, for it is not their habit to use a stick without an orna¬ment."This description, superficial as it is, and bearingon the merely outer traits which would naturallystrike a foreigner, contains two details which guaran¬tee its faithfulness, being amply corroborated bymodern discoveries; in the seals which every onecarries, we recognize the familiar seal-cylinders, thegeneral use of which accounts for the enormousnumber of .specimens which has been found, amount¬ing to several thousands, scattered in various collec¬tions, public and private, that of the British Mu¬seum alone counting over six hundred. As to theornamental knobs of the walking-sticks, such arti¬cles are often found in the ruins, and are thoughtto have served for the very purpose mentioned byHerodotus. He also notes some of the more re¬markable customs of those which would be sure- tostrike a traveller or be pointed out to him, evenwithout his knowing a word of the language. Suchis the custom of laying people in the street whenthey were very ill, for the passers-by to advise themon their case * ; also that of holding a matrimonialauction once a year,a sort of fair, at which, mar¬riageable giris being collected in one place, the menassembled to inspect them, forming a circle aroundthem t Then a herald or public crier called tlieir* For the meaning and origin of this custom see " Story of Chal¬dea," p. 163.f Herodotus Siiys " all the marriageable giris," and m£ikes the cus-

244 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.names and offered them for sale, one by one, to thehighest bidder. The most .beautiful came first, asthey, of course, fetched the highest prices. Whenall the pretty girls were disposed of, the plain oneshad their turn, but for them the proceeding wasreversed, marriage portions being offered with them.The herald began with the most homely one, askingwho would take her with the smallest dowry.Shewas knocked down to the man who contented him¬self with the lowest sum.The marriage-portionswere furnished out of the money paid for the beau¬tiful damsels, and thus "the fairer maidens por¬tioned out the uglier," remarks Herodotus, whothinks the whole arrangement a wise and admirableone.15. It is but lately that our materials for a knowl¬edge of Babylonian life, manners, and customs havereceived an important and unlooked for addition.Ina field of research where so much is due to chance,and where every great success is a piece of luck anda surprise, not the least of these was the discovery ofthe secret archive of a family which has been calledTHE Banking PIouse of Egibi. Already in 1874some Arab diggers disinterred from a large moundknown under the name of Djumdjuma several wellpreservedterra-cotta jars, packed full of small tabtomuniversal. It was most certainly not so, as proved by the v.astnumber of documents on jirivate life, of which an account followsfurther on. Still, as later writers mention it, it iijay have existedas a local survival from barbarous antiquity, piously preserved bysome of those worshippers of " the good old times," who are a stand¬ing feature of all ages and countries.

BAB YLON THE GREA T.245. lets covered with writing. They had learned bythis time the value of such " finds," and carried thejars to a dealer in Baghdad, from whom GeorgeSmith bought them for the British Museum, thoughfar from suspecting what treasure he had stumbledon. The tablets were about three thou.sand in num¬ber, varying in size from one square inch to twelve.'It was found on examination that they were docu¬ments recording all sorts of commercial and pecuniary"transactions, and bearing the names of the contract¬ing parties and of witnesses. Among these names,either as principal or witnessmore often the for¬mer, always figured the name of some son, or grand¬son, or descendant of a certain fioiBl, evidently thefounder of a firm possessed of immense wealth andinfluence, and which, through many generations,indeed several centuries, transacted money affairsof every sort and magnitude, from the loan of a fewmanehs to that of many talents, from witnessing aprivate will or a contract of sale or partnershipbetween modest citizens of Babylon or some neigh¬boring city, to the collecting of taxes from wholeprovinces farmed to the house by the government.As these documents, which come under the cla.ssknown as "contract tablets," are carefully dated,giving the day and month, and the year of thereigning king, it has been found possible to makeout- a genealogical table of the firm,* the head ofwhich, it appears, generally took his sons into part¬nership in his own lifetime. This table shows that_ * See paper by Mr. S. Chad Boscawen, ' Transactions of the So¬ciety of Biblical Archeology, vol. VI., 1S78.

246 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the founder, Egibi, " was probably at the head ofthe house in the reign of Sennacherib, about 685B.C."Professor Friedrich Delitzsch has quite latelycome to the conclusion that the name Egibi is theequivalent to the Hebrew Yakub (Jacob),* fromwhich fact he infers that the great banker musthave been a Jew, probably of those carried into cap¬tivity by Sargon out of Samaria.fHe remarks,that many of the tablets bear unmistakably Jewishnames, and thinks they will yet .shed many a lighton the life and doings of the Hebrew exiles in Baby¬lon and other Chaldean cities.If this philologicalpoint is established, it would be curious to note athow early a date the blessing uttered on the race inDeuteronomy (xxviii., 12):"Thou shalt lend untomany nations and thou shalt not borrow," began totake effect.16. However that may be, the firm of " Egibi andSons" had reached its climax of wealth and powerunder Nebuchadrezzar, a century after its founda¬tion, having weathered the storms of the two sieges,under Sennacherib and Asshurbanipal, as they wereto pass unscathed through several more similar po¬litical crises, protected by their exceptional position,which made them too useful, indeed too necessary, tobe injured. " All the financial business of the court,"Professor Fr. Delitzsch tells us, " was entrusted to thisfirm through several centuries.They collected thetaxes with which land, and the crops of corn, dates,*See article " Gefangenschaft," in the Calwer Bibel-Lexikon ;also, Zeitsckriftfiir Keilschri/tforschung lor 18S5, pp. 168, 169.f See " Story of Assyria," p. 247,

BABYLON THE GREAT. 247etc., were burdened, also the dues for the use of thepublic roads and the irrigation canals, etc., etc.Thus,. these insignificant-looking little cakes of clayunrol before us a vivid picture of Babylon's nationallife ;we see people of all classes, from the highestcourt-officer to the lowest peasant and slave, crowdthe courts of this treasure-house to transact theirbusiness." At first (in 1878), it was thought that thepalmy days of the firm extended only to the reignof the Persian king, DAREIOS Hystaspis, and thegenealogical table (see p. 245) went no further thanacertain Marduk-NAZIR-PAL, who appears in the.first year of that king, and continues to act until histhirty-fifth year.But Professor Delitzsch informsus (in 1882), that Mr. PI.' Rassam added several hun¬dred tablets to the batch first purchased, and that,among these, there aresome dated from the reignof King Alik-sa-an-dir, i.e., Alexander the Great.This wouldgive these Babylonian Rothschilds aknown and provable duration ofvery nearly fourcenturies.17. If there should ever arise among Assyriologistsa scholar gifted with imaginative power and literarytalent,like Georg Ebers, the pride of Egyptology,such a scholar will find ample material for histori¬cal romances of real value in the materials extractedfrom the jar-safes of the House Egibi.Many anepoch not half so remote in time cannot produceone quarter so much documentary evidence. TheEgibi tablets, with their dry records of transactionsin all branches of social life and mutual relations,present a very complete skeleton, which it would be

248 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.a delightful and not over-difficult task to clothe withthe flesh and blood of poetically created living per¬sons.The greatest difficulty at present would bethe number of unintelligible words.It stands toreason that the language of every-day life and busi¬ness transactions must be very different from that ofhistorical annals, asrepresented by the royal wallinscriptionsand cylinders.These monotonous andstiff productions continually repeat not only thesame words, but whole sentences and set forms ofspeech.Large portions of them are very much likeblank forms in which the names only have to befilled in.In short, the public documents are writ¬ten in an official and conventional style, while theprivate tablets represent what might be called idio¬matic literature ;and we all know how much easierit is to learn the book-language than every-dayspeech of even a modern people, with all the facilitiesand assistance we command, let alone a dead one.l8. It has been objected that to give the firm ofEgibi & Sons the title of " banking-house " is mis¬leading, since the bulk of their tablets shows themto have done the business df money-lenders and per¬haps notaries public.Yet it is certain that the bankdeposits, with their natural accompaniment, drafts,and cheques, were in use much before the inventionof coining.Fr. Lenormant quotes such a document(of the reign of Nabonidus, the last king of Baby¬lon), a real banker's draft by which a person liv¬ing at Ur gives to another an order on apersonliving at Ercch.*To another such draft or cheque* " La Monnaie dans I'Antiquite','' vol. I., p, 117.

BABYLON THE GREAT. 249of the reign of Nebuchadrezzar, the sender (atKutha) and the payer (at Borsip) are named, butnot the payee: it is a cheque " to bearer."* Thatsuch documents were negotiable, like our own let¬ters of exchange or cheques, /. c., could be indorsedand exchanged for their value in gold or silver(discounted), and that in very ancient times, isshown by a bilingual text (Accadian and Assy¬rian), which says: "His mandatenot paid, butyet to be senthe exchanged against silver."fThese are real banking-operations, the invention ofwhich has always been attributed to the Jewishfinanciers of the Middle Ages, and which it is quitestartling to see in familiar operation among theirancestors or kindred over twenty centuries beforethem."And yet," remarks Lenormant,^: " if we stop to consider thepeculiar conditions under which the commerce of the Assyrians andBabylonians was carried on, we shall be able to account for this atfirst sight, strange fact ; we shall understand the causes which ledthese nations to invent the draft or exchange system so much earlierthan others. Their trade, from the geogr.aphical position of theircountries, was necessarily carried on liy land, by means of caravanswhich had to traverse, in all directions, deserts infested by nomadicrobbers. In such conditions, one of the merchant's first cares wasto find a way to avoid the transporting of money in cash to distantpoints. Every thing made it desirable to find such a w.ay : the cum¬bersome nature of metallic values, the number of beasts of burden,required to carry great quantities of it, as well as the unsafe roads.Therefore, as soon as there was a creditor at one end of a caravanline and a debtor at the other, the idea of the draft-system must havedawned on the mind of the creditor. This is so natural that a re¬newal of the same conditions gave rise to the same results, after a* " La Monnaie dans I'Antiquite," vol. I., p. 120.//'., p. 119. I //,., pp. 121, 122.

250 MEDIA. BABYLON. AND PERSIA.long, oblivion, in the Middle Ages, when the Jews and the Italianmerchants, hampered by the difficulties of transporting coined moneyand beset by innumerable risks, re-invented the letter of, exchange,but in the moreperfect form which has prevailed down to ourown times."There is no reason to suppose that the firm Egibi& Sons did not transact business of this order, andthey would therefore be, strictly speaking, entitledto the name of " banking-house," even though theirprincipal business was lending money, which theydid on a large scale like modern banks, which byno means confine their operations to the exchangeand transfer of values.19. It is certain that the documents recording thesalesof slaves, cattle, horses, houses, furniture,land, etc. are the most numerous, together withthose recording loans obligations we would callthem at shorter or longer dates, with the interestcomputed in money, or in grain,* sometimes evenin days of work, and often with the provision ofpenalties, .should the payment not be made on time,such as that, if not paid on a certain day, the debtshall be increased one third. There are usually sev¬eral witnesses : the scribe put down the name ofthose who could not write and they made a mark inthe soft clay with their nails. In many cases theloan was made on security given by a third party,or on mortgage of property, under which head theborrower frequently included his children, nay hisown person. We are told that, if tabulated, these* This was a convenient arrangement to both sides, as many ofthe government taxes were paid in grain.

BABYLON TIIE GREAT. 25 1tablets might give the average price of every articlesold in Babylon, or even hired ; for it was not un¬common for people to rent out their .slaves, andthere seem to have been speculators who made it aregular -trade to train and hire out slaves, by con¬tract, in which case a sum of money is usually agreedon to be paid to the owner should the slave be lost,killed, or injured. Sometimes a condition of thetransaction is that the hirer shall teach the slave atrade. Slaves were frequently marked probablybrandedfor identification, with their master's name,on the wrist, the arm, the shoulder.This facilitatedanother transaction, which must have been very con¬venient for people in temporarily straitened circum¬stances the conditional sale of slaves, with theprovision that whenever the original owner claimedthe slave sold on this understanding, that slaveshould bereturned to him or her, the purchasemoneybeing refunded.If children had been bornmeanwhile, the purchaser could keep them if hechose, on paying a small sum for them. All thesetransactions could equally well be performed through^a third person, by power of attorney.In wealthyestablishments this power was usually given to thehead-.slave or steward.If a freeman, it behoovedthe agent to be very careful, as ignorance or neglectof nice points of legal form were just as apt to getpeople into trouble then as nowadays. Thus wehave a contract by which a certain Iba, son of Silla,buys some property on behalf and by authority of aman and his wife ; Bunanitu is the name of the lat¬ter. Had the scribe omitted the clause, "by the

252 ' MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.authority of . . . ," and had the employer after¬wards chosen to deny or repudiate the purchase,Iba, son of Silla, would have been compelled to keepand pay for it himself, the law being explicit on thesubject:"If a man has contracted for a field andhouse in the name of another, but has not received aletter of authority concerning it, or has not shown aduplicate of the tablet, the man who wrote the tabletand contract in his name shall lose that house andfield."20. Not that we can boast the recovery of a com¬plete code of Babylonian law.It is even very doubt¬ful whether such a code existed at all.The lawyersand judges looked for guidance to some very ancientdocuments, now known as " tablets of precedents."These tablets, several of which have been found anddeciphered, seem to have formed a continuous series,and are bilingual, the text being in the old Accadianlanguage, accompanied by an Assyrian translation.These texts or sentences are said to be not exactly .laws, but to " give precepts or rules for the conductof man in his various occupations." *Had we theentire collection, we should probably find that these" rules and precepts," the accumulated fruits of per¬haps centuries of experience andobservation, em¬braced the whole range of human life, in its private,social, and public capacities.As it is, wc find theremuch valuable material.One tablet gives instruc¬tion for the agriculturist, " when and how he is to* See the paper of Mr. George Berlin, " Accadian Precepts for theConduct of Man in Private Life," in "Trans, of the Soc. of BibleAreha:ology," vol. VIII,, 1884.

BABYLON THE GREAT. 253prepare and sow his fields, build his house and barn,what are his relations towards his landlord in suchand such a circumstance." The most imiDortant isthe tablet which instructs a man as to his privatelife and his duties towards his relatives. Beginningwith simple rules, it ends with what might almost becalled criminal laws.21. After mentioning (§ i) what time a child shallbe declared a freeman, i. e., of age, and describing(§ 2) the ceremony which accompanies the declara¬tion, §§ 3 and 4 speak of the first act of thechild when he became aman, which consisted i.npaying, tribute, double the usual sum ; §§ 5 and6 state that " the child is henceforth answerablefor his actions and will bear the consequences of hissins."The paragraph on the nursing and educationof the child are hopelessly injured ;one line, how¬ever, stands out clear and significant : " He (thefather) makes him (the child) learn inscriptions."Then comes another line : " He makes him take atuife." This was the " chief wife," who seems tohave been chosen and asked from her parents bythe father, as a last act of parental authority. Thisunion was indissoluble, as can be inferred from thelines : " Henceforth, the husband cannot remove herwho possesses his heart." The bride, who was toremain the head of the household for life, was to bea free-born maiden, and brought a dowry, which, onthe death of the husband, returned to her and to herchildren, or, if there were no children, to her parents,i.e., the sourcewhence it originally came.22. Then follows the second part of the tablet,

254 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.containing a rudimentary attempt at a penal legis¬lation.1st,A son is forbidden to deny his duty to hisfather, under penalty of being reduced to servitudeand sold as a slave :" When a son to his father ' myfather thou art not ' has said, the nails he shall cuthim,* . . . for money he shall sell him."2d. For the same offence against his mother, ason, besides being enslaved and expelled from thehouse, is exposed in the middle of the town (proba¬bly pilloried).3d. If a husband ill-treats his wife so that shedenies him, heis to be thrown into the river,whether to die, or only undergo an ordeal, a punish¬ment, is not specified : " When a wife, her htisbandhaving done wrong to her, ' my Imsband not tliou art 'has said, in the river they place him."4th." When a husband ' my ivife not tliou art 'has said, {i. e., refuses her her rights), half a maneJiof silver he iveighs."This clause probably answers to our provision of" alimony to be paid by the husband to his desertedor injured wife.There are also penalties against thefather and the mother who deny their son.Lastly, if a man ill-uses a slave whom he hashired from another, so that the slave dies, or if theslave runs away, breaks down from exhaustion or* " Long n.ails," remarks Mr. George Berlin, who, it should beremembered, is responsible for the translation, " seem therefore tohave been the mark of freedom, as long hair and beard were amongthe Semites.The slaves and people of low condition are alwaysrepresented on the bas reliefs as shaved."

BABYLON THE GREAT. 255illness, that man " weighs " half a measure of cornto the master of the slave, for every day, as a com¬pensation.*23. It is rather startling to find that these un¬doubtedly very ancient texts or " precedents "averitable " custom-law " {loi couttiiniere) secure towomen a position not only honorable and infl.uential,but almost entirely independent. The laws ofproperty and inheritance are always a fair test of theposition which the women occupy in a common¬wealth. Now we have seen above (see p. 253) thata woman's dowry by no means became her husband'sproperty.That law was completed by the followingstill more liberal clause : if a widow wished to marryagain, (" set her face to go down to another house ")she took with her not only her own dowry, but allthe property which her first husband had left her.At her death, her dowry was to be divided betweenthe children of both marriages. Here the tablet isbroken off, and we lose the conclusion of the regu¬lation though it is supposed that, to be logicallyconsistent, it enacted that the first husband's prop¬erty should go to his children alone. One of themost interesting documents is a will in due and legalform, witnessed and attested, by which aman pro-" It should be noted here on high As.syriological .authority that thetranslations from the document nientioned in § 22 must be taken veryguardedly, especially in the peculiar details, and as by no meansfinal. "The text is defective and the tr.anslation necessarily so.The interpretation of this tablet is still so obscure that one could notwell say too little about it in a history of Babylonia."' (Dr. D. G.Lyon, in a private letter.) This applies particulariy to the specialprovisions, the general sense being tolerably well established.

256 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.vides for his wife : he leaves certain property to beheld in trust for her by his three children. She is tohave the use of it during her life, and, when she dies,it reverts to the children.24. A large number of the Egibi tablets, as wellas of the older contract tablets, show us women hotonly concerned as principals in every kind of com¬mercial and legal transactions,in which the husbandfrequently appears merely as witness, or even as hiswife's agent, but personally pleading for theirrights before the royal judges, and gaining theirsuit too. Thus Bunanitu the same woman whomwe saw giving a power of attorney, jointly with herhusband, for the purchase of some property in Bor¬sip reappears as a widow, when she enters a civilsuit against her brother-in-law, who wished to despoilher and her daughter of their inheritance, by layingclaim to that very house and land. She proved thatthe purchase was made with her dowry, to whichher husband added a sum which he borrowed, andthat, on her request, and to secure her interests " forfuture days," he gave her a document witnessingthat he had traded with her dowry, and that thepurchase was their joint act. " He sealed his tabletand wrote upon it the curse of the great gods . . .I have brought it before you. Make a decision."The judges " heard their words," discussed thetablets, and decided in favor of the widow. Thematter is related at far greater length in the originaldocument, and is followed by a general settling upof all the family affairs. It is very entertaining tosee the same persons turn up again and again, now

Babylon THE GREAT. 257as principals, now as agents, now as witnesses.the money which Bunanitu 'sThushusband added to herdowry is said to have been borrowed from a certainIddina-Marduk son of Basha, whose name we findas witness on the bill of sale (see p. 251), while stillanother tablet gives us his own marriage contract.This shows that the house Egibi, like modern firms,had its well-established circle of permanent clients,'and there is no doubt that by carefully studying andsifting their archives, it would be possible to tracethe fortunes and mutual relations of various familiesthrough several generations.This fascinating taskwill devolve on the future novelist of Assyriology,and spare him, to a great extent, even the trouble ofinventing a plot for his story. He will also findnumbers of expressive and peculiar idiomatic formsof speech, to add anarrativepicturesque local color to hissuch as when two men entering into part¬nership and bringing each so much to begin opeirationswith, call the capital thus formed " mother ofbusiness."25. Another class of document.s, which will be toour novelist a rich and choice feast, is the daily in¬creasing collection of private letters, of which quitea number have been deciphered of late.Scant roomlimits us to but one specimen. It is a request forassistance, addressed by an aged father to an absentson :{0bverse^^ ''(Letter) from Iddina-aha(?) (to) Remut his son." (Bel) and Nebo peace and life for my son may they bespeak. He,my son, knows that there is no corn in the house. 2 or 3 gur ofcorn by the hands of some one whom thou knowest may my sonS

258 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.cause to be brought. There is none. By the hands of the boatmanwhom thou indicatedst, send "\Reversei\ ". . . unto me. Send the gift. Cause it to goforth to thy father.my son's life grantThis day Bel and Nebo for the preservation ofRemat after the peace of Remut her son asks."(=Thy mother asks after thy health.) *26. We have seen above (pp. 251-2) that among afather's first duties to his child was numbered thatof sending him to school " making him learn in¬scriptions." That this was no empty talk is amplyproved by a large class of tablets perhaps the mostamusing of all which have been found to be noth¬ing more nor less than reading-books and children'scopy-books, with school exercises, consisting in shortsentences and lists of signs, written out a great manytimes, for practice, through all the stages of badspelling and worse calligraphy. A great many suchtablets are bilingual, and Professor A. H. Sayce hadthe good fortune of lighting on one sufficientlywell preserved to be intelligible through several con¬secutive lines. It proves to be a simple nurserytale, which he translates, as far as the text goes,under the attractive title, " STORY OF THE FOUND¬LING," as follows :" The child who had neither father nor mother, who knew nothis father or mother, Into the fishpond(?) he came, into the streelhe went ; From the mouth of the dogs one took him, from themouth of the ravens one led him away ; Before the soothsayer onetook him from their mouth. The soles of his feet with the sooth¬sayer's seal underneath him were marked. To tWe nurse he was* The original tablet is in the private collection of the MissesBruce, of New York, together with the manuscript translation byMr. TheOi G. Pinchesboth as yet unpublished.

BABYLON THE GREAT. 359and his clothing were assured.-Sb for a time his rearing went onmni oT" r«n' T"^ '" reioiced.(?)_His stomach' with themilk of man he filled and made him his own son. . . ." 'Here the tablet breaks off.But the fragment isquite sufficient to show to what kind of literaturethe document belongs, especially by the light of Profes.sorSayce's remarks, which we cannot do betterthan copy for our readers. He classes this text asan Accadian reading-book, intended to teach theelements of the extinct Accadian language of primi¬tive Chaldea to Babylonian boys of a later day "then goes on :"E.asy passages in Accadian have been selected for the purposeand provided with Assyrian translations, while the text is inter¬spersed with exercises upon the principal words occurring in itllius he plirase ' he made him his own son," is followed by exam¬ples of the various ways in which tlie words composing it could becombined with other parts of speech or replaced by correspondingexpressions-' his son '-< his sonship '_' for his sonship '-< for hisson he reckoned him '- in the register of sonship he inscribedhmi, etc. Like the lesson-books of our own nurseries, the oldBabylonian lesson-book also chose such stories as were likely to inereschildren and the author wisely took his passage from thefolk-lore .and fairy tales of the boys' nursery rather than from theadvanced literature of grown men. . . .".fIn the same manner our children first learn thedead languages of their own race, Latin and Greek_ * Adoption seems to have been common in Babylonia, especiallyin families where there were no sons.' In the document quoted onPP- 255-6 Bunanitu tells the judges that she bore her husband onlyone daughter, and that he formally adopted a stranger-" took himto sonship and wrote a tablet of his sonship."tSee A H. Sayce's paper "Babylonian Folk-Lore," in theFolk-Lore Journal, vol. I., January, 1SS3, pp. i6 ff

26oMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.in collections of fables and anecdotes or shortstories.27. These are not the only school-exercises thathave survived, and the method of impressing thingson the mind by writing them out does not appearto have been limited to children.Mr. H. Rassamhas brought home many fragments containing lawtextsfrom the " tablets of precedents," copied outcarefully three times, evidently by law-students, forpurposes of memorizing.As for the class of docu¬ments known as " contract-tablets," they do not byany means cease with the Babylonian Empire.Strayspecimens bring down the use of them to an aston¬ishingly late periodas late as the first centuriesafter Christ,if we are to trust one which is datedfrom the reign of a Persian king who reigned about100 A.D.,showing that the use of cuneiform writingdied out very gradually and prevailed much longerthan had at first been supposed. .

XMEDIA AND THE RISE OF PERSIA.I. Had the throne of Media, during Nebuchadrez¬zar's long reign, been occupied by Kyaxares, or' amonarch of the same ambitious and active stamp, itis very probable that the Babylonian would havehad occasion, in his lifetime, to test the efficiency ofthose bulwarks and defences which his foresight sobusily devised. For relationship, especially the ar¬tificial connection by marriage, has not much weightin politics, and if the founder of the Median Empirehad seen an opening toward "rounding it off " (asthe modern phrase goes), at the expense of either orboth his neighbors, it is not likely that considerationfor either his daughter or daughter-in-law wouldhave stopped him. But he died quite eariy in Neb¬uchadrezzar's reign (584), and his son and successor,Astyages (the " Ishtuvegu " of cuneiform records.See p. 221), was a man of self-indulgent habit, indolentand pleasure-loving, the very model of the spendthriftheir, bent merely on enjoying the greatness he has nothelped to build, until, by his carelessness, he loses it.His accession, therefore, was a very good thing forhis brother-in-law of Babylon and his father-in-lawAlyattes, of Sardis, who, with the help of his son261

262 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.Kroisos (Crccsus), went on consolidating and enlar¬ging the dominion of Lydia, and settling old-standingaccounts with the Greek cities of the sea-shore.2. Nor was the change that had come over the na¬tion less great. The Medes were no longer therough warriors, inured to hardships, careless ofwealth, of which they hadnot learned the value,who " did not regard silver, and as for gold, took nodelight in it " (Isaiah xiii., 17).The booty of Nine¬veh and the other Assyrian cities had taught themthe uses of luxury, and the court of Agbatana wasnot outdone in splendor by either Babylon or Sar¬dis.The palace of Median royalty, too, was fullyequal in magnificence to those of the older capitals ;it is even possible that it outshone them in mere barba'ricgorgeousness, such as the lavish use of gold andsilver, though there is great reason to believe that itremained far behind in point of artistic decoration.For the Aryan conquerors had no art of their own,and had not yet had time to learn that of their neigh¬bors, nor, perhaps, to find out that art was in itselfdesirable and worth learning a notion originallyforeign to the rather stern and practical Eranianmind.But, as national dignity demands that roy¬alty should be housed in seemly splendor, an effect ofgreat magnificence and imposing majesty was pro¬duced by other means.3. For, if they had not made a study of art, espe¬cially that of decoration, the Medes had brought withthem a manner of building which was to be fruitfulof artistic results, and inaugurate a style of architec¬ture entirely different from that with which we have

MEDIA AND THE RISE OF PERSIA. 263become so familiar in the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates.In the abundantly wooded mountains andvalleys of Eastern Eran the building material indi¬cated by nature is timber. The nomad's movabletent or hut is imitated in wood, enlarged, and be¬comes the cabin of logs or boards, with porch andgallery resting on roughly hewn trunks of trees.This, again, in constructions destined for public pur¬poses, expands into the hall with aisles of columnssupporting the roof, and with wide pillared porch.The transition is easy to the combination of publicand private apartments which forms the royal dwell¬ing or palace. By devising the plan on a granderscale, by the choice of hard and handsome woods, oftall and stately trees, and by great finish of workmanship,it was possible to produce a building of realbeauty, preserving the original and characteristic fea¬ture profusion of columns, to be distributed inevery possible combination of aisles, porches, por¬ticos surrounding the inner courts, etc. Exactly sucha construction was the palace at Agbatana. Theforests of the Zagros supplied fine timber as bounti¬fully as those of Bactria, and the Medes could pre¬serve their own traditional style of building withoutfalling into the absurdity of the Assyrians, who wenton heaping mountains of bricks, after the manner offlat and marshy Chaldea, when they had quarries offine stone at hand all around them.4- The ancient Greek writers describe the palaceof the Median kings (possibly begun by Deiokes,and enlarged by Kyaxares), as occupying an area offully two thirds of a mile, at the foot of Mt. ORONTES

264 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.(modern Elvend) ;it was built entirely of costlycedar and cypress, but the wood was nowhere visible,as not only the columns and beams, but the ceilingsand walls, were overlaid with gold or silver plating,while the roof was made of silver tiles.Herodotusis filled with admiration at the effect produced bythe walls which enclosed the palace, "rising in cir¬cles, one within the other.The plan of the place isthat each of the walls should out-top the one beyondit by the battlements.The nature of the ground,which is a gentle slope, favors this arrangement insome degree, but it was mainly effected by art. Thenumber of the circles is seven, the royal palace andthe treasuries standing within the last.... Ofthe outer wall, the battlements are white ;of thenext, black; of the third, scarlet; of the fourth,blue ; of the fifth, orange ; all these are covered withpaint.The last two have their battlements coatedrespectively with silver and gold." The city Wasbuilt outside the circuit of the walls. The only draw¬back to this picturesque and well-defended situationwas the want of water.There was none nearer thanthe other side of Mt. Orontes, several miles from thecity, where a small lake fed a mountain stream.Thatstream was turned from its course and brought by atunnel, fifteen feet in width, which was cut throughthe base of the mountain for the purpose.This isthe work which Median legend, followed by theGreeks, attributed to the fabulous Queen Semira¬mis.*It is very probable that it was "planned andcarried out by Kyaxares.*See " Story of Assyria," p. loS,-

MEDIA AND TIIE RISE OF PERSIA. 2655. The general effect, as beheld from a distance,especially from the low level of the plain, must havebeen marvellously quaint and impressive. Thegraded height of the seven concentric walls and thecombination of colors at once recall the great Zig¬gurat of Nebo, at Borsip,* and naturally suggestthat the general idea may have been borrowed fromthere. This may well be, and, if so, we may be surethat the significance and sacredness of the numberseven in the Eranian religion prompted the imita¬tion. Besides, the legend of the original HolyMountain, of which the Chaldean Ziggurat was a re¬minder,! was common to both races, and Dunckerno doubt comes very near the truth when he ex¬plains the peculiar construction and decoration ofthe Median palace in the following words: "AsAhura-Mazda sat on his golden throne in the sphereof pure Light on the summit of golden Hukairya, sothe earthly ruler was to dwell in his palace at Agba¬tana, in golden apartments, enclosed within a goldenwall. The Avesta shows us Mithra in golden helmetand silver cuirass ; the wheels of his chariot are ofgold ; his milk-white steeds' forefeet are shod withgold, their hindfeet with silver. So it was meet thatthe royal roof and battlements should gleam in silverand in gold." Nor can the account be rejected asimprobable on the plea of extravagance. The bootyfrom Assyria could surely coyer the outlay, and thatwithout materially draining the treasury. We areexpressly told that when Alexander of Macedon* See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 280-283.f .See ' Story of Chaldea," pp. 274-276,

266 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.conquered Asia, he carried away most of the silvertiles off the roof ;yet seventy-five years later anotherconqueror still found at Agbatana booty to. -theamount of about five million dollars, in gold and sil¬ver-plating and silver roof-tiles. Yet the bulk of thegold and silver, to the value of eight and a half mil¬lions dollars, had been removed by the Persian kingbefore Alexander came. We must remember thatthe accumulation of wealth in Nineveh and Kalahmust have far exceeded our powers of calculation,and that one of the very last acts of Assyrian powerwas the wholesale cleaning out of the treasurehousesof the kings of Elam, at Shushan, " whereno other enemy had ever. put his hand " * through allthe twenty centuries of that kingdom's prosperity.6. Whether Agbatana was .s'urrounded, like Baby¬lon, by an outer wall of defence, we do not know.There was no such wall at the time of Herodotus, orhe would have mentioned it.Still, as Agbatana hadbeen taken in the interval, it is quite possible theremay have been a wall and it was demolished by thevictors. This question and many others may becleared up some day when serious diggings are un¬dertaken at Hamadan.Unfortunately, nothing ofmuch importance has yet been done, and of the fewfragmentary relics that have been found, it is impos¬sible to say whether they belong to this period or alater one. The same uncertainty confronts us atevery turn when we attempt to enquire for detailsconcerning the Median nation, its institutions, andits life.Perhaps no other empire of like extent and* See ' ' Story of Assyria, "p. 399.

MEDIA AND TIIE RISE OF PERSIA. 267power has left so few traces of its existence, so fewhandles for history to take hold of. This is certainlyowing to the lack of durable monuments. Not an. inscription has reached us ; not. one undoubtedlygenuine specimen of art or craft ; nothing but le¬gends of epical character, and those not in nativeform or garb, but transmitted through Greek writers,who got them in fragments, through the channel ofignorant, unreliable interpreters, and proceeded toimpart them as history. Of the real value of suchhistory, we have a sample in the accounts of Semir¬amis. But, though modern research has very wellestablished what is not true in the old Greek stories.It has hitherto failed in procuring much positive in¬formation concerning the Medes.7. A few facts, however, we may hold for certain.One of the principal is that the Medes used to callthemselves Aryas, and were generally known underthat name to their neighbors and subjects ; another,that the population of the empire was mixed. He¬rodotus knows by name of six so-called " tribes,"and these names it has been found possible to tracefrom the Greek corruption to the original Eranianforms. They tell their own story. One means " na¬tives," another "nomads," a third " dwellers intents," a fourth " owners of the soil," and only oneis expressly designated as " Aryan people " ("^rzzantos,"in Persian " Aryiazafitu "). Such a distinc¬tion strongly implies that the others were notAryans, and admirably tallies with the theory of thegradual advance of the Aryan Medes and their occu¬pation of Ellip and the other portions of the Zagrog

268 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.highlands, where they became a ruling class, a mili¬tary aristocracy, which held the " natives," the"owners of the soil " (of different, mostly Turanian,race), in subjection.The .seven-fold belt of defence,with which the foreign royalty enclosed itself, mayhave been at first a necessary precaution against pos¬sible risings.In the course of time, as the distinc¬tion grew less marked, and the enmity of the racesbecame merged in a common national feeling, theconquerors' name was adopted by the rest of thepopulation, and they all called themselves " Medes "together. As to the " nomads " and the " tentdwellers" (shepherds), this designation probablycovers a large proportion of still fluctuating popula¬tion in the steppes of Central and Western Eran, com¬posed mainly of Eranian elements ;for the MedianEmpire at this period of its greatest extension cov¬ered an area reaching from the Halys and Araxes onone side, across a vast tract of desert and mountainwilds on the other, some say, as far as the Indus it¬self. But its eastern boundaries were never very welldefined.It seems certain, however, that most coun¬tries composing Eastern EranHyrcania, Parthia,Bactria, and several more which figure on ancientmaps, were subject and paid tribute to Media ;someof them probably were ruled by Median governors.8. The sixth Median tribe on Herodotus' listbears the name of Magi. That these were thepriests, forming a separate body, there is no shadowof a doubt. It is the name and the only oneunder which the Eranian priesthood has been knownto foreign nations.Yet, as we have seen, it is not

' MEDIA AND THE RISE OF PERSIA. 269the name that is given them in the Avesta, wherethe priests, ever since they form a body or class, areuniformly designated as " Athravans."There is acontradiction here, which is further enhanced by thefact that the Magi, although undoubtedly the guar¬dians of Avestan law and worship, indulged in prac¬tices foreign to that law, nay, directly opposed to it,principally that of conjuring and divining, which hasbecome inseparably associated with that priestlyclass, in theuniversally accepted words " magic,"" magician." Herodotus tells us that the Magi pre¬sided at sacrifices, where they chanted hymns, andthat they delighted in killing with their own handsants, snakes, flying and creeping things, in fact, allsorts of animals except dogs.cordance with the Avestan law.This is quite in ac¬Much later writersreport that the Magi worshiiDped and sacrificed tothe Evil Power, and one of them expressly relatesthat they press in a mortar the herb called Omomi(Haoma), invoking the Power of Evil and Darkness,then mix the juice with the blood of a sacrificedwolf, and pour the drink-offering on a spot on whichthe sun never shines.*Such practices, judged bythe light of the Avesta, are nothing less than impious,and could not possibly have been originated by theEranian Athravan of early Mazdeism. But they areby no means incompatible with the spirit of Turanianor so-called Shamanistic religions, like that of pre-Semitic Chaldea, several of which incline to pay therites of worship rather to the Powers of Darknessthan those of Light. The Shamans or sorcerer-* Plutarch : " Isis and Osiris."

MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.^priests of many Turanian tribes of our own day,from Lapland through Siberia and Central Asia, arethe representatives of the still surviving hideoussuperstition.*Indeed, 'there still exists, among theKurds who live in Assyria, in the Sinjar hills, whereLayard visited and studied them, as far as they wouldpermit, a very curious sect which, together with manyold-Christian and Mussulman features, presents asurvival of what was probably the religion of pre-Aryan Media. They are called the Yezidis, or" Devil-worshippers." They believe in God, but donot show him any observance, while they show servilereverence to the Devil, who has a temple amongthem, and to whose symbol, the serpent, they paypublic honor.For, they say with a kind of perverselogic, God, being good of his nature, can do nothingbut good to men, and there is no necessity of askinghim to do so ;the Devil, on the contrary, being bad,is inclined to do harm, unless kept in a good humorby constant entreaty and propitiation. Traces ofsimilar conceptions still linger among various moun¬tain tribes of Armenia and Kurdistan (ancient Zagros).9. After all that has been said, we shall not befar from the truth if we assume the Magi to havebeenoriginally the native priesthood of the vastmountainous region subsequently occupied by theMedes and known as Western Eran.With the ar¬rival of the Aryan conquerors, who brought theirown lofty, pure, recently reformed religion, began theprocess of mutual concessions and assimilation whichmarkedthe third stage of the Avestan evolution,* See " Story of Chaldea," p. 180.

MEDLA AND THE RISE OF PERSIA. 27!and to which we referred the foreign andmostlyTuranian practices that make up so great a portionof the Vendidad (see pp. 142-156).The fu.sion ofthe two religions was followed by that of the twopriesthoods, and the Athravans were merged in theMagi, the sixth Median tribe on the list of Herodo¬tus. How the fusion was effected, and why thename " Magi " absorbed and was substituted for theolder one, will probably never be found out.Indeed,that very name has been and still is the subject ofdiscussion among the leading scholars.Many con¬nect it with the Accadian imga (priest), Semitic mag,which enters into the familiar title of Rab-mag.*Others will not hear of this Chaldean connection,and assert a purely Aryan origin of the word, ac¬counting for it by the Vedic word maghd, " great,"perhaps " holy."Whether traces of an original con¬flict 'and hostility should be detected in certain pas¬sages of the Avesta, and the pre-Aryan priesthoodshould be ynderstood under the "false Athravans"denounced in those passages, as some would have it,is too doubtful a question to be here discussed.Wemust be content with the certainty that, in historicaltimes, the Magi were the national priestly class ofMedia or Western Eran, the keepers and propagatorsof the Avestan law as represented by the Vendidad,keeping in view the important fact that the observ¬ances which they so severely enforced, such as theexposure of the dead, were not by any means adoptedby all the Eranian nations. It was only in the ulti¬mate development reached by Zoroastrian Magism* See " Story of Chaldea," p. 255.

^72MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.under the Sassanides-, that the religious law of ancientMedia was proclaimed the only orthodox one, andmade obligatory for the whole of Eran (see p. 28).10. The Magi of this period appear as a powerfulseparate body, possessing large territories with citiesof their own, the centre of which is Rhagse, in oldentimes the chief city of Media after Agbatana.Inthese territories they seem to exercise somethinglike actual independent sovereignty, and Rhagae isthe seat of their chief and head.As they claim toform a clan, descended directly from Zarathushtra,this their high-priest, a sort of Zoroastrian pope, in¬vested with both spiritual and temporal power, bearsthe title of ZarathusTROTEMA, or " Chief Zara¬thushtra," literally "Most Zarathushtra" (of allZarathushtras). We see from this that the namewas sometimes used as a title. It is used in thismanner in a fragment of catechism which we findat the end of a chapter of Zend (commentary) onthe Ahunavairya (Yasna, XIX.) and which clearlydefines this state of things. The four classes andthe five chiefs having been mentioned, an examina¬tion begins, by question and answer, of which thefollowing is an extract :" Q. What classes of men ?"A. The priest, the warrior, the tiller of the ground, and theartisan. . . ." Q. What are the chiefs ?' 'A. They are the house-chief, the village-chief, and the tribe-chief,the chief of the province (king), and the Zarathushtra as the fifth.That is in those provinces which are outside the Zarathushtrian do¬main. Ragha, the Zarathushtrian city, has only four, chiefs." Q. How are these chiefs constituted ?

MEDIA AND THE RISE OF PERSIA. 273" A. They are the house-chief, the village-chief, the tribe-chief,and the Zarathushtra as the fourth."Evidently there is no king in Rhagse, and hisplace is occupied by the high-priest, who, let it benoted, is ranked above the kings iii the hierarchy ofthe other provinces. We cannot say at what timethe priestly class achieved so high a position, butthere may have been something of the kind in thetime of Herodotus, which would justify him inmaking of the Magi a separate tribe.* Certain it isthat the religion of Zoroaster, as it was rehandledby the Magi, spread westwards as far as the Mediandomination reached ; for, centuries after its fall,Qreek writers find fire-chapels and Magi officiatingtherein, \\\\\\ paitiddna and baresma, chanting sacredsongs from a book, in Lydia and Cappadocia. Howfar that domination extended in the east, it weredifficult to say. Some think that it stretched fromthe Indus to the Halys, and only failed to reach theIonian sea-coast because it was unexpectedly cutoff by a kindred and hitherto vassal nation, thePersians.II.We have no means of ascertaining at whattime or in what manner took place the migration ofthis' Eranian people, or when they reached therugged but well-conditioned country by the PersianGulf to which they gave their name, Persis, andivhich corresponds. pretty accurately to the provincestill known under the same, but slightly altered,name of Ears or Farsi^TAN.It will probably al¬ways remain a matter of uncertainty whether theycame from the northeast across the desert by aT

-274 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.route of their own, as a separate body and indepen¬dently of the main current of Eranian migrationmore directly making for the west ; or whether theyformed part of that current, and only after reachingthe upper highlands of the Zagros (Aderbeidjan andKurdistan), branched off on a further tramp, and,following the direction of the valleys imbedded be¬tween the seven-fold ridges of the Zagros, settled inthat continuation of it which rounds off to skirt thesweep of the Gulf, and sends out decreasing spurs tomeet those that may be called the outposts of thegreat SULEIMAN range. What speaks most in favorof the latter supposition is that ever since the nameof the Medes(MadaT, Matai, Amadai)makes i^sappearance in the royal annals of Assyria, i. e., asearly as Shalmaneser II., another name almost in¬variably accompanies it, or at least occurs on thesame inscription,that of the land and people ofBarsua or Parsua, which have been located withalmost certainty just beyond the principalities ofUrartu (Armenia), somewhere in Aderbeidjan. Thereis nothing unlikely in the hypothesis of the Parsuashaving first occupied the Zagros highlands jointlywith the Medes, then separated and founded a newand more independent principality^of their own. Atah events they call themselves Aryas, as did theMedes; and one of their mightiest kings, Dareios I.,in his great rock-inscription (of which more fullyhereafter), glories in being " a Persian, son of a Per¬sian, an Arya, of Aryan seed." If theidentity of theBarsuas or Parsuas of the Assyrian inscriptions withthe later Persians be accepted, it may further, be

MEDIA AND THE RISE OF PERSLA. 275admitted as not entirely unlikely that religious differ¬ences may have had something to do with the separa¬tion, for we shall see that the Persians retained theZoroastrian revelation in a far purer and more unal¬loyed form than their kindred, the Medes.12. By its conditions of soil and climate, Persiaproper as Persis may be called was eminently aptto produce a race of a high moral and physicalstandard. Notwithstanding its almost tropical lati¬tude, the elevation of its ground gives it the advan¬tages of moderate zones, as shown by the vegetationof the country, which, together with sycamores,cypresses, myrtles, the fig-tree, the date-palm, thelemon, orange, and pomegranate, embraces trees andfruits common to far more northern regions, such asthe oak, the poplar, willow, acacia, even the juniper,pears, apples, plums, nuts, and various berries. Thepeach with its varieties is indigenous to the countryof which it bears the name in several languages. Thevalleys, too, produce different kinds of grain andvegetableswheat, bariey, millet, beans, etc. Suchwealth of field and orchard is sufficient to ensure thewell-being of a nation, but, requiring assiduous cul¬tivation, does not expose it to lapse into idleness,while the climate in the uplands, moderate in sum¬mer, severe in winter, with several months of snowand frost, and great variations of temperature withinthe twenty-four hours, is wholesome and bracing,and certainly does not encourage effeminacy. Thewant of water, the great plague of the level parts ofEran, which begins to be felt at once in the plainsinto which the mountains of Persis slope down, to

276 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the east and north, does not affect the uplands,which abound in mountain springs, although thereis no room for long and wide rivers, the five ridgeswhich stretch across the country being broken onlyby narrow and precipitous passes. The wooded pas¬tures on the mountain sides and the rich m.eadowsin the valleys were a very paradise for cattle, so thatthe Eranian settlers had every encouragement tofollow the two pursuits recommended to them asessentially worthy and holy farming and cattle-rais-37. PERSIAN AND MEDIAN FOOT-SOLDIERS.ing. The Greeks ascribed much of the enduranceand warlike qualities for which they respected thePersians to the fact of their living so much out-ofdoorsand being trained to watchfulness by theiroccupation of guarding flocks and herds by day andby night. Riding, also, was in much favor amongthem, and hunting of every kind was their favoriteexercise and pastime, for their mountains swarmedwith pheasants, partridge, grouse, and other smallgame, while the open country teemed with lions,bears, antelope, wild asses, etc., and invited to all

MEDIA AND THE RISE OF PERSIA.ZjJthe royal sports of the Assyrians.' It naturally, folilows that the Persians were accomplished bowmen;Indeed Herodotus, in a celebrated passage, expresslysays that " their sons were carefully instructed fromtheir fifth to their twentieth year in three thingsalone to ride, to draw the bow,^ and to speak thetruth." Of course this description applies only to theclass of warriors or nobles as the agriculturists' andthe priests would have many more things to learn ;but it gives one the idea of a simple and manlytraining, wholly in accordance with the principles' ofthe purest Mazdeism. The national garb, too, washardy and simple : a short coat and trousers, both ofdressed leather, with a plain belt, the whole calcu¬lated - to favor the greatest freedom and ease ofmotion. But when they came in contact with theluxurious and effeminate Medes, the Persians, beingnaturally imitative to excess, soon began to adopt,together with more refined and courtly manners, thelong-flowing, wide-sleeved robe, wrapped round thebody and gathered up On one side in graceful folds,which was known to the Greeks as " the Medianrobe," being characteristic of and probably inventedby that nation. It is clear that the costliness of thisgarment could be increased to any amount by thefineness of the material and of the dye (Tyrianpurple for instance), and by the addition of' em¬broidery and ornament.13. The population of Persia proper was notmore unmixed than that of Media. The nativeinhabitants were, as usual, not extirpated by thenew-comers, but reduced to subjection. This is

278 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.how it comes about that, of the ten or twelvetribes into which Greek historians divide the Per-"sian nation, only three are namedthe Pasargad.-e,the Maraphians, and the Maspiias " the princi¬pal ones, on which all the others are dependent."(Herodotus, I., 125.) These are clearly the Era¬nian conquerors, the ruling class, the aristocracy. Of" the others," four are expressly said to be nomads,and were surely not Aryan at all, while the rest mayhave been of mixed race. Of the nomad tribes theonly one which we can identify with any degree ofcertainty, is that of the Mardians, who lived in thewestern highlands of Persis, and were probably abranch of or identical with the better known Amar-DIANS. These latter were a people probably of amixed race, akin to the Elamites and Kasshi, andoccupied the mountain region now known as BakhtiyariMountains.- Their language appears tohave been quite, or very nearly, that spoken inElam, the Susiana of the Greeks, and to havebelonged to the agglutinative type (Turanian orOuralo-Altai'c *), consequently to have been closelyrelated to the ancient language of Shumir andAccad. f It is most probably this region whichis repeatedly mentioned in the Assyrian "royalannals under the name of Anzan, Anshan, andsometimes AsSAN and Anduan. It was a part ora dependence of the kingdom of Elam, figuring at* The Turanian race is frequently called " Ouralo-Altai'c," fromthe fact that the valleys of the Oural and Altaic ranges have alwaysbeen the chief nests and strongholds of its tribes.\ Sec " Story of Chaldea," pp. 145 ff.

MEDIA AND THE RISE OF PERSIA. 279times among its allies, and' at others included in thetitle of the kings of Elam.14. The beginnings of Persia as a nation were notdifferent from those of Media, or, indeed, any othernation. The process is always the same. It is thegathering of the separate and in a great measure in¬dependent clans or tribes under the leadership ofone more numerous, m'ore powerful, more giftedthan the others. That such a movement can beeffected only through the agency and authority ofone master-spirit stands to reason, and the successfulchieftain naturally becomes the king of the state hehas created. Such was the origin of the Persianhereditary monarchy, the founder pf which is known,from testimony too public and solemn to be dis¬puted, to have been Hakhamanish (more familiarunder the Greek form of the name as Akh^menes),a prince of the clan of the Pasargada:;, which was al¬ways held to be the noblest of the three rulingtribes. (See p. 278.) He must have been a con¬temporary of Asshurbanipal, and was succeeded by along line of kings, famous under the name of Ak-H^EMENID/E or Akhsemenian dynasty, the lastscion of which lost his crown and life in the strug¬gle with the young Greek conqueror, Alexander ofMacedon (331 B.C.). The tribal city of the clan, alsocalled Pasargada;, became the royal capital of theunited nation. It was regarded with great reverenceever after as the cradle of the monarchy, and whenthat monarchy extended into the mightiest empirethat the world had yet seen, and its kings had thechoice of four great capitals for their residence, the

28oMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.sacredness attached to their modest ancestral city was.so great that each succeeding king came there to beinaugurated. It was like the French kings going toReims, or the "Scotch kings to Scone, for their cor¬onation. The place where Pasargadse stood is nowcalled MURGHAB, and there are some ruins there, theoldest in Persia.15. The Persians were by nature a conqueringpeople; and although not strong enough at thisearly stage of their national life to undertake distantexpeditions, they found close at hand an opportunityfor an easy acquisition too tempting to be neglected.Elam was utterly destroyed ; its people carried awayand scattered, its princes slain or dragged into bond¬age, its cities and temples sacked and turned intodens for beasts to lie in, its trees burned, and itswells dried up.* Not a condition this,' in which acountry could defend its very heart against an in¬vader, much less its outlying provinces. The landof Anshan was open to its Persian neighbors;and it must have been at this time that TeTspes,(Chishpaisit), the son of Akha;menes, occupied it,and a.ssumed the title of " Great King, King of An¬shan, or " of the city of Anshan." After his death,the royal house of the Akhaemenians split itself intotwo lines : one of his sons, KyroS I. (KURUSH) suc¬ceeded him in Anshan, while another, Ariaramnes(AriyARAMana), reigned in Persia. These were fol¬lowed respectively by their sons, Kambyses I., inAnshan, and ArsAMES (ArSHAMA), in Persia. It isextremely probable that Kyros and Ariaramnes were* See " Story of Assyria," pp. 399-401.

MEDIA AND TIIE RISE OF PERSIA.28lamong the allies or vassal princes who helped Ky¬axares to overwhelm Assyria.There is no doubt,at all events, that Persia stood towards Media inthe position of a subject and tributary country,since the beginning of its greatness dates from itsrevolt against the Median rule under Kyros II. andthe overthrow of the Median Empire by that King.l6. None of the histories we inherit from antiquity,either entire or in fragments, nor, consequently, ofthe modern histories compiled from those materials,gives us the facts crowded into the last few para¬graphs. No one had the remotest idea of Kyroshaving been any thing but a king of Persia, or of, theAkhaemenians having reigned in a double line, andthe very name of Anshan was unknown. Two setsof monuments accidentally discovered at varioustimes and in various places revealed these facts,which, standing forth in the uncompromising sim¬plicity and stubbornness of Contemporary evidence,overthrew the familiar structure raised out of thestories half fabulous as they now turn out to bewhich the Greek writers took on trust from Medianand Persian sources, epical ballads, most of them,not untainted with myth. Of these monumentssome are Persian and three are Babylonian cylindersrecording some of the acts of Nabonidus, the lastking of Babylon, and the capture of that city byKyros, who on both cylinders is called and callshimself " King of Anshan," not of Persia. It is wellestablishedthat Kyros, at the time of the conquestof Babylon, was already king of Persia ; but thatcountry was rather distant and probably little known

282 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.to the Chaldeans, whereas the Land and City^of An¬shan were very near and had long been famiHar .tothem, as doubtless also the new reigning family thathad established itself there. , As to his lineage, thisis how he sets it forth in his proclamation, on mount¬ing the throne of Babylon :" I am Kyros (Kurush), the great king, the powerful king, theking of Tintir*), king of Shumir and Accad, king of the four regions ;son of Kambyses (Kambujiya) the great king, King ok the cityOF Anshan, grandson of Kyros, the great king, king of the city ofAnshan, great-grandson of TeIspes (Thiespish) the great king, kingof the city of Anshan."17. Very different in size from these tiny Baby¬lonian monuments are the Persian ones, and, like thecylinders, somewhat posterior to the time our his¬tory has reached, indeed still later, since we owethem to Persian kings, successors of Kyros. Themost important one for the point now under exami¬nation is the famous RocK OF BehistOn or Bisu-TUN, or rather the inscription engraved on that rockby Dareios, second successor of Kyros, and afterhim the greatest of the Akhaemenians. The rock,noticed from very ancient times on account of itsisolated position and peculiar shape, rises nearlyperpendicular to a height of 1700 feet, the moststriking feature of the road from Hamadan (ancientAgbatana) to Baghdad, and near the modern townof KiRMANSHAH. On the straightest and smoothestface of the rock Dareios determined to perpetuate,by means of sculpture and writing, the great deedsof his reign. The monument was to be absolutely* Tintir, the most ancient name of Babylon, in the Accadian, orpre-Semitic period ; see " Story of Chaldea," p. 216.

284 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA..indestructible, and, first of all, inaccessible to thesacrilegious hand of invader or domestic foe Thiswas so well secured by the height at which the workwas executed-over 300 feet from the base,-thatcould be scarcely got at for the purpose of study-"mg 01 copymg It. Indeed, the French scholars,Messrs. Flandin and Coste, after many attempts gaveup the task, which it was the glory of Sir He;fythenMajor-Rawlinson, with the help of field-glassessuccessfully to achieve, at the cost of three yearslabor(i844-i847)-infinite hardships and dangerand an outlay of over five thousand dollars. Lwthe artists and engravers originally ever got to theplace, IS a question which the steepness of the ascentmakes veiy puzzling, unless there were some prac¬ticable paths which were cut away subsequentlyand even then they could not have worked withoutladders and scaffoldings. Besides, the rock had toundergo an elaborate preliminary preparation. Notonly was the surface smoothed down almost to a stateo polish, but wherever the stone showed crevices ordints It was closely plastered with a kind of cementrnatching and fitting it so exactly as to be hardly dis:t.ngu.shable. The result of all this foresight andpainstaking, we have before us in the shape of a veryremarkable piece of historical sculpture, surroundedby numerous columns of inscription, making in allover one thousand lines of cuneiform writin

oodWMHZoz;oOSBi-l

286 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.as the country began to be called from its capitalShushan or Susa, and possibly of the un-Aryan pop¬ulation of the entire Zagros region. For this lan¬guage has been shown to belong neither to theAryan nor to the Semitic, but to the Turanian oragglutinative type. It used at first to be called" Proto-Median," i.e., " earliest Median," but now itis proposed to calk it " Scythic," /.^..Turanian, or" Amardian," in compliment to the nation who isthought to have inhabited Anshan.This immensemonument of human pride, labor, and patience wasattributed by the Greeks, like every thing out of thecommon in these parts of Asia, and in a distortedform, to the mythical queen Semiramis.*1 8. The Persian kings, succeeding, as they did,long lines of Assyrianand Babylonian monarchs,appropriated their literary style, which henceforthbecame the set and invariable form of Oriental pub¬lic speaking and writing. This .style we accord¬ingly recognize in the trilingual Behistun inscription,with perhaps just a shade less of stiffness. LikeKyros, like every long-descended prince, Dareios(DaRAYAVUSH is the Persian form), begins by estab¬lishing his genealogy:' ' I am Dareios the great king, the king of kings, the king ofPersia, the king of nations, the son of Hystaspes, the grandson ofArsames, the AkhoQmenian." Says Dareios the king: My father was Hystaspes CYishtaspa) ; ofHystaspes the father was Arsames (Arshama) ;of Arsames the fatherwas Ariaramnes (Ariyaramana); of Ariaramnes the father was Teispes(Chishpai'sh); of Teispes the father was AkhtEmenes (Hakhamanish)." Says Dareios the king : On that account we are called Akhtemenians.From ancient times we have descended ; from ancienttimes our family have been kings.* See " Story of Assyria," p. 198.

MEDLA .4ND THE RISE OF PERSIA. 287" Says Dareios the king : There are eight of my race who havebeen kings before me ; I am the ninth. In a doulde line we havebeen kins,s."The Behistun inscription was known and deci¬phered long before the discovery of the cylinders ofNabonidus and Kyros.Therefore the last words ofthe above passage (printed in italics), were found soextremely puzzling, that the decipherers entertainedgreat doubts about it, and intimated by the sign (?)that they considered the translation uncertain andprovisional.By comparing the whole passage, how¬ever, with the corresponding one from Kyros' pro¬clamation, given above (p. 282), we shall at once seehow beautifully the two complete each other :eachof the kings traces his separate line upwards, tillboth unite in their common ancestor, Teispes, theconqueror or annexer of Anshan.Evidently he di¬vided his kingdom between his two sons, Kyros I.and Ariaramnes, at his death, and the Akhaemenianhouse continued to reign " in two lines,"one in An¬shan, and one in Persia proper.And in numberingthose of the race who were kings before him, Dareios .clearly includes those of the Anshan line. Thisgives the following genealogical scheme :1. AKliyEMENES, founder of theI Persian royalty2. TeIspes, annexer of Anshan.Line of Anshan : 3. Kyros I. Line of Persia : 4. Ariaramnes.5. Kambyses I. 6. Arsames.- -u-,. ( reunites Anshan7. Kyros II. 1 j */,u ""

288 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.Had Hystaspes reigned, Dareios would have beenthe tenth. But he expressly states that eight of hisrace reigned before him, and he is the ninth. Onthe other hand, Hystaspes is never given the title ofking in the numerous inscriptions recording thegenealogy of Dareios and his descendants on thewalls of their palaces at the royal city of Persepolis.These two indications converge to the conclusionthat Kyros, before he overthrew the Median Empireand started on his career of conquest, establishedhimself as king of both Anshan and the ancestralcountry Persia, to the exclusion of Hystaspes, whowould seem to have submitted with a good grace,since history shows him an honored and trustedkinsman and councillor at the court of Kyros andgovernor of an important province, Hyrcania. Whenthe elder line became extinct in the person of Kam¬byses, the son of Kyros the Great, the nearest andnatural claimant was Hystaspes, the representativeof the younger line, but he appears to have beena singularly unambitious person, for we again findhim passed ' by, this time in favor of his son, whoreigns long and gloriously, while he iscontent tocommand some of that son's armies.We have been forced to anticipate considerably inorder to establish our authorities for a narrative con¬flicting in many points with the course of eventsuniversally accepted until very lately.resume it at the next authentic movethe Median Empire.We will nowthe fall of

XL" KURUSH THE KING, THE AKII/EMENIAN."I. Of the three cylinders mentioned on p. 281,awd-the one brought over by Mr. H. Ras- Fail of the° _ Median Emsam,which surpasses both the others in p're, 549 b.cimportance as an historical document, contains theannals of the reign of Nabonidus, last king of Baby¬lon, and the capture of Babylon by Kyros. .In thesecond column we read as follows :". . . Against Kurash (Kyros), king of Anshan, came Ish.Islituvegu's (Astyages') army revolted against him, cap¬tured him and delivered him over to Kurasli.Kurash (marched)into the land of Agamtunu (Agbatana), the royal city.He tooksilver, gold, furniture, valuables ;from .\gamtunu he carried off alland brought to Anshan the treasure and goods which he hadcaptured."Further on Kyros is once named " King of Persia."This cylinder was written in the reign of Kyros asking of Babylon.Another, known more especiallyas " the Nabonidus Cylinder," and somewhat earlierin date, alludes more briefly to the same event.*"... He (the god Marduk) caused Kurash, king of Anshan,his young servant, to go with his little army.He overthrew thewidespread Sabmanda" (" h'xxba.xvm?,," a. name here given to theMedes), " he captured Ishtuvegu, king of Sabmanda, and took histreasureto his own land. "* This is the famous cylinder which helped to establish the dateof the first Sargon of Agade. See " Story of Chaldea," p. 213.289 u

290 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.2. All this thoroughly confirms one portion of thenarrative as it stands in Herodotus.According tohirri, Kyros, .having spent part of his youth at thecourt of Astyages, had formed aparty for himselfamong the Medes, headed by a certain Harpagos(a great lord, and kinsman of the king), with whomhe corresponded, and by whose advice he was guidedwhen he incited the Persians to open revolt.Thishe is said to have done by appealing to their nationalpride and saying to them, in substance :" Follow mybidding and be free.P"or myself, I feel that I amdestined by Providence to undertake your liberation ;and you, I am sure, are no whit inferior to the Medesin any thing, least of all in bravery."It is not at allunlikely that he increased the ardor of his compara¬tively penurious countrymen by holding out to themthe prospect of securing wealth and the delights ofluxury. " The Persians," continues Herodotus," who had long been impatient of the Mediandominion, now that they had found a leader, weredelighted to shake off the yoke."Astyages immedi¬ately sent out an army against the rebels, but as itwas commanded by Harpagos,the result can beguessed :" When the two armies met and engaged,only a few of the Medes who were not in the secretfought ; others deserted openly to the Persians ;while the greater number counterfeitedfear andfled."Kyros thereupon marched to Agbatana; theold king came out to meet him with a hastily sum¬moned body of citizens, both young and old, but wasutterly defeated and taken prisoner." Thus, after areign of thirty-five years, Astyages lost liis crown.

"KURUSH, THE KING. THE AKH/KMENIAN."29Iand the Medes were brought under the rule of thePersians." He was not beloved, and was accused ofhaving caused the disaster by his cruel and tyranni¬cal ways. Still Kyros, who was by nature magnani¬mous and mild, did his royal captive no injury, butkept him at his court until his death, honorablytreated and amply provided for.* This revolutiontook place in 549 B.C. The Median Empire, count¬ing from the fall of Nineveh, had lasted fifty-seven 'years.3. So far the narrative of Herodotus is proved bycontemporary monuments to be correct ; but only inportions and in substance. The details are histori¬cally as worthless as the Greek stories about Semir¬amis, and evidently derived from the same sourceand Persian epic ballads, largely mixedwith myth. This narrative, too widely known to beignored, must be briefly touched upon, even at therisk of .spoiling by condensation one of the mostentertaining, and best-told stories in the world. Theonly touch of reality about it is the statement thatAstyages had no son, which, however, immediatelybranches off into folk-lore. First of all the king hasa dream, which the Magi interpret as meaning thatthe son of his daughter Mandane would rule thewhole of Asia, whereupon he marries her away fromhis court to a Persian named Kambyses, a privateman, " of good family, indeed, but of a quiet temper,whom he looked on as much inferior to a Mede ofeven middle condition." In consequence of anotherdream, he sends for Mandane,'so as to have her and* See Herodotus, Book I., 123-130. ^,^^ J^'JKDf de /> ^

292 - .MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.her child in his power, and when that child, the littleKyros, is born, the king immediately orders his kins¬man and trusty servant Harpagos to carry him to hishome and slay him. Harpagos has not the heart todo the cruel thing himself, but makes over the babeto one of the royal herdsmen, whose range of pasturelandlay among mountains infested with wild beasts,with the order to expose him " in the wildest part ofthe hills, where he should be sure to die speedily."The herdsman's wife, whose own babe had just died,persuaded her husband to exchange the two, andthree days later the dead child, arrayed in all theother's costly attire, is shown to the men sent byHarpagos, while the royal infant is brought up bythe herdsman's wife, whose name is Spaka (whichnieans " bitch, female dog "), as her own and underan assumed name.4. When he reached his tenth year Kyros madehimself conspicuous by his masterful ways amonghis comrades, with whom he used to play at beingtheir king, making them obey him in real earnestand punishing severely any act of insubordination.This led to complaints from the parents of the otherboys, some of whom were of noble birth and resent¬ed the supposed little plebeian's insolence, and thematter ended by being brought before the king, whohad Kyros and his playfellows summoned to hispresence.Something in the demeanor of the boy,his free and haughty manner of answering questionsand accusations, a certain family likeness, too,roused Astyages' suspicions, and the herdsman waseasily frightened into confession. Astyages, who

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 293had taken a liking to his grandson, was sincerelyglad that he should turn up alive, and sent him hometo Persia, to his father and mother, having first takenthe advice of the Magi, who were of opinion that,the boy having been king in play, the dreams hadbeen literally fulfilled, and there was no furtherdanger. But not therefore was Harpagos forgivenfor his breach of trust. Cruel and revengeful as hewas,' Astyages dissembled his anger under a greatshow of friendliness, and bade his kinsman send hisson to the palace as attendant to the newly foundprince, and to come to supper that evening himself.The meat placed before Harpagos was the flesh ofhis own child, whose hands and feet and head werepresented to him in a basket after he had eaten.He made no sign, but from that moment secretlyworked against the king, alienating from him thegreat Median nobles and preparing the general fall¬ing off in favor of Kyros, with whom he communi¬cated as soon as the boy was old enough. Fromthis point the narrative, as given above, is in themain correct, though not free from fanciful em¬bellishments.5. So Herodotus knows nothing of Kyros' royalparentage on the father's side. This at once sug¬gests Median informants. It would be soothing tothe vanity of the conquered people, even after theyhad long accepted the new ruler and lived prosperousunder him and his descendants, to connect him withtheir own royal house, thus creating an hereditaryclaim for him on their own side, and taking the bit¬terest sting from conquestsubmission to a stranger

294 MEDIA, BAB'YLON, AND PERSIA.and foreigner, and at the same time looking downon his father as being " much inferior to a Mede ofeven middle condition!" But the inconsistencieswhich grow out of this perversion of facts are veryglaring. This objection, for one, is unanswerable :if Kyros was Astyages' natural heir, as this storymakes him out to be, why should the, old king be in¬censed at the prospect of his accession to power, to.the extent of seeking his life ? Is it not unnaturalto madness for him to cut off his own line, contraryto the instinct common to all mankind, let alonesovereigns, who are always so ambitious to found orcontinue dynasties, that they are much more likelyto .supply the want of heirs by adoption, or evenfraud, than to destroy those given them by nature?As to the story of Kyros' exposure, providentialescape, and obscure bringing up, it is an old, old bitof Aryan, folk-lore,* which has been told varioustimes of almost every national hero. Of coursesvery nation that repeats it stamps it with somenational peculiarity. In its application to Kyros,we detect the Eranian touch in the name of thewoman, Spaka. The real story was that the childwas saved and suckled by a dbg, Ahura-Mazda's ownsacred animal (see pp. 139-141), to intimate miracu¬lous preservation, divine protection. Indeed He¬rodotus in one place tells us as much. But theGreeks, who had not the remotest comprehension oftheir own myths, let alone other people's, were* Not confined to the Aryan race, however, but turning up also inthe treasury of Semitic tradition. Compare the legends of the firstSargon of Agade (" Story of Chaldea," pp. 205, 20&), and of Moses.

"KURUSH, IHE KING, THE' AKHJEMENIAN:'Hgi,shocked by the absurdity of the statement, and ex¬plained it away in the manner we have seen. *6. There were several other versions of the storyof Kyros' youth.They have been retailed by vari¬ous Greek writers, without any attempt at criticism,and donot appear much more reliable than thatselected by Herodotus, except only that the miracu¬lous element is wanting, f They all agree in makinghim aresident at the Median court during his boy¬hood and eariy youth, and one makes.him a Mardian(or Amardian), thus unconsciously coming near thetruth as concerning his connection with Anshan (seep. 280), of which, however, not one of these com¬pilers knows any thing, any more than of his sup¬posed relationship to Astyages.One of these ver¬sions gives an exceedingly probable account of hisproceedings after his victory.ant tells us,Astyages, this inform¬had one daughter, Amytis (not Mandane),and she was married to a noble Mede of thename of Spitama, who thus found himself heir tothe throne.This dangerous claimant Kyros put todeath when he had made himself master of Agbatanaand the royal family, but spared his two sons andtreated the princess with every respect, then tookher to wife, thus transferring her claim to himself.* This is the passage in " Herodotus" : " So it happened thalt hisparents, catching the n.ame " (his nurse's), " and wishing to persuadethe Persians that there was a special providence in his preservation,spread the report that Kyros, when he was exposed, was suckled bya bitch.This was the sole origin of the rumor." It was the reversethat was really the case.t " I know three ways in which the story of Kyros is told, aU dif¬fering from my own narrarive." Herodotus, I., 95-

296 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.As to the old king, he honored him as a father, andmade him Satrap (governor) of Hyrcania. There isa tradition that the king of Armenia, TiGRANES I.,a monarch with whom began a long and famous line,aided Kyros in his revolt, although his own sisterhad lately become second wife to Astyages. Ar¬menian historians add that the perfidious old Medehad invited his new brother-in-law to visit him, withthe intent of murdering him, but that Tigranes waswarned in time by his sister.It is further reportedthat it was on this occasion Tigranes, who always re¬mained Kyros' devoted friend and ally, adopted theZoroastrian religion and introduced it into Armenia.This report must be taken for what it may be worth,as there is no evidence that could be called proof, toconfirm it. It may have been owing to the Ar¬menian alliance that Kyros within the next twoyears extended his rule westward as far as the Halysi. e., to the farthest boundary of the Median Em¬pire on the western side.He does not seem to haveencountered much resistance in this quarter, asHerodotus merely remarks: "The Cappadocianssubmitted to Kyros, after having been subject tothe Medes." There is a tradition to the effect thatthe king of Cappadocia was married to a sister ofKambyses, the father of Kyros; but it may havebeen an invention, to give a plausible and credittiblecolor to his submission.7. We do not know how much time and laborKyros expended on the countries of Eastern Eranthat made up so important a portion of the Medianinheritance which he claimed and .systematically

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN."2gJgathered under his rule. It is probable that theirreduction and the necessity of keeping them in- astate of submission provided him with occupationfor the rest of his life, and that at intervals betweenthe acts of the great undertakings in the West, towhich his ambition chiefly inclined him, he may havepersonally headed an expedition into the East andNorth-east. It would be as vain as unprofitable totry and follow the fortunes of all the obscure nationsBactrians, Sogdians, Chorasmians, Hyrcanians,Saki {i. e., Scythians, Aryan and Turanian,) etc.,who are little more than names in the history of theworid. In his treatment of them, as in all other re¬spects, Kyros showed himself superior to all the con¬querors the world had yet seen. He is said to haveleft it to the peoples he subdued to fix the figureand nature of the tribute they were able and willingto pay!8. His just and mild rule soon reconciled theMedes to the change of masters, and he made spe¬cial efforts to secure their devotion. He never for¬got, indeed, that his first favor and duty was owingto his own people, the Persians, and made it under¬stood at once that they were to be the first in thenew. empire, by exempting them from tribute andselecting his generals and Satraps (governons) fromtheir number, besides having his choicest troopscomposed of Persians. His chief wife, his queen, washerself an Akhaemenian ; her name, as given by theGreeks, was KasSANDANE ; she is frequently spokenof as a woman of great mental power and real influ¬ence. Kyros was deeply attached to her, and when

298 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.she died, caused "a great mourning "to be made forher throughout the empire.But the second placewas ungrudgingly allotted to the Medes.After thefirst excitement of war and victory, they were nevertreated as a conquered nation, but as a brother-peo¬ple.In war and in peace, in the army and the coun¬cil, in attendance on the royal person, they alwayscome next to the Persians ;indeed we find Mediansentrusted with important military commands scarcelyten years after the fall of the Median Empire. Unityof race and, to a great extent, of language and religionmust have largely contributed to this result, which,however, might not have beenas easily achievedunder a monarch less temperate and judicious thanKyros proved himself throughout.If he really didmarry the daughter of Astyages, the connectionmust have helped to smooth matters, though theMedian princess never could claim precedence overthe Persian one, the two queens faithfully represent¬ing in their relative position that of their respectivecountries. Still, the fusion was so complete as tobecome invisible to the eyes of foreigners, who speakof "the Medes and Persians" jointly, as of onepeople, not infrequently using one name for theother.9. It has been asked : What was the capital of thePersian Empire? and it isa question not easy toanswer. In reality, there were several, accordingas the kings resided in the royal city of thisor that of the countries which coniposed theempire.Kyros, indeed, true to his nation and an¬cestry, apparently conferred this dignity on his

'Ux"-"'\40, GATE-PILI.AK OL" KYROS PALACE AT l',\SARGAD^, WITH INSCIUF-TION r" I AM KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN,"299

300 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.own clan-city Pasargadse. He built a palacethere, and a treasury, and his body rested therein death.A great sacredness attached to the placein consequence, and every Akhaemenian king wentthere for his inauguration.But it did not possessthe conditions that go to make a thriving, popu¬louscentre, and became neglected as a residence.It is now represented by a knot of ruins, not verystriking or numerous, in the valley of MURGHAB,watered by the PULWAR, a scant and insignificantstream, formerly named after the great king himself,Kyros ;it is uninteresting and short-lived, as mostwatercourses of this arid region, and after receivinga single tributary, ends in a salt lake.A few trun¬cated columns, andmany more bases without col¬umns, a few gate-pillars, and a platform with a casingof very fine stone masonry, are all that remains ofthese constructions. Interesting as they are, theyare eclipsed by two relics which appeal more power¬fully to the fancy^of the beholder: one is a square,isolated, and very massive stone pillar, bearing a basreliefrepresenting a human figure with four unfoldedwings and a most peculiar head-dress (see ill. 41). Thatthis strange figure is meant for Kyros is placed be¬yond doubt by the inscription which we read at somehei"ht above its head.But there is some reasonabledoubt as to whether it was intended for the livingking, or riither for an ideal representation of his glor¬ified Fravashi after death. The other relic is the greatking's tomb, or rather grave-chamber, which standswell preserved, but open and empty, on its base ofseven retreating stages or high steps, all of solid

41. BAS-RELIEF REPRESENTING KYROS, OR POSSIBLY HIS GLORIFIEDFRAVASHI, WITH TRILINGUAL INSCRIPTION ABOVE: "I AMKURUSH, THE KING, THE AKH/EMENIAN," (Pasargada;.)301

302. MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.blocks of white marble, surrounded by fragments ofwhat evidently was once a colonnade. The monu¬ment was found intact by Alexander of Macedon,who visited it. His historians describe it as " a houseupon a pedestal," with a door so narrow (it is more^over only four feet high) that a man could scarcelysqueeze through. The gilt sarcophagus, we are told,42. TOMB OF KYROS AT PASARGAD>«.7(Entire liciKhl, 36 fuel; height of ch.imber or ch.ipel, 7 feet; .iron, 7 by it^/ feet ; tliickness of walls, 5 feet').Stood by a couch with feet of massive gold, coveredwith purple-dyed draperies, and the walls were hungwith Babylonian tapestries. Suits of clothes were alsofound, of costly material and workmanship. Therewas, besides, a.-^ble on which were deposited vari¬ous precious rcjlf-s, Persian weapons, some jewels,the king's own bow, shield, and sword. The inscrip¬tion was brief and simple: "O man! I am Kurush,

" KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 303the son of Kambujiya, who founded the greatnessof Persia, and ruled Asia. Grudge me not thismonument." Inside the inclosure was a smallhouse, occupied by some Magi, who received an am¬ple daily allowance of provisions, and whose duty itwas to guard the place and keep it in order.Theoffice had been first instituted by Kambyses, the sonof Kyros, and was hereditary. When Alexanderreturned to Pasargadae from his unsuccessful expedi¬tion to India, he found the noble shrine desecratedand plundered, the sarcophagus gone, and could donothing but give orders to repair the monument, andrestore it, at least outwardly, to a decent and seemlycondition.10. The ruins of Pasargadae are the most ancientmonuments we have of Persian art, and the merestglance at them suffices to show that it was, fromfirst to last, and in its very essence, imitative, withthe single exception of the Aryan principle of build¬ing, consisting in the profuse use of columns.Asthe T'^isians, fortunately, used stone, their monu¬ments ha-.'c survived, while nothing is left of theMedian constructions, which were of wood. Thesemonuments show traces of the influence of everycountry they haVe known or conquered. Had we noother specimen of Persian sculpture than that ba.srelief(ill. 41), we should be justified in declaring itto be imitated from Assyrian models ; even the closefittingfringed robe betrays the origi. als from whichthe Persian artist copied. As to th'^ head-dress, itis one frequently seen on the brow of Egyptiandivinities and royalties, while the massive pillar itself

304MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIAis a clumsy imitation of an Assyrian stele. That theTomb of Kyros (ill. 42) reproduces, on a small scaleand in different material, the Assyro-BabylonianZiggurat is too obvious to need demonstration,while the chapel is distinctly Greek in design, andwhat little remains of Kyros' own constructions,shows that he employed Greek artists from the col¬onies on the sea-shore : the column-bases are exactlylike those found in the ruins of some Ionian tem¬ples, and the masonry of the great platform recallseariy Greek wall-masonry (see ill. 29). We shallsoon become acquainted with far more numerous,imposing, and elaborate monuments of Persian art,but shall find nothing, even in its most beautifulproductions, to reverse the verdict of lack of origi¬nality which was pronounced on that, art assoon asit was discovered.II. But, to return to the political worid of West¬ern Asia, which we left unheeded for years to followthe rising star of Persia. With Kyros still on theeastern side of the Halys, the balance of power, es¬tablished after the Battle of the Eclipse (see pp. 220-222), was as yet unbroken, no changes having takenplace in the territorial conditions of the potentateswho concluded that memorable agreement. Thegreatest of the three stat'es in point of extent hadmerely changed hands and name: it was the Me¬dian Empire no longer, but the Persian, that wasall. In 546 B.C. every thing was apparently undis¬turbed, yet every thing trembled in the balance.For the men were no longer the same. The petty,indolent, tyrannous Mede had been forced to yield

43- SUPPOSED TOMB OF KAMBYSES I. AT PASARGAD.ffi.(Possibly an Atesh-Gah, or Fire-Chapel.)305 X-

306 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.his place to one who was a hero and a genius, whilein Babylon the change was reversed: the greatNebuchadrezzar's sceptre had pa.ssed into feeble and .incapable hands, discord and civil troubles filled theland he had ruled so wisely and strongly, and openedthe Woay for the invasion against which he had accu¬mulated so many defences. The fate of Babylonwas so inevitable that her dreaded neighbor couldleave her for the last while he attended to morepressing business. Lydia's turn was to come first.12. Alyattes' long reign (fifty-eight years), ended,with his life, in or about 560 IJ.C. He was by farthe wisest and gretitest of the Mermnada;,indeed,so far as we know, of all the Lydian kings. By suc¬cessive conquests and annexations, he left Lydia themost extensive and poweriul state of Asia Minor,with a numerous and well-ordered army, especiallyformidable from its trained and splendidly mountedcavalry, and a treasury overflowing with wealth ofevery description. He well deserved the affectionand reverence of his people, who erected to his memorv,atpublic cost, the gigantic sepulchral mound orbarrow, a full half mile in circumference, which iseven now a conspicuous feature of the plain by theHermos, near the ruins of Sardis.* Herodotus callsit " a structure of enormous size, only inferior to themonuments of Egypt and Babylon." . He was suc¬ceeded by his son (some say grandson f), KrOISOS,* FKcavations have repeatedly been made in the mound and haveled to the discovery of the sepulchral chamber (eleven feet long byei-dit broad and seven high) , all lined wilh polished white marble, butempty, cleaned out at an unknown time by unknown plunderers,for the sake of the many precious things it doubtless contained.f See Dr. Victor Floigl's " Cyrus und Herodot.," pp. 132-138.

" KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 307a brilliant and magnificent prince, of good parts, ofan amiable and humane disposition, whose unheardofprosperity and sudden fall have made him afavorite theme with Greek moralists.His greatestfault seems to have been an exceeding self-compla¬cency and an inordinate laride in the immense wealthwhich have made his name a b}'-word for all times.13. Kroisos was the first openly to resent the ele¬vation of Kyros, who was to him nothing more thanan usurper. His motive in so doing was a mixedone, as very well indicated by Herodotus : " Helearnt that Kyros had destroyed the empire ofAstyages, and that the Persians were becomingdaily more powerful. This led him to considerwith himself whether it were possible to check thegrowing jDower of that jjeople. . . ." Further¬more, " he coveted the land of Cappadocia, which hewished to add to his own dominions " ;and lastly hefelt called, upon to avenge the wrongs of his kins¬man.He felt very sure of victory, still he did notundervalue the foe on whom he meditated an attack,and cast about him for allies.The most naturalones were Babylon, who was threatened by the samedanger ashimself, and Egypt, who owed Lydia agood turn for the aid received from Gyges at thetime of her own war of independence,* although thedynasty whose establishment was helped by that assistance had lately been overthrown by a revolution.An upstart usurper, a mere army officer, of the nameof Aahmes, supported by the soldiers whom hecommanded, had dethroned Hophra (569 B.C.), and* See " Story of Assyria," p. 380.

3o8MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.soon after put him to death. (The Greeks mispro¬nounced his name Amasis, which form is the gener¬ally accepted one.) Nor did Kroisos content himselfwith human means to insure his success. He sentto the most famous Greek oracles to inquire whatwould be the result if he crossed the Plalys and at¬tacked the Persians. The replies were encouraging,especially that of the Delphic oracle. In the joyof his heart, Kroisos overwhelmed Apollo's templewith his giftsnot unmindful, very probably, of thegod's favorable reply to the suit of his forefatherGyges, but heedless of the ugly qualifying clause,and little thinking, at all events, that he was thefifth descendant appointed for the expiation of theancestral crime (see p. 189). The oracles had added"a recommendation to look and see who werethe most powerful of the Greeks, and to makealliance with them." This was patriotic advice, andthe object of it to bring Greece forward and opento her an influence in the affairs of the great politicalworid of the dayan altogether praiseworthy one.The Spartans were, at the time, unquestionably themost powerful among the Greek nations, so Kroisossent to them messengers " with gifts in their hands,"who informed them of the god's bidding, and de¬clared in the king's name: "Knowing that youhold the first rank in Greece, I desire to become yourfriend in all true faith and honesty." The Spartans,who were, moreover, grateful to Kroisos for somes-bstantial favors formeriy received df him, " werefull of joy at the coming of the messengens, and atonce took the oaths of friendship and alliance."

"KURUSH, TIIE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 30914. The enumeration of Kroisos' gifts to theDelphic Apollo is too astounding to be passedover.And as they existed in the temple treasuriesand could be seen by visitors in the time of Herod¬otus, he cannot be taxed with exaggeration.Thisis the passage :" Kroisos, having resolved to propitiate the Delphic god with amagnificent sacrifice, offered up three thousand of every kind ofsacrificial beast, and besides made a huge pile and placed upon itcouches coated with silver and with gold, and golden goblets androbes and vests of purple ; all of which he burnt in the hope ofthereby making himself more secure of the favor of the god.Further he issued his orders to all the people of the land to offer as.acrifice according to their means. When the sacrifice was ended,the king melted down a vast quantity of gold * and ran it into ingots,making them six palms long, three palms broad, and one palm inthickness. The number of ingots was one hundred and seventeen,four being of refined gold, the others of pale gold [probably electron,see p. 216]. . . . He also caused a statue of a lion [the royal em¬blem of Lydia, see ill. 33], to be made in refined gold, the weightof which was ten talents. ... On the completion of these works,Kroisos sent them away to Delphi, and with them two bowls \craters'\,of an enormous size, one of gold, the other of silver, which used tostand, the latter upon the right, the former upon the left as one en¬tered the temple. . . . The silver one holds six hundred amphorae[over 5000 gallons]. . . . He sent also four silver casks . . .andtwo histral vases [for holy water]. . . . Besides these various offer¬ings, Kroisos sent to Delphi many others of less account, among therest a number of round silver vases. Also he dedicated a femalefigure in gold, three cubits high, . . . and further he presentedthe necklace and the girdles of his wife."15. There was nothing now to delay Kroisos inthe execution of his cleverly laid plans.If we are to1^ This gold must be understood to have been melted down in theflames of the sacrificial pyre, by way of consecration. On the cus¬tom of burning large quantities of precious things in sacrifice, see" Story of Assyria," p. 122.

3IOMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.believe Herodotus, warning voices were heard amidsthis own councillors, bidding him consider that thePersians werewould reap nopoor, and if he conquered them headvantages from his victory, whilehis own stake was so tremendous that if he lost,nothing would be left him to live for, so that, farfrom attacking the Persians, he should be thankfulto the gods, that they had not put it into the headsof the Persians to invade Lydia.That, however, isjust what the Persians would inevitably have done,had not Kroisos been beforehand with them, and hewould have earned great praise had he been success¬ful.He had every reason to hope, being well pro¬vided with treasure, men, arms, and allies, andleaving no secret enemies or doubtful friends in hisrear.For at the very last moment, Kyros had sentheralds to the Ionian cities, with an invitation to re¬volt from the Lydian king, and they had refused todo so. But as men's judgments go by the event,the blame of the disaster which befel Lydia was laidentirely on Kroisos, whom historians have foundfault with, among other things, for over-hastiness inleading his troops across the Halys; yet it has al¬ways been considered good tactics, once.hostilitiesare opened, to carry the war into the enemy's terri¬tory, and Kyros was on the march.i6. The first battle was fought in Cappadocia." The combat," Herodotus reports, " was hot andbloody . . . nor had victory declared in favorof either party, when night came down upon thebattle-field.Thus both armies fought vahantly."This result, though far from unfavorable, seems to

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN."3IIhave dashed the exuberant spirits of the Lydian,whose chief mistake was overweening confidence,and to have thrown him into a confusion and vacil¬lation of which his adversary was too great a generalnot to take advantage. The tardiness of the alliesdid the rest, and Kroisos, owing to the precisionand rapidity of the Persian's movements, was actu¬ally left alone to fight out a war for which he had'thought he could not provide enough assistants. Theend came very quickly ; an outline of the event canbest be gathered (in short passages) from Herodotus'leisurely narrative :"Kroisos laid the blame of his ill success on the number .of histroops which fell very short of the enemy ; and as on the next dayKyros did not repeat the attack, he set off on his return to S.ardis,intending to collect his allies and renew the contest in the spring.He meant to call on the Egyptians to send him aid ... heintended also to summon to his assistance the Babylonians . . .and further he meant lo send word to Sparta. . . . Havmg gottogether these forces in addition to his own, he would, as soon asthe winter was past an.l springtime come, march once more againstthe Persians. With these intentions Kroisos, immediately on hisreturn, despatched heralds to his various allies, with a request thatthey would join him at Sardis i,i the course of the fifth month fromthe time of the departure of his messengers. He then disbandedthe army, consisting of mercenary troops . . . never imaguiingthat Kyros, after a battle in which victory had been so evenly bal¬anced, would venture to m.arch upon Sardis. ..."Kyros, however, when Kroisos broke up so suddenly from hisquarters after the battle, conceiving that he had marched aw.ay withthe intention of disbanding his army, considered a little, and soonsaw that it was advisable for him to advance upon Sardis in alhaste, before the Lydians could get their forces together^ a secondtime. Having thus determined, he lost no time in carrying out hisplan He marched forward with such speed, that he was himselfthe first to announce his coming to the Lydian king. That monarch,

312 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.placed in the utmost difficulty by the turn of events which had goneso entirely against all his calculations, nevertheless led out the Lyd¬ians to battle.In all Asia there was not at that time a braver ormore warlike people. Their manner of figliting was on horseback ;they carried long lances, and were clever in the management of theirsteeds."The two armies met in the plain before Sardis.It is a vastflat bare of trees, watered by a number of streams, which all flowinto one larger than the rest, called the Hermos. . . . Thecombat was long, but at last, after a great slaughter on both sides,the Lydians turned and fled.They were driven within their walls,and the Per.sians laid siege to Sardis.*" Thus the siege began. Meanwhile, Kroisos, thinking that theplace would hold out no inconsiderable time, sent off fresh heraldsto his allies from the beleaguered city... to say that he wasalready besieged,and to beseech them to come to his aid with allpossiljle speed.to Laccdcemon.fAmong his other allies Kroisos did not omit to sendIt chanced that the Spart.ans were themselvesjust at this time engaged in a quarrel . . . when the herald ar¬rived from Sardis to entreat them to come to the assistance of thebesieged king ;afford him help.yet notwithstanding they instantly set to work toThey had completed their preparations, and the.shijis were just ready to start, when asecond message informedthem that the jjlace had already fallen, and that Kroisos was a pris¬oner.Deeply grieved at his misfortune, the Spartans ceased theirefforts."17. Thus the dynasty of the Mermnadai was over¬thrown, and Lydia ceased to be a kingdomall atone blow. The fall was as rapid and irretrievableas that of Assyria, but aroused very different feel¬ings in the lookers on.Neither Lydia as a country* This is the battle which Kyros is said to have won by the cun¬ning device of placing the camels in front of his troops, in order torout the Lydian cavalryseeing that horses have a natural detesta¬tion of the sight and especially the smell of camels, which is over¬come only by habit and training.f Lacedsemonanother name for Sparta,

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 313nor her rulers personally were regarded with hatred.The Mermnada had been mild mastersand gen¬erous friends, open to all the influences of a refinedand genial culture, delighting in intercourse withwise and accomplished foreigners.The catastrophewhich cut them off with a suddenness comparableonly to descending lightning, and strongly suggestiveof divine judgment, was witnessed by neighbors andsubjects with silent aweand feelings made up inabout equal parts of .sympathy with the sufferersand apprehension for themselves,an awe which washeightened by the grand closing scene of the tragedy,which the Greeks utterly misunderstood, and conse¬quently misrepresented in their reports.18. This is how Herodotus, Diodorus, and othersrelate it, with but slight variations.Kyros, they say,determined to make an example of his prisoner, andorderedKroisos to be burned alive with fourteenyoung Lydians.One author even describes the pro¬cession :how the women preceded and followed theking and the fourteen boys, as they were led alongin chains, with loud lamentation and tearing ofclothes ;how the richest ladies of Sardis sent theirslaves with gifts of costly robes and ornaments ofevery kind, to be laid on the pyre and burned withthe victims.The wood had actually been set onfire, whenKyros relented, moved by some wordsuttered by Kroisos, and ordered the flames to beput out.But. they had gained too much groundalready, and all efforts to quench them were unavail¬ing.Then Kroisos offered up a prayer to Apollo,who sent a violent shower, which extinguished the

314 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA,fire. And thus was Kroisos saved, and lived henceforth,more friend than prisoner, at the Persiancourt. Now this account bristles with incongruitiesand contradictions. In the first place such a pro¬ceeding is utterly inconsistent with the Persianhero's humane and magnanimous temper, and, be¬sides, we had just before been told that he had givenorder, before the city was taken, to spare the king inbattle. As for the torture and slaughter of fourteeninnocent boys, it is a cruelty which he cannot foia moment have contemplated. Then, again, as aZoroastrian, Kyros could not possibly commit suchan outrage on the most sacred element of fire, evenadmitting that the Zoroastrian religion, as professedby the Persians, was free from the exaggerated fireworshipintroduced by Median Magism. But if afallen foe, a great king, elected to die rather thanbear the ignominy of defeat and bondage, and choseto do so in a sacrificial ceremony sanctioned by thesacred traditions of his country, it was not thevictor's place to prevent him ; his very respect wouldforbid interference, while his presence at the solemnact would be meant as a mark of courtesy and ad¬miration. This then is the now generally acceptedexplanation of a statement which has long puzzledand, one may almo.st say, scandalized every studentof ancient history. Such royal sacrificesin theking's own person or that of his first-born sonwerefamiliar to Oriental religions and of not infrequentoccurrence; still less unusual was the .sacrifice ofyouths or children as expiatory offerings. Everything points to this explanation as the only correct

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 315one even the account of the quantity of preciousthings laid on the pyre.* If Kroisos prayed aloud,he certainly prayed that the sun-god might ac¬cept the self-offered victim and show mercy tohis people. When a heavy shower interruptedthe self-immolation in the very act of consumma¬tion, it was most natural to interpret it asa signthat the god rejected the sacrifice. Nor is it un¬reasonable to believe that the humane and sensibleKyros took occasion from it to urge his deeplybowed captive to give up his desperate intent,assuring him of treatment befitting a noble foe anda king, or that KroLsos, finding out what manner ofman this was that had conquered him, yielded hiswill to him and consented to live, henceforth hiscaptive no longer, but his friend.f Kyros, who didnot do generous things by halves, gave him a city inthe neighborhood of Agbatana, the income fromwhich was to provide for his wants, and became somuch attached to the gentle and wise quondam king,that he seldom dispensed with* his company even inhis, most distant expeditions, always asked and oftenfoilowed his advice, and before his death is saidto have commended his son Kambyses to his kindand watchful care, knowing how much the rash andheadstrong youth needed a counsellor and modera¬tor. The grandson of Kroisos, an infant at the timeof the disaster, lived to a great old age, and is men-*See above, p.309, the account of Kroisos' great sacrifice inhonor of the Delphic Apollo, and " Story of Assyria," pp. 120-139.fSee Duncker, vol. IV., pp. 330-332 I a'so Ed. Meyer, "Ges¬chichte des Alterthums," vol. L, p. 604,

3X6MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.tioned as an aged grandee under one of the lateAkhaemenians.19. Kyros was planning great things ; not only washis presence required in the far East, where the Bac¬trians and some nomadic tribes were showing them¬selves unmanageable, but he contemplated a personalexpedition against Babylon, and even an Egyptiancampaignfor the Pharaoh's interference in the favorof Lydia was not to be forgotten or condoned eventhough it had been only an intention to which circumtancesdenied fulfilment. Kyros was therefore impa¬tient to depart from Sardis, and left the subjugationof the Greek cities of the sea-shore to one of his gen¬erals, his old friend Harpagos, that being a necessarysequence of the conquest of Lydia. But before heleft, he was confronted by some Lacedaemonian en¬voys, who addressed him with great boldness, forbid¬ding him, in the name of their people, to molest anyGreek city in any way, since they would -not suffer it.Great must have been the astonishment of the mightyconqueror at this, to him, inconceivable presump¬tion, when the envoy's words were conveyed to himby the interpreter. It must have been in simpleamazement that he asked some Greek bystanderswho these Lacedaemonians were, and what was theirnumber, that they dared to send him such a notice?"If I live," he is then said to- have replied, "theSpartans shall have troubles enough of their own totalk of, without concerning themselves about thelonians." Such was the first tiny cloud of the greatthunderstorm that was to burst over Hellas fifty yearslater. The Greek cities, meanwhile, submitted with-

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKIIJEMENIAN." 317out very much resistance.Within three years theywere successively brought under the yoke, with theexception of Miletus, who made special terms andretained her independence.Kyros did not makeany exorbitant demands on his new subjects' purseor allegiance.But he placed each city under a chief,chosen among its own nobles, whom he made re¬sponsible for her conduct and the payment of thetribute ;in fact, a tyrant, who governed with almostroyal authority, but was him.self under the constantsupervision and authority of the Persian Satrap,* re¬siding at Sardis.Whatever it became under laterkings, the Persian rule under the first Akhaemenianswas moderate and mindful of the various peoples'welfare.Lycia and Cilicia, after some demurring,followed suit.Nor had Kyros during his lifetime tocontend with rebellion in this part of his dominions,though he never visited it again, with the exceptionof asingle rising in Sardis, immediately after hisdeparture ;a rising which was easily quelled, and,being treated with wise leniency, was not repeated.Indeed, so thoroughly did the Lydians becomereconciled to the new order of things, that theygave themselves up entirely to the arts and indus¬tries of peace, which formerly had shared their at¬tention with the manlier games of ambition andwar, and soon became notoriously the most luxurious,pleasure-loving, andeffeminate of Asiatic nations.Their influence in this direction on their conquerorswas very great, and by no means wholesome.* Satrap, old Vcrsi3.n Kitshatrapd, "defender of the empire" or" of royalty."

3lSMEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.20. The turn of Babylon was coming at last. In¬deed a first and unsuccessful attempt (probably be¬cause premature and ill-managed), was made in thissame year 546 B.C., or the next, from Elam.Herearises the question :when was the whole of Elamconquered and annexed by the Persian king? Itmust have been no long or difficult task, and, in theabsence of all information on the subject, it is sug¬gested, with great probability, that it may have beenaccomplished immediately after the overthrow ofLydia and before the first attack on Babylon.ForPlerodotus tells us that Kyros returned to Agbatanawith the bulk of his army straight from Sardis, andthe nearest way to Accad lay undoubtedly throughElam.In whatever manner he may have occupiedthe- capital, Shushan(henceforth better known asSusa), he was delighted with- its situation, and turnedit into a thoroughly Persian city and his own favor¬ite royal residence, in preference to his .own city ofPasargadae, which, from its insignificance, remote¬ness, isolation, and unfavorable geographical condi¬tions, was little fit to be the capital of a great em¬pire, embracing a vast variety of countries andnations, while Susa, contrasting favorably with theclan-city of the Akhaemenians in every one of theseparticulars, seemed made for the purpose. Hence¬forth Susa may be considered as the principal capitalof the Persian fimpire, and its river, the CllOASPES,abranch of the Eulseus (Ulai), had the honor ofsupplying thethey would use.kings with the only drinking-waterKyros first instituted this custom,which was religiously kept up by his successors.

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN."3I9" Wherever the great king travels," Herodotus re¬ports, " he is attended by a number of four-wheeledcars drawn by mules, in which the Choaspes water,ready boiled for use, and stored in flagons of silver,is movedwith him from place to place." * LaterAkhaemenian kings built there palaces, the gorgeous-,ness of which is brought home to us by the numer¬ous and magnificently jDreserved specimens andfragments discovered by Mr. Dieulafoy, within thelast three years.f There, like the Assyrian kings inNineveh, they stored mostof the wealth furnishedthem by tribute and conquests, and such was theaccumulation in the treasure-house of Susa, thatAlexander of Macedon, when he took possession ofit (331 B.C.), found in it, besides immense sums ofmoney, 50,000 talents of silver in ore and ingots(equal in value to about 38 millions of dollars);also 5,000 quintals of finest i^urplc dye, a quintalbeing equal to about onehundred pounds, and thevalue estimated at 125 dollars per pound.21. The affairs of Babylon between the death ofNebuchadrezzar (561 B.C.) and the first Persianin¬vasion (546 B.C.) can bedisposed of in a very fewlines. His son Avil-MarduK (the Evil-Mero-DACH of the Bible,) is said to have governed in areckless and headstrong manner. Some Egibitabletsare dated from his short reign, and the onlyother mention of him we find is the grateful report* It is amusing to find so eariy an instance of this hygienic pre¬caution the boiling of water, which we are wont to consider as sovery modern. ^^._ -f See Appendix to this chapter.XV\ KUnDE i

320 MEDIA, BABYLON. AND PERSIA.of the Bible historian of the favor he showed to theking of Judah, Jeconiah, whom, after a captivity ofthirty-six years, he " took out of p'rison " :"And he spake kindly to him and set his throne above the thronesof the kings that were with him in Babylon. And he changed hisIjrison garments, and did eat bread before him continually .all thedays of his life. And there was an allowance given him of theking, every day a portion, all the days of his life." (Second KingsXXV., 27-30.)Avil-Marduk was assassinated, after a reign of onlytwo years (559 B.C.), by his brother-in-law, Nergal-SHAR-UZZUR, known through the Greeks as Neri-GLISSAR, who succeeded him and reigned four years,peacefully enough it would seem, completing someworks left unfinished by Nebuchadrezzar, such as thewalls along the Euphrates, and repairing temples.His son, Labashi-Marduk,* was but a boy, but issaid to have shown a thoroughly perverse disposi¬tion, and perished, after only nine months, in apalace conspiracy. His assassins placed on thethrone a certain Nabu-NAHID, better known asNabonidus (555 b.c.) He was the son of theRab-mag (probably high-priest, or chief of thepriesthood), of Babylon, and it is uncertain whetherhe was connected with the royal family. But hismother was Nitokris, that same queen to whom He¬rodotus erroneously attributes so many of Nebu¬chadrezzar's works. (See p. 240.) From a mention ofthis princess in one of Kyros' cylinders, we are justi¬fied to assume that she was a woman of remarkableparts, and wielded an unusual power and influence in* The name is mutilated by the Greek writers in all sorts of ways :Labassoarakhos, Laborasoarchod, etc.

"KURUSH THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 321state affairs. It is surmised by some scholars thatshe may have been a daughter of Nebuchadrezzar,which would indeed account both for her characterand tlie position she held, as also for the fact that herson reigned for so many years unopposed and un¬molested. As it is highly probable that there stillwere some public works to finish, and that the queenmothermay have taken an active interest in them,-we may find in this circumstance the most naturalexplanation of Herodotus' mistake.22. There can be little doubt that Nabonidus owedhis elevation in a great measure to the priesthood,to which he, by birth, belonged. His zeal in build¬ing and especially repairing temples surpasses thatof his most pious predecessors, and seems to haVebeen accompanied by a sort of antiquarian taste,which prompted him to search for the cylinders ofthe original founders, so as to establish the age ofeach sanctuary. To this remarkable peculiarity weowe some of our most precious discoveries, and infact a new departure in the chronology of AncientChaldea.* Unfortunately for himself, however, Na¬bonidus appears to have devoted most of his careand to have shown a marked preference to the oldertemples of the land, whereupon the priesthood ofthe capital itself, the guardians of the more specialpatrons of later Babylon, Bel-Marduk and Nebo,took offence on behalf of these deities and consid¬ered their own dignity slighted and their interestsneglected by one who, in their opinion, should have* See the discovery of Nabonidus' cylinders at Sippar and Larsam,"Story of Chaldea," pp. 213, 218, 219.

322 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.been their devoted champion.If this feeling wasopenly expressed, it is clear that Nabonidus took no.pains to conciliate this dangerous class. In thegreat cylinder which contains the annals of his reign,we are struck with the sullenly spiteful persistencewith which the priestly scribe repeats, at each newyear: "Nebo came not to Babel, Bel came notforth . . . " i. e. the customary processions wereomitted. Kyros was a great hero and statesman,still it is more than doubtful whether he would havehad quite such easy work with Babylon had nottreachery done most of it for him.It was jDrobablyin reliance on his secret intelligences in the capitalthat he hurried his first attempt, of which the greatcylinder gives an account : " In the ninth year (546B.C.), Nabu-nahid the king was in Teva * ;son, officers, and army were in Accad."the king'sThe king'seldest son I^EL-SHAR-UZZUR(the Belshazzar ofthe Bible) is here meant, whom his father had asso¬ciated with himself in the government, much in thesame way that Esarhaddon shared the royal powerwith his son Asshurbanipal.We have a small cyl¬inder, found in the temple of the Moon-god at Ur(Mugheir), with a., very fervent prayer addressed tothat god on behalf of himself and his son by Nabon¬idus: "As for me, Nabu-nahid, king of Babel, in thefulness of thy great divinity, grant me length of life,to remote days, and for Belshazzar,- my first-bornson, the desire of my heart. Reverence for thy* Tev.i is thought to be a separate cpiarter of Babylon, perhapsthe new quarter built by Nebuchadrezzar, on the west bank of theEuphrates.

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN. 323great divinity establish thou in his heart ; may henot be given to sin! " * To his mother and to thisson the king seems to have mainly left the care andburden of state affairs, for it is expressly said that" in the month of Nisan (March, the first month ofthe year), the king to Babel came not," while on tkefifth day of the same month the .queen-mother died" who resided in the fortified camp on the Euphrates,.beyond Sippar. The king's son and his soldiersmourned for her three days, and there was weeping.In the month of Sivan (May-June), there was mourn¬ing in the land of Accad for the king's mother."The death of so important a person, who almostseems to have shared in the command of the armyof defence, encamped on the northern frontier of thearmy, must have produced dismay and perhaps con¬fusion, and it is not impossible that Kyros may havehastened his expedition in order to take advantageof this, to him, opportune moment. " In the monthof Nisan," the chronicle continues, " Kurash, king ofParsu, collected his army and crossed the Tigris be¬low Arbela." The following lines are too much in¬jured to make much sense, but something must havedelayed the Persian king (perhaps the occupation ofElam?), since it is only in the third month of the* The author of the Book of Daniel (V., 2), makes of Belshazzarthe son of Nebuchadrezzar. Should his grandmother. Queen Ni¬tokris, really turn out to be a daughter of that king, there would benothing amiss with the designarion, which, in Oriental speech, oftenwas and is used in a wide sense, for " descendant." "King" hecertainly could be called, from the position he held by his father'swill. Indeed, one lately published inscription shows that he had aseparate royal establishment.

324 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.following year (Sivan of the tenth year of Naboni¬dus), that, " Kurash came into Accad from the landof the Elamites." Then we read "The Prefect ofErech," . . . and here the line breaks off. Itis evident that Kyros met with a repulse beforeErech, one of the most important cities of the em¬pire. At all events there is no further mention ofthe Persians until the seventeenth year of Nabonidu.s,538 B.C.23. We have no certain information as to themanner in which Kyros spent the seven or eightyears between this premature attempt and his sec¬ond, successful, Babylonian campaign. Pie had workenough, no doubt, to fill the timewhat with expe¬ditions into the far cast, building at Pasargada;, andfortifying and improving his home-rule. . As to Na¬bonidus, we are quite as much at fault, the cylinderwhich is our most trusty guide being illegible fromhis eleventh year to his seventeenth,- /. f. his last.One thing is clear : he had not found, perhaps notsought, the way to reconciliation with the haughty' and covetous priesthood of Babylon. On the con¬trary, he had done much to alienate them still more.He did, indeed, show himself in Babylon at last,and gave orders for the procession to take place:Nebo came from Borsip, and Bel "went forth."There was also a sacrifice " for peace." But at thesame time he mortally offended the priests by send¬ing for the gods of other cities and placing them inthe sanctuaries of the great Babylonian patrons:" the gods of Accad, those above the atmos¬phere and -those below the atmosphere, descended

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN," 325to Babel," with the exception of those of Borsip,Kutha, and Sippar. That this sealed the king'sdoom, we can see from the tone assumed by thepriestly scribes in the " Proclamation Cylinder "which they indited for Kyros after the fall of Na¬bonidus :" At this desecration," they exclaim withpious' horror, " the Lord of Gods was exceedinglywroth, and all the gods inhabiting Babylon desertedtheir shrines-." They were no longer seen at festi¬vals and processions, for they had migrated to othercongregations who had reserved places for them.In other words, the priests removed (probably underimpressively mournful ceremonies and in the mostpublic manner), the statues and images of the offendedgods. The effect fully answered their purpose :"Then the people of Shumir and Accad, who hadbeen left in darkness, prayed to Marduk to return.He granted their prayer, returned, and rejoiced theland." But not unconditionally. The god, while herestored to favor his unoffending worshippers, couldnot tolerate the presence of an impious ruler: "Andhe [Marduk] selected aking to conduct after' hisheart what he committed to his hands.He pro¬claimed the nameof Kurash, king of the city ofAnshan, to be king over the whole country, and toall people he declared his title. . . . To his own cityof Babel he summoned him to march, and he causedhim to take the road to Tintir; like a friend andbenefactor he conducted his army."It is impossibleto state more plainly, that the priesthood of Babylonplotted against their king, betrayed him, and calledin the enemy.

326 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.24. There was, however, still another influenceat work, which, for being secret, and, soto speak,underground, should not be overlooked or under¬rated : it was the influence of the exiled Jews. Inthe forty-eight years of their captivity (from 586to S38)> they had, under the guidance of theirprophets, become in many ways another and a no¬bler people : more united, more self-contained, morefirmly grounded in the pure and absolute monothe¬ism of their religion, as formed and developed bythe efforts of the great prophets. With their wealth,their strength as a compact body of many thousandsinspired by one .spirit, one hope, directed by one in¬fluence, with the eminent position even at courtwhich some of their nobles seem to have attained(see the Book of Daniel), they were a power and adanger to the state. The rise of Persia must havebeen to them as the rising of the star of deliverance,and there can be no doubt that they either took partin the plots against Nabonidus or plotted against himon their own account, and, independently of theBabylonian priesthood, entered into negotiationswith Kyros and promised him assistance and sup¬port.No other inference can be drawn from theremarkable likeness which the Hebrew documents ofthe time bear to the Babylonian ones. , Passageslike this :" Yahveh stirred up the spirit of Koreshking of Persia, that he made a proclamation . . .saying, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord,the God of Heaven, given me " (Second Chronicles,XXXVI. 22,23); and this other: " Yahveh saith ofKoresh, He is my shepherd and shall perform all my

THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN." 327pleasure" (Isaiah XLVI. 28*), show more than anaccidental coincidence in thought and wording withthe line already quoted from the " ProclamationCylinder," of Kyros : " And he [Marduk] selected aking to conduct after his heart what he committedto his hands. Pie proclaimed the name of Kurash,king of the city of Anshan, to be king over the wholecountry, and to all people he declared his title." Thesequel of the two documents presents the same exactparallelism, as follows :"Thus saith Yahveh to his " The country of Guti and .allanointed, to Koresh, whose right its forces he caused to bow beliandI have holden, to subdue fore his feet, as well as the wholenations before him ... to open nation of blackheads (Chaldeans)doors before him. ... I will go whom he brought into his hand,before thee and make the rugged . . . Marduk the great Lord,places plain. I will break in ... directed his heart andpieces the doors of brass and cut hand. ... To his own city ofin sunder the bars of iron, and I Babylon he summoned him towill give thee the hidden riches of march and he caused him to takesecret place . . ." (Isaiah XLV., the road to Tintir ; hke a friend.1-3- and benefactor he conducted hisenemy." (Proclamation Cylin¬der of Kyros.)25. The advance of the invading forces took placefrom several sides. The Proclamation Cylinderspeaks of them as " far-extending, of which, like thewaters of the river, the numbers could not ^'Fall of Babybetold." The beginning seems to have '°°' 538 b.cbeen made by a rising in the lowlands by theGulf, and Kyros himself appeared south of Babylon* The latter part of the Book of Isaiah, from chapter XL., is not byIsaiah, the grand old prophet and minister of Hezeklah, but by iilater writer, of the time of the Captivity, whom Bible scholars haveagreed to designate as " the second Isaiah," - .

328 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.in the month of Dumuzi (June-July), where he .probrably encountered a loyal army, as a battle is men¬tioned. At the same time his general, the MedeGOBRYAS, was conducting operations in the north.After crossing the Tigris below Nebuchadrezzar'sbulwark, the so-called Median Wall, he advancedstraightway against Sippar, as it was essential to gainpossession of the great reservoir and the four canals.From this point the Annals-Cylinder is admirablypreserved, and tells the story completely :" The men of Accad broke out into a revolt. The soldiers tookSippar on the 14th day without fighting. Nabu-nahid fled. On thel6th day Ugbaru [Gobryas], the governor of Curium [the Zagroshighlands, Kurdistan], and the army of Kurash, descended to Babelwithout fighting. Then he got Nabu-nahid, who had been bound,into his power.* At the end of the month of Dumuzi the rebels ofGuti closed the doors ofl the temple of Marduk, but there wasnothing there for their defence, nor in the other temples ; therewere no weapons. In the month Arah-Shamna " [October-Novem¬ber, neariy four months after the occupation], "on the third day;"Kurash descended to Babel. The streets were black before him.He promised peace to the city and all within it. Ugbaru he con¬firmed as his viceroy, appointed governors, and from the monthKislev to the month Adar [November-March] he sent back to theirshrines the gods of Accad whom Nabu-nahid had brought down toBabel. In the dark month Arah-Shamna, on the nth day, . . . theking died. ..."From this matchless monument, whose authorityis absolutely unimpeachable, supported as it is bythat of the companion cylinder, we learn the cap¬ture of Babylon as it really took place, and that is astory entirely different from any given i,n the various*The other cylinder, with a touch of genuine priestly spite, says :"Nabu-nahid, the king who did not worship him, he [Marduk] dqliveredinto the hands of Kurash."

"KURUSH, THE KING, THE AKHMMENIAN.". 329sources to which we were compelled to trust untilthese late discoveries. No war, no siege, no de¬fence, no emptying of the Euphrates into the greatreservoir, no nocturnal surprise ;but treason, revolt,voluntary surrender, jDcaceful occupation, and a tri¬umphal entry.The one battle mentioned may bethat to which Herodotus alludes (Book I., 190), butnot one other point of his narrative is correct.Nabonidus was evidently delivered into the hands ofGobryas by his own treacherous subjects, probablythe priests.His death on the eighth day after thearrival of Kyros has an ugly look; yet, from ourknowledge of that monarch's character, suspicion offoul play scarcely can attach to him. At allevents, this testimony disposesof another story,according to which the king surrendered himselfinto Kyros' hands, who treated him kindly andgave him a province near Persia, whither he re¬tired, and where he peacefully spent the rest ofhis life.The somewhat obscure passage about the"rebels of Guti" seems to refer to a stand at¬tempted by a faithful body of highlanders in one ofthe temple quarters.It is not improbable that theymay have been commanded by the king's son, Bel¬shazzar, of whom we find no mention, and that hemay have perished in the desperate venture.Thismight account for the story in the Book of Daniel,as describing a part of the event. As for the feast,it was the season of the famous festival held inhonor of the god Dumuzi, or Thammuz, in thecourse of his own month,* and it is not at .all un-* See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 324-326.

330 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.likely that it should have been celebrated, as a^ mat¬ter of religion, even at the last extremity.26. Kyros could not linger in any one part of hisempire, which was now the most extensive the worldhad ever seen. Yet he spent several months atBabylon, ordering, conciliating, rewarding, and doingall that the most enlightened statesmanship coulddictate to establish his rule, not on the fears, but thegratitude and security of his new subjects. There isnothing that wins a people so rapidly and surely asrespect shown to its religion. Kyros, therefore, didnot scruple to sacrifice in the temples and to thegods of the ancient imperial city, calling himself, aswell as his son KAMBUJIYA (Kambyses), the " wor¬shipper of Marduk the great Lord," and "daily topray to Marduk and Nebo," on behalf of himself andhis son, for length of days and success. As for moresolid tokens of gratitude and favor, we find no recordof such, but it is ea.sy to imagine that, in the flush ofhis easy victory, the conqueror could not be anything but generous to those who had smoothed theway for him. We can infer as much from the royalmagnificence with which he rewarded the Jews fortheir assistance. He delivered them from theirbondage, bade them return to their' own country andthere rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, for whichpurpose he gave them a grant of timber in the Leb¬anon, and restored to them all the sacred gold andsilver vessels which Nebuchadrezzar had carriedaway and distributed among the templet of Babylon.He made a public proclamation to the effect thatsuch was his pleasure, enjoining on all men to help

"KURUSH, TIIE KING, THE AICHMMENIAN." 331'and further their undertaking by gifts and active as-'sistance.In the jareamble to this proclamation hespeaks like afollower of Yahveh, saying that " theGod of Pleaven has charged him to build him ahouse in Jerusalem, which is in Judah," exactly ashe calls himself a worshipper of Marduk, and statesthat " Marduk the great Lord " ordered him torepair his shrine.It does not follow that he everprofessed either the Babylonian or Jewish religion,or was any thing but a Mazdayasnian himself.Butthe political principle on which he consistently actedwas to gain his subjects' confidence and affections,and, to this end, it was absolutely necessary that heshould outwardly conform to their modes of religiousspeech and worship when he was among them.27. Early in the spring of the following year (537B.C.),at least we .seem to gather as much from themutilated end of the " Annals,"Kyros departedfrom Babylon, leaving there his eldest son Kamby¬ses as his viceroy.We have no information as tohow exactly he occupied the next eight years.Somepart of the time he must have spent at home, andwe know that he deposited in his new palace atPasargada most of the untold wealth which the treas¬uries of Sardis, Agbatana, and Babylon had yieldedhim.Ancient historians are not unanimous on themanner of his death, which took place in ^1329' B.C..'It seems probable that he perished in an expeditionagainst the MassAGET^E, a distant and very barbarousnomadic tribe, whose range lay in the far northeastbeyond the Sea of Aral. -That is the version whichHerodotus gives, but, as usual, so obscured with

333 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.fables and incongruities that the narrative will notbear close inspection.No amount of fact or de¬tails, however, did we possess them, could materi¬ally add to the respect and admiration with whichthis most majestic and gracious figure inspired boththe contemporary world and remote posterity.It isnot only that he was, in the highest sense, a goodking, but that he was the first good king we know of.He is, moreover, the first historically approved greatand good man of our own race, the Aryan or Indo-European.The grandeur of his character is wellrendered in that brief and unassuming inscription ofhis, more eloquent and proud in its lofty simplicitythan all the Assyrian self-extolling, bragging annals :" I AM KURUSH THE KING, THE AKILEMENIAN."NoTK.The unexpected discovery of the Anshan royalty, as wasnatural, produced a great commotion and led to some hasty and im¬mature conclusions, which, on closer investigation, have proved un¬necessary. Thus Kyros was turned into an Elamite of Turanian orCossasan (Kasshite) stock, a polytheist and idolater too.And it wascontended that his very name, with its ending in ush or ash, was unaryan,nay distinctively Cossa;an.The same was .asserted of the mon¬umental n.ame of his .son, Kambujiya.Yet, now that his AryanAkhaemenian genealogy is established beyond di.spute, sound pol¬icy and a wise tolerance account for his concessions to the religiousfeelings of conquered nations ;and as to the two names, there arenot many of more undoubted and ancient Aryan origin ;they bothoccur in the oldest Hindu epic literature. The " KuRUS " were Aryanpeople in Northern India, also a famous heroic race of kings ;andthere wasanother Aryan jjcople in the northwest corner of India,that was known under the name of " Kamboja." The name has. survived even yet in that of a country bordering on Siam. (Seeprincipally de Harlez, " Must'on," I., 4 ; Spiegel, " Die Altpersi¬schen Keilinschriften," 2d ed., p. 86 ; and H, Ziinmer, " All-indiscliesLeben, pp. 102 ff.)

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XLT II E LATE DISCOVERIES AT SUSA.Or all historical diggings in Western Asia, thoseof Susa had, next to Plamadan (Agbatana), yieldedthe fewest and poorest results up to 1885. NeitherMr. Loftus nor other explorers, although they knewwell enough where the palaces of the Akhaemeniankings were situated, had succeeded in bringing tolight any important relic, owing to the obdurate stu¬pidity and malevolent fanaticism of the Mussulmanauthorities at DiZKUL, a city built near the site ofthe ancient capital of Elam. Early in March, 1885,a P""rench expedition, conducted by Mr. E. DIEU¬LAFOY and his learned and courageous wife, arrivedat the ruins, determined to attempt the impossiblerather than go home disappointed ; and, though theyhad to contend at first with the same difficulties,they were successful in the end. They were re¬warded by a series of " finds " of exceptional value,which are, at this moment, being ordered and placedin the Louvre Museum, where they will form aworthy counterpart to the Sarzec collection.*The place was easy to identify by various unmis¬takable landmarks. " The_city of Susa," writes Mr.See " Story of Chaldea," p. 92.333

334 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.Dieulafoy, " was cut in two by a wide river, knownat present under the name of Ab-Karkha (ancientChoa.spes). On the right bank were the populousquarters ; on the left temples, or at least a Ziggu¬rat, the royal city, the citadel, and the palace, theruins of which, entombed in an immense earthmound,rise in the midst of the other, lessermounds, like a steep islet from the sea; along theKarkha a few trees are growing, the last descendantsof the sacred groves that were desecrated by Asshurbanipal'sgenerals."* It is known that Dareios, sonof Hystaspes (the second successor of Kyros), hadSusa rebuilt and 'ornamented, and it was his palacefor which search was made first. But it was found thatthis palace had been destroyed by fire, and that on topof its remains had been erected another and moresumptuous one, by his grandson, Artaxerxes, asfiroved by a long cuneiform inscription, containingthat king's name and parentage, which ran along amagnificent frieze of painted and glazed tiles, repre¬senting stridinglions (see ill. 44), and which formed thedecoration of the pillared porticos. Of course thefrieze was not found in its place or entire, but had tobe patiently pieced together of fragments. These,however, turned up in such quantities as to allow therestoratioa of the frieze in a state very near complete¬ness. A procession was thus obtained of nine ofthese superb animals, a work of art which was pro¬nounced in no way inferior to the Babylonian modelsfrom which it is imitated.In the same manner, out of fragments carefully* See ' ' Story of Assyria, pp. 399, 400.

s^s ^_j .o

33^MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.collected, Mr. Dieulafoy succeeded in reconstructinganother marvellous piece of work, a frieze represent¬ing archers of the royal guard. "One day," he says,"they would bring me a hand, the next a foot in agolden boot. Adding piece to piece as they fitted,I put together the feet, ankles, legs, the skirt, thebody, the arm, the shoulder, and at last the head ofan archer." There was a procession of them as wellas of the lions. (See Frontispiece.) The costume issumptuous to the last degree ; it is the graceful andbecoming " Median robe," the drapery of which, inthe natural fall and softness of the folds already be¬trays the influence of Greek art, grafted on the con¬ventional model of Assyrian slab-sculpture. Thecut of the clothes is the .same for all, but the mate¬rial, or at least the design, varies, clearly showing thatthe archers wear the uniforms of different corps.Their hair is held by circlets of gold ; they havegolden bracelets at the wrist and golden jewels intheir ears. Their spears have a silver call at thelower end. Wc know from Plerodotus that thisequipment belonged to the royal bodyguard ofpicked warriors, known by the name of " The TenThousand," or, " The Immortals," from their num¬ber, and because, as soon as a man died, in battle orfrom sickness, another forthwith took his place, sothat there never were more nor less than ten thou¬sand, and it is highly interesting to find oneselfconfronted with contemporary and authentic repre¬sentations of members of that famous body. Per¬haps the most interesting detail aboift them is thefact, revealed by this discovery, that some of their

THE LATE DISCOVERIES AT SUSA. 337uniforms were covered with scutcheon badges, wovenor embroidered in the stuff, very much like thoseworn by the retainers of noble and royal houses inthe Middle Ages.Let us hear Mr. Dieulafoy 's de¬scription :45. ENLARGED 1)K-1-AII, OF THE DESIGN WOVEN INTO TIIERIGHT HAND ARCHER's ROBES.(SecFrontispiece.)". . . On a while ground are regularly scattered black lozengesbordered with yellow. In the middle of each lozenge is painted a whiteknoll bearing three towers one yellow and two white. The designis framed by a yellow line in relief.This ornament represents, in theclearest possible manner, the citadel of Susa ;this, at least, is theconventional representation of it on the Assyrian sculptures thatrefer to the capture of Susa by Asshurbanipal.When the great lordsof the Middle Ages had their arms embroidered or woven into thegarments of their retainers, they little dreamed that they had beenanticipated by the Persian monarchs ! "The " Lion-frieze " and the " Archer-frieze " arenot the only specimens of Persian enamelled brick

338 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.'decoration brought to light at Susa. Hardly lesshandsome in a different way is the casing of varie¬gated enamelled brickwork which adorned the battlementedparapet or banister of the great doublestairs that led from the plain to the great courtin front of the palace, in a slope so gentle, with46. BATTLEMENTED STAIR PARAPET CASED WITH ENAMELLED BRICK¬WORK, AT SUSA.(Palace of Artaxerxes.) Compare " liattlements at Dur-Sh.irrul

THE LATE DISCOVERIES AT~ SUSA. 339On light blue ground,prevailing colorwhite,with touches of green and pale yellow.On dark green ground, prevailing colorgoldenyellow, with touches of blue and white.On black ground, prevailing colorgolden yellow>with touches of pale green and white.47. ROYAL SEAL OF TIIE AKH.^MENIAN KINGS.(Found at Susa, by Mr. Dieulafoy.)The gateways were cased in a white-and-rose-coloredmosaic, above which stretched the grand lionprocession.Not the least interesting of Mr. Dieulafoy's " finds "is the royal seal of the Akhaemenian kings ;not the

34°MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.impression alone, but the seal itself, conical-shaped,of a valuable gray, opal-like stone. The two sphinxeswhich seem to guard the royal medallion, plainlyshow, by their Egyptian character, that this seal48. WINGED BULL AT PERSEPOLIS.(Compare Assyrian winged bull, " Story of Chaldea," ill. 27.)could have been adopted only after the conquest ofEgypt. But the most remarkable feature aboutit is the figure within the winged disk, hoveringabove the royal effigy. It is an obvious imitationof the Assyrian Asshur-symbol, and like that symbol

49. PERSIAN PILLARBASE AND CAPITAL.341

342 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.is always found above or in front of the king, wher¬ever he appears in the wall and rock-sculptures ofthe Akhaemenians. It is plain that they adopted itas the meetest emblem of their own supreme godAhura-Mazda and we find it lavishly reproducedon all their monuments, be they palaces or tombs.The only difference lies in the national garb wornby the Eranian god, and the curve of the wings,50. DOUBLE GRIFFIN CAPITAL.which on Assyrian sculptures are straight (Compare ill. 54 and "Story of Assyria," ill. 1-4 and 22.)We find the same alteration in the winged bulls, themajestic warders of the palace gates at Persepolisthe capital of the later Akhaemenian kings. 'A column was also found at Susa, the most perfectspecimen of the kind, in far better preservation thanany at Persepolis, although exactly similar to the lat¬ter in the peculiar and complicated ohiamentafionof the upper shaft and capital, which seems to have

IPIE LATE DISCOVERIES AT SUSA. 343been a distinctive and original creation of Persianart. At least nowhere else are seen the animalforms which surmount the column and support theentablature sometimes horses, sometimes bulls, orgriffins used in just this way.Si.DOUBLE BULL CAPITAL.

XII.kambyses, 529-522 B.C.1. Kambyses was the eldest son of Kyros theGreat and his Persian queen, Kassandane, and assuch the undisputed heir to the crown ofPersiaproper and of the vast empire created by hisfather.One Greek writer, it is true, calls him theson of Amytis, but it is a fiction which, it is easy tosee, came from a Median source.Had his motherbeen a foreigner, he could not have reigned, still lesshave succeeded so smoothly and quietly, as a matterof course.Pie was not a novice in statecraft, havinghad several years' practice as viceroy at Babylon,where several Egibi tablets have been found, datedfrom that time, Kambyses being " entitled King ofBabel " and Kyros " King of the Countries,"a morecomprehensive title.2. Kambyses probably was honestly desirous ofgoverning well and justly, and on several occasionscan be shown to have tried to follow in his father'sfootsteps.For he was not devoid of fine qualities,;but he lacked the self-control and admirable balancewhich made the chief greatness of his. father's char¬acter.So he suffered his faults to obscure and de¬grade his better self, and unfortunately they were344

KAMBYSES, 529-522 B.C. 34$just the faults that are most heinous and dan¬gerousin a man armed with absolute power: un¬governable temper and suspiciousness.The formerfrequently carried him beyond all bounds of decencyand moderation, converting even acts of justice intothe enormities of a raving tyrant. Thus on one occa¬sion, having detected one of the seven supreme judgesin dishonest practices, such as taking bribes and tam¬pering with justice, he had him flayed, ordered hischair to be covered with the skin, and compelled hisson, who succeeded him in the office, to sit in thatchair, when trying cases as a warning. True, hewas quick to regret his violent outbreaks ; still hemust have inspired more terror than love in his im¬mediate circle, and we may well credit the report,mentioned by Herodotus, that his subjects drew thisdifference between him and the great Kyros, that,while they used to call the latter " father," they hadno title for Kambyses but the formal one of " mas¬ter." Of this feeling towards him he was sensitivelyaware and bitterly resented it. This unamiable na¬ture was further poisoned by the jealousy with whichhe regarded his only brother, young Bardiya,*whom he not unjustly suspected of being the peo¬ple's favorite, and therefore looked upon as his owndangerous rival. Yet he at first acted honorably,even generously by that brother : he either gave him* The Greeks give the name as Smerdis, having probably heard"Berdis"; some call this prince Tanaoxares or Tanyoxarkes,which Eranian scholars lake to be a corruption for the Persian" thauvarakhshathra," i. e., " king of the bow " ; not unlikely, forwe are told that Bardiya had the reputation of being the best aicherand marksman among tlie l'er.iians.

34^MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.or confirmed him in the government of K.horasmia,Bactria, Parthia, and Karmania, i. e., of nearly thewhole of eastern Eran, because such had been hisfather's behest.3. It is very probable that, after the fashion ofOriental politics so familar from the history of Assy¬ria's wars, the death of the " king of kings " was thesignal for risings in some of the annexed countries,and that this fact is alluded to in Herodotus' briefstatement that " Kambyses conquered over again thenations that had been conquered by Kyros." Afterwhich he began to prepare for an Egyptian cam¬paign. Nothing could be more natural and reasona¬ble ; it was what the course of events itself broughtup as the next thing to be done. The universalmonarchy which evidently was the dream of Kyros,would have been incomplete without Egypt, nor wasthe pretence wanting to give plausible color to theaggression : for had not Amasis promised his assist¬ance to Lydia against Persia, and been preventedfrom interfering only by the excessive rapidity ofthe conqueror's movements? and was not this apresumption that called for chastisement 1 It would,therefore, have been strange indeed if the new kinghad not turned his thoughts that way. But this wasfar too simple an explanation to please the ancienthistorians, who deariy loved an ornate story with, ifpossible, a thinly veiled moral to it. So we are in¬formed that Kambyses sent to Amasis to ask for oneof his daughters in marriage, and that the usurper,now well-established in the throne of the two Egypts,being unwilling to send a child of his own to a re-

KAMBYSES, i,2(^-i,22 B.C. -347mote and unknown land, and to the tender merciesof one whose violent temper may have been reportedto him, bethought him of a stratagemfor to refusepoint-blank would have been dangerous,and sent toKambyses as his own daughter, a princess of thename of Nitetis, a surviving daughter of his prede¬cessor Hophra (or Apries), whom he had overthrownand supplanted. She went willingly, seeing an open¬ing for avenging her father and family, by simplytelling Kambyses of the deception practised uponhim, which so enraged him, that he vowed theruin of Egypt on the spot. The whole storyis palpably improbable, if only from the fact thatNitetis must have been over forty at the time.But the Egyptians had a much neater and moreplausible story of their own : they told Herodotus(who, however, was too well-informed to believethem), that Nitetis had been one of Kyros' wives,andthe mother of Kambyses. By this perversionof facts, they connected Kambyses with their ownroyal family, and converted the conquest into merelyan armed change of dynasty, such as had occurredmore than once in their history, besides making ofthe conqueror the avenger of his own grandfather.4. The Egyptian campaign, although probablyplanned from the beginning of the new reign,could not have effect until the fourth year. Itpresented great difficulties, which Kambyses waswise enough not to underrate, but to meet withadequate preparations. Amasis was not a contemp¬tible foe and had quietly done many things which.made a foreign invasion a more difficult task than it

348 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.used to be.He had occupied the island of Cyprusand made friends with several Greek islands, a strokeof policy which secured him the use of considerablemaritime forces, besides averting the danger of aPersia'n occupation which otherwise would veryprobably have followed the submission of the Greekcities on the sea-coast.Amasis morever was liberalmindedand, breaking through the stubborn preju¬dices of his people, even at the cost of a good deal ofhis popularity, he opened the country to the Greeks,whom he permitted to have a settlement near themouths of the Nile, kept a body of Greek mercenaries,and even went so far as to take a wife from the Greekcolony of Kyrene.He could therefore rely on theassistance and watchfulness of his new friends fromthe other side of the sea.To counteract these moves,Kambyses determined to oppose fleet to fleet, Greeksto Greeks.He ordered the cities of the Phceniciansand of the lonians to arm and man their ships andbe ready to support the land army.The order wasobeyed without a sign of either revolt or treason,which goes far to show that the Persian rule was ajust and lenient one, at least compared to that ofearlier conquerors. The Phoenician and Ionian fleetswere commanded to join together just below MountCarmel and then to proceed downwards along thecoast, keeping pace with the army, which was tomarch along the ordinary military route.Of this aportion, amounting to several days' march, passedthrough a stretch of desert, the terrible wilderness ofthe Sinai peninsula.But Kambyses succeeded ingaining the sheikhs of the roving Bedouin tribes

KAMBYSES, ^2g-$22 B.C. 349Midianites and Amalekites whose dominion thevirtually was, so that they promised notonly not to molest his army on its march, but to sup¬ply it with water.It seemed as though luck wouldcomplete what prudence and foresight had so wellbegun, for a short time before Kambyses started onthe expedition, there came to him a Greek deserter,a certain Phanes, who had commanded the Greekbodyguard of Amasis, and secretly left it, being dis¬contented with something or other, to join the inva¬ders.Amasis was well aware of the evil consequencesthis desertion could have for Egypt, and sent trustymen in pursuit. They tracked him as far as Lycia,where they actually captured him, but he managedto escape and gain the Persian court. He followedthe king and, as Amasis had expected, made himselfvery useful by his knowledge of the country and theadvice he was able to impart on every occasion.5. Every thing was now ready (525 B.C.), but theking still lingered.He was leaving his empire on adangerous expedition that would keep him awaymonths, perhaps years. To whom should he entrustthe government in his absence ? The most naturaland fittest person for such a trust would have beenhis only brother Bardiya, his heir presumptive also,as he himself was childless. But the inveterate dis¬trust of all Oriental despots towards their own fleshand blood Avould not suffer him to entertain thethought. Nay, so much was that feeling intensifiedby his own individual temperament, jealous and su.spiciousto the verge of monomania, that he couldnot even bear to leave his brother behind ; visions of

350 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.*plots and usurpation harassed him continually:ruler of most of the eastern countries of Eran, i. e.,nearly half the empire, whose allegiance was notvery firm at best, how easily could Bardiya, the ad¬mired and beloved, incite them to open rebellion,when he would dispose of sufficient forces to over¬power the other half, and seize on his absent brother'scrown, perhaps without even meeting with anyopposition ! Smarting with the consciousness of hisown impopularity, Kambyses brooded over theseevil presentiments until, driven beside himself withapprehension and distrust, he sought security fromfancied dangers in crime: he had Bardiya secretlyassassinated. Nothing is known of how the deedwas done, for the details given by the various Greekwriters are contradictory, and evidently apocryphal.The only authentic record and quite sufficient it iswe. have in the great Behistun inscription, whereinKambyses' successor. King Dareios, makes the fol¬lowing brief and explicit statement :" A man named Kambujiya, son of Kurush, of our race, he washere king before me. Of that Kambujiya there was a brother, Bar¬diya was his name ; of the same mother and of the .same fatlier withKambujiya. Afterwards Kambujiya slew that Bardiya. WhenKambujiya had slain Bardiya, it was n6t known to the people thatBardiya had been slain. Afterwards Kambujiya proceeded toEgypt. ..."6. The campaign was short, and successful beyondBattle of expectarion. While the preparations hadPelusion. . ' ^,Conquest of bccu goiug on, there had been a changeB.C. of rulers ; the wise and wary Amasis haddied, and when the Persian army reached the east-

KAMBYSES, 529-522 .5. C. 351%em mouth of the Nile, it was his son, PsammetikIII. (more frequently called PSAMMENIT by theGreeks), whom they encountered. There wasone battle, near PELUSION, and it was final.Psam¬metik at once retreated to Memphis with thebulk of his army, intending to make a stand inthis the holiest and most ancient city of the mon¬archy. Pelusion was held for a short time byanother detachment, but was unable to resist thepressure of army and fleet combined. The surrenderof this fortress opened Egypt to the invader; hisships now sailed up the Nile and reached Memphisbefore the land army, to which they afforded a mostwelcome and necessary support, since the Nile hadto be crossed before the capital could be attacked.It would seem that the city did not offer muchresistance. The citadel, indeed, with its garrisoncommanded by the king, did well and bravely, butwas overpowered by numbers and forced to surren¬der. The noblest of the land fell as- captives intothe hands of the conqueror, and Psammetik was ofthe number. This virtually ended the war, and thewhole country submitted almost with alacrity. AnEgyptian inscription has been found which says:" When the great king, the lord o'f the world, Kambathet(Kambyses), came up against Egypt, all thenations of the world were with him. He made him¬self master of the whole land, and bade them sitdown there." It may be doubted, however, whetherthe submission would have been as rapid and univer¬sal had the reigning house been more popular. Itwas not only that Amasis had been an usurper; he

352 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.was not the first ;and usurpers, when they flatterthe national tastes and prejudices, seldom find thepeople's hearts obdurate against them.But Amasishad been a friend of the Greeks, had admitted themto settle in the country, and even enlisted a body¬guard of the hated and despised foreigners allgrievous sins in the eyes of the proud and bigotedEgyptians.7. On finding himself thus almost unexpectedlymaster of so great a country, where every thing musthave been bewilderingly strange to him and to hiscompanions, Kambyses acted as became a son andpupil of the great Kyros, whose golden rule was :mild treatment to the vanquished, respect and tolera¬tion to their customs and religion.He treated thecaptive Psammetik kindly and honorably, and therewas no question of sacking cities, plundering or dese¬crating temples, wasting plantations, and the likeatrocities. The only act of severity which he enforced,was the execution of two thousand Egyptian youths,whose lives the Persians demanded, in reprisal forthe massacre of the entire crew of the first ship thatreached Memphis in advance of the fleet and founditself cut off from all assistance.The ordinary crewof a war-ship in those days consisted of about twohundred men, and there was nothing excessive,according to Oriental ideas,in inflicting a tenfoldpenalty ; it was simply the fate of war. Otherwisenothing was changed or disturbed in laws, institu¬tions, or the national life generally. The principalfortresses were garrisoned, and a Satrap appointedto maintain the peace and collect the tribute, that

KAMBYSES, i,2g-e)22 B.C. 353was all.As to the Egyptian religion, its forms ofworship must have been not only highly distastefulto a Mazdayasnian, but ludicrously absurd, especiallythe divine honors paid to somany animals, usefuland noxious alikethe cat, the jackal, the crocodile,the ibis,and the preservation, by means of embalm¬ing, of dead bodies, both of men and sacred animals.Yet he outwardly conformed to the religious customs" of the people whose ruler he had become, and tookpains to appear before them in every way as thePharaoh, the successor of Pharaohs, and as such heis represented on apainting, kneeling in adorationbefore the Apis-Bull, the most sacred of all animals,reverenced as ths-living emblem of the One SupremeGod himself.This painting still exists in one of thegalleries which formed the catacombsor buryingplacesexpressly constructed for the mummifiedremains of successiveunnumbered centuries.lines of Apis-Bulls throughThe inscription informs usthat the recently deceased Apis had been depositedin the resting-place prepared for him by the kingKambyses, while another inscription reports thebirth of a new Apis, in the fifth year of Kambyses.The inscription quoted above (see p. 351), is a longone, engraved on the statue of an Egyptian, whoheld public offices under Amasis, Psammetik III.,Kambyses, and Dareios, and speaks with great praiseof Kambyses' zeal in religious matters and his liber¬ality to temples and their ministers.The stories,therefore, which Herodotus transmitted of the blas¬phemous and sacrilegious atrocities in whichthatking was said to have indulged, even to the desecra^2 A

354 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.tion of graves and the killing of the Apis-Bull withhis own hand, may safely be set aside as later inven¬tions prompted by spite against the conqueror andretailed to foreigners by ignorant or malicious guides.Greek travellers of Herodotus' time were the morelikely to put faith in them, that they had themselvesa mortal grudge against the Persians, and certainPersian customs must have struck them as iniquitous.Thus Herodotus is horrified at Kambyses wed¬ding his two sisters, while we have seen that,according to the king's own religion, such unionswere meritorious acts enjoined by the highest au¬thority.8. The most natural course for Kambyses topursue, the conquest of Egypt once achieved and,j established, would have been to depart to his ownlands, leaving behind governors and garrisons. Buthe lingered on and on, evidently possessed with aninvincible repugnance to return, evincing more andmore signs of mental perturbation, and yielding tounprovoked fits of murderous temper which madehim a terror to his nearest kinsmen and attendants.These fits became the more frequent and ungoverna¬ble that he indulged in excessive drinkinga vice notuncommon among the Persians. It is most probablethat remorse for his brother's fate was at the bot¬tom both of his reluctance to face his own peopleagain and of his attacks of spleen.He sought occu¬pation in further plans of conquest, intending tocarry his arms into the heart of Libya and of Ethio¬pia. He also meditated an expedition against Car¬thage, which was to be reached by sea,along the

^'"'*^'^*Sb^^52 ruined palace at firOzabad. cei^tral hall.- ^5

356 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.north coast of Africa.But the Phoenicians blanklyrefused to lend their ships to be used against theirown colony, and as the plan could not be carriedout without their assistance, it was abandoned.Buthe did send out a body of troops westward into thedesert to take possessionof the oasis held by theAmmonians and famous for its ancient oracle andtemple known as the temple of Ammon (one of thenames of the Egyptians' supreme deity), ain import¬ant position for any one who wished to commandthe submission of the various tribes scattered be¬tween the desert and the shore.The little armynever came back, nor was it ever heard of; therewas a tradition among the. Ammonians that it hadencountered one of the terrible hot blasts of thedesert and been buried in sand-drifts. .Kambyseswas more fortunate in his Ethiopian expedition,which he commanded in person.He went up theNile farther than the Assyrians had ever gone,passed through the country of the Kushite Ethi¬opians, and actually reached the region inliabited bynegroes, whose woolly hair, thick lips, and garb ofskins figure among the subject nations on the sculp¬tures of the royal palaces at Persepolis. (See ill. 54.)This fact, together with the paymentof tribute,consisting in slaves and elephants' tusks, show theexpedition to have been successful and to haveamounted to a real conquest rather than to a passingraid.On his march back, however, and when alreadyapproaching the confines of Upper Egypt, Kambyseshad to contend with the same foe as the troops sentout to Ammon, and narrowly escaped the same fate.

KAMBYSES, e,2g-i,22 B.C. 35)^9. Three years had passed, and still the king tar¬ried in Egypt ; when suddenly strange and appallingnews came from home. Bardiya, it was reported,the king's brother, had rebelled and proclaimedhimself king. Heralds had gone forth to all endsof the empire to announce that allegiance shouldhenceforth be paid to him and not to Kambyses.One of these heralds came to Egypt, bearing themessage to the army there, unabashed by the king'spresence. As Bardiya's death had been kept aprofound secret and the people only thought thathe lived secluded in his palace (no unusuitl thing inthe East), no one saw any reason to doubt the news,and Kambyses found himself confronted with thereality of the fancied danger which had driven himto frenzy, but in a form which far outdid in horrorhis worst apprehensions : it was as though his mur¬dered brother's ghost had risen before him and saton his throne. Urged by his' counsellors, and hiskinsmen the Akhaemenian princes, he reluctantlycommanded the army to set out on their homewardmarch. But his spirit was broken ; he alone knewthat the usurper must be an impostor who had insome way found out that Bardiya was dead, and tookadvantage of the people's ignorance of the fact topersonate him. He had no hope of retrieving his,fortune, for his conscience told him he deserved nobetter. And he had no child for whose sake tostruggle and to hope, so that even should the issuebe favorable, the inheritance of Kyros mustpassaway from his direct line, to the younger branch.True, the Persians were a loyal people, and not likely

358 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.to follow an impostor, once unmasked ; but howcouldthe wretched king effectively unmask him,save by divulging his own foul deed ? Still, thegood of the empire imperatively demanded that thisshould be done and he resolved to humble himselfand confess ; but to survive such a confession wasmore than his proud spirit could stoop to. Besides,he was bitterly conscious that he should not bemissed or mourned : was not the readiness withwhich his subjects, those of his own race and of theprovinces, had obeyed the first call to rebellion, thebest proof that he had forfeited their love and con¬fidence, that the Hvareno, the " awful kingly Glory"that will not stay where truth is not, had gone fromhim ? * He had been right : it was his brother whowas to them the son of the great Kyros, of himwhom they had called " father " ; lie was only " themaster." His long absence had done the rest. Andnow the liberation of the empire, the restoration ofroyalty, would best be entrusted to guiltless handsnothing could prosper in those of the murderer, the" Mithra-deceiver." So he called together the no¬blest among the Persians who attended him, told hislamentable story with the dignified simplicity of onewho already was not of this world, and bidding them,especially the Akhaemenians, repair the evil thathad been done, put an end to his own life.On hisyoung kinsman, Dareios, temporarily devolved thetask of taking the army home and commanding it,until the question of succession should be dulysettled.* See above, p.. 80.

360 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.10. This is the tragedy in its grand and simplefeatures, divested of the diffuse and conflicting state¬ments, the puerile anecdotes of the Greek chroniclers,and viewed by the light of the great Behistuninscription, which gives it in the following brief, butsufficiently explicit paragraph :There are, among the Babylonian "contracttablets,"two dated September and October of " thefirst year of King' Barziya" confirmation, ifsuch were needed, of this statement, of the universalacceptation of the usurper's claim, and of the credu¬lity with which his self-assertion met " in theprovinces."" . . . When Kambujiya had proceeded to Egypt, then the slatebecame wicked.Then the lie became abounding in the land, botliin Persia and in Media, and in the other provinces."Afterwards there was a certain man, a Magian, named Gau¬mata. ... He thus lied to the state : ' I am Bardiya, the son ofKurush, the brother of Kambujiya.' Then the whole state became"rebellious." (Spring 522 li.c.) " Froni Kambujiya it went over tohim, both Persia and Media, and the other provinces. Pie seizedthe empire. On the ninth day of the month Garmapada, then itwas he seized the empire.* Afterwards Kambujiya, having killedhimself, died. . . . After Gaumata the Magian had dispossessedKambujiya both of Persia and Media, and the dependent provinces,he did after his own desire ;he became king."* In July or August. This probably refers to the consecration 01inauguration at Pasargada;.

XIII.DAREIOS I, TIIE SON OF HYSTASPES, 522-485 B.C.^-FIRST PERIOD :CIVIL WARS.I. " There was not a man, neither Persian nor Mede, nor any oneof our family, who could dispossess that Gaumata, the Magian of theempire. The people feared him exceedingly. He slew many whohad known old Bardiya.For that reason he slew them, ' lest theyshould recognize me that I am not Bardiya, the son of Kurush.'Noone dared any thing concerning Gaumata, the Magian, until I ar¬rived. Then I prayed to Ahura-Mazda ; Ahura-Mazda brought helpto me. On the tenth day of the month Bagayadish" (the firstmonth, March-April), " then it was that I, with my faithful men,slew that Gaumata, the Magian, and the men who were his chieffollowers. The fort named Sikathauvatis, in the district Nisaya inMedia, there I slew him. I dispossessed him of the empire. By thegrace of Ahura-Mazda I became king ; Ahura-Mazda granted methe empire."Thus Dareios, in the Behistun record. Thelengthy and highly adorned narratives of the Greekhistorians afford a valuable commentary to this briefand pithy statement. Valuable, for overladen as theyare with trumped up anecdotes, speeches of Greekinvention, and facts misrepresented because not un¬derstood, they still supply us with a continuousthread of action, enabling us to make out the mainfeatures of a most dramatic incident. We maypretty safely reconstruct it as follows :. 361

362 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.2. After Kambyses' death, his army, on the home¬ward march, declared in favor of the supposed Bar¬diya. Dareios hastened to Persia and, before decid¬ing on a course of action, secretly wrote to theSatraps of the several provinces, to try and securetheir assistance. The result was not encouragingThere seem to have really been only two on whomhe could implicitly rely, besides his own fatherwho was Satrap in Parthia. This convinced him'that It would be imprudent to proceed openly andviolently, since most people believed in the usurper,and Bardiya, had he been alive, would now have beenthe natural and legitimate heir of his childlessbrother. Besides, the Magian had taken care to in¬gratiate himself with the provinces, by notifyingthem all, as soon as he assumed the sceptre, that he" granted them freedom from war-service and fromtaxes for the space of three years." He was there¬fore far from unpopular, and Dareios wisely shrankfrom a civil war, the issue of which would have beenmore than doubtful. A bold stroke, an accomplishedfactsuch was the only safe and practical solution,and Dareios decided on a daring deed, which wouldhave been impossible but for certain Persian customs,on which he cleverly built his plans.3. We have seen (see p. 279), that the Persian na¬tion was first constituted by the fusion of severaltribes-^probably originally sevenunder the leader¬ship of Akha^menes, the head of the noblest of themthe Pasargadae. But although this particular familythus became invested with hereditary royalty, greatprivileges were awarded to the heads of the six other

54. dareios i. on lus throne, upborne jiy suiiject katiohs.(persepolis.)(Note the Ncijro In the lower left-hand corner.3O3

364 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.tribes or clans, who were, in fact, the king's peers andenjoyed perfect equality with him, short only of theroyal power itself.They all wore the royal head¬dress, the tall kidaris or tiara ; they could enter theroyal presence at all times, unannounced ;they werethe king's companions and advisers by right of birth,and it was only from their families he could choosehis first wife, his queen, as it was into their familiesthat he married his own sons and daughters, hisbrothers and sisters. On this ancient and sacredcustom Dareios built his simple plan.The heads ofthe seven tribeshe being one of them and theirleader ^should present themselves at the palacegates, alone, without any followers ; the pretendercould not possibly deny himself tothem withoutviolating a fundamental law of the empire, and hewould, by so doing, arouse suspicion ; once inside thepalace, their own bravery and opportunity should dothe rest.The six chiefs agreed to stand by Dareiosand dare the venture with him.They could taketheir own time to mature the plot, for one who gavehimself out asa son of Kyros could not, without be¬traying himself, attempt any thing against the sevenprinces. Yet he seems to have felt some uneasi¬ness, since, asthe inscription tells us, he removedfrom Persia into Media, and there established him¬self not in the capital, Agbatana, but in a mountaincastle. This removal considerably increased thedifficulty and danger for the conspirators, since hewas there surrounded by his brotherrMagi, who, aswe have seen, formed a separate and powerful classin the country. Still, the plan arranged by the seven

DAREIOS I. : CIVIL WARS. 365princes could not well be altered ; indeed it becamemore urgent than ever that it should be carried out.They feariessly rode up to the castle gate, Dareiospretending that he was the bringer of a message tothe king from his father Plystaspes, the heir presump¬tive. As he had foreseen, they passed, unchallengedand unhindered by the guards. A few momentslater and the usurper had ceased to live, after a briefand desperate scuffle with some attendants.* Theretinue of the seven, which had been left at somedistance behind, now hastened to their support andprevented a popular outbreak. This day was setapart for all coming times, to be celebrated by a fes¬tival in memory of " the slaughter of the Magian."The Greeks, utterly misunderstanding the purport ofthis festival, gravely asserted that a slaughter ofwhatever Magians were met with on the street, tookplace every year on the anniversary of that day, sothat no Magi showed themselves out-doors as longas it lasted. Almost immediately after this feat ofboldness, Dareios was proclaimed king, probably byprevious agreement with his companions, and withthe consent of his father Hystaspes, who continuedto govern his distant province. In his great inscrip¬tion he faithfully records the names of his six com¬panions, emphasizing the fact that they were his onlyhelpers. " These are the men who alone were therewhen I slew Gaumata, the Magian, who was calledBardiya. These alone are the men who were my assist¬ants." One of them was Gobryas, his father-in-law.* He had reigned seven months since the death of Kambyses,very nearly a year in all.

366 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.4. Thus was accomplished with astonishing easeand scarcely any bloodshed one of the most import¬ant revolutions in history. A short interval ofpeace now followed, during which Dareios devotedall his energies to the work of reconstruction.Hetells us so, in his usual concise but comprehensivemanner :" The empire which had been taken away from our family, that Irecovered.... I established the state in its jjlace, both Persiaand Media, and the other provinces.As it was before, so I madeit.The temples which Gaumata the Magian had destroyed, I re¬built.I reinstituted for the state both the religious chants and theworship, and gave them to the families which Gaumata the Magianhad deprived of them.... By the grace of Ahura-Mazda I didthis ;I labored until I had established our family in its place as itwas before.Thus I labored, by the grace of Ahura-Mazda, thatGaumata the Magian should not supersede our family."The mention in this passage of theBehistun in¬scription of temples destroyed and rebuilt has sorelypuzzled the decipherers.For it is well known thatthe Zoroastrian religion admits of no temples, andthat its only rallying-points of worship are its dtesJigdJisor fire-altars, in the open air or in unpretend¬ing, unadorned chapels.'" That a Mazdayaznian,therefore, should take to himself credit for rebuild¬ing temples seenied an unaccountable anomaly.* The Persians have had temples, but at a later period, which doesnot come within the bounds of the present work.That period maybe called that of the final decadence of pure Mazdeism.We knowof temples erected to Mithra and Anahita-Ardvi-Sura already byKing Artaxerxes, the grandson of Dareios.This was due to theinfluence of the Semitic and Canaanitic religions ;Mithra was trans¬formed into a counterpart of their Baals and Molochs, and Anahitainto that of their nature goddessesBeltis, Mylitta, Astarte, Atargatis,and the rest.She had a famous temple at .Susa.

2 S

368 MEDIA. BABYLON, AND PERSIA.The inconsistency, however, vanishes if we assume,with Max Duncker,*that temples not of the Per¬sians or Medes are meant, but of the subject nations.We have seen that Kyros and, in imitation of him,his son Kambyses made it a point not only to toler¬ate,but personally to honor, the religions of con¬quered countries.It is very natural to suppose thatthe usurper would be uninfluenced by the dictatesof sound statecraft, and, blindly following his priestlyzeal, would neglect and even destroy these to himabominable seats and landmarks of heathenism.Dareios, no less naturally, immediately resumed theliberal and conciliatory policy of his house, andmentions it in his annals as a claim on' the regard ofa large portion of his subjects.We must rememberthat all the Akhaemenian monumental documentsare trilingual, becauseaddressed to three distinctraces, and that, numerically, the Mazdayasniansformed the minority.We are forcibly reminded ofthis fact by one apparently slight detail.In theTuranian version(that which has been called theProto-Median, or Amardian, or, more lately, Scythic),the name of Ahura-Mazda is accompanied with theexplanatory clause, " the god of the Aryas." TheBabylonian version speaks of " houses of the gods,"an expression which excludes both Persians andMedes.5. That Dareios himself was a Mazdayasnian, andan earnest one, of that the language used in his in¬scriptions leaves no shadow of a doub.t.Near thePersiancapital of which he was the founder, and* Max Duncker, " Geschichte des Alterthums," vol. I'V., p. 458. '

DAREIOS I. : CIVIL WARS. 369which is known to us only by its Greek name, PER¬SEPOLIS, there is a perpendicular rock called Nakh-SHI-RUSTEM, in which are hewn the tombs, orrather sepulchral chambers, of Dareios and three ofhis immediate successors, representing the front ofpalaces, after the manner of the Lycian rock-tombs.(See Chap. VIIL) They are richly adorned with. sculptures, among which we especially note thefrieze representing a procession of dogsthe sacredanimal of the Avesta ;the king, standing on a plat¬form, leaning on his bowunstrung, for the work oflife is done,in adoration before the blazing firealtar,the sun-disk, and the hovering emblem ofAhura-Mazda. (See ill. 56).Of the three tombs in the row, that of Dareiosalone has aninscription, which in some ways com¬pletes the record of Behistun, having been inditedseveral years later.It begins with the most solemnprofession of faith, which affects one like the farswellingpeal of some great organ :" A great god is Ahura-Mazda ; he has created this earth, he hascreated yonder heaven, he has created man, and all pleasant thingsfor man, he has made Darayavush king, the only king of many."Then follows a brief review of his deeds and ofhis conquests, piously referred to "the grace ofAhura-Mazda."No Hebrew monotheist could bemore absolute and emphatic :" That which I have done, I have all done through the grace ofAhura-Mazda. Ahura-Mazda brought me help, till I had performedthe work. May he protect me and my clan and this land. ..."The same statement is repeated several times in2 B

370 MEDIA,, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the Behistun annals, and though he twice qualifiesit by the addition, " Ahura-Mazda and the othergods that are," these words have not in the originalthe decided polytheistic coloring that a modern ren¬dering gives them. We know that Mazdeism admit¬ted of divine beings subordinate to the One who isSupreme, and such, no doubt, is the meaning here.Another trait characteristic of the Mazdayasnianis the use he makes of the word "lie," which isthroughout equivalent to " evil," " wickedness."After the departure of Kambyses, we are told that" the he became abounding in the kingdom." Andthe word used is the Avestan " druj," in the moremodern form " darauga." Towards the end of therecord Dareios says : " For this reason Ahura-Mazdabrought help to me, and the other gods th£it are,that I was not. wicked, nor was I a liar [" daraujhana" = Avestan- " drujvan "], nor was I a tyrant."6. From these passages, which breathe the spiritrather of the Gathas than of the Yasna or Vendidad,we may conclude that King Dareios was a Mazda¬yasnian of the early uncorrupted school, and, withmuch probability, that the alterations introducedinto the doctrine and ritual by the Median Magi(see p. 271) had not been adopted by the Persians.At least they do not appear to have followed theprescriptions of the Vendidad in their treatment ofthe dead,certainly not strictly. Their kings wefind entombed in elaborately wrought sepulchres,not exposed to the birds. But we saw that this cus¬tom is a borrowed one, a fact betrayed by the veryword " Dakhma," which originally meant " the place

DARIEOS I. .-CIVIL WARS.mof burning," showing that the early Eranians, liketheir brethren of India, were familiar with crema¬tion.'*Herodotus has a curious passage, from which56. DETAIL OF AKILEMENIAN TOMIl.(Compare Lycian ruck-tombs, ch. viii.)it would seem that the practice of exposing the deadwas gaining ground in Persia in his time (middle ofthe fifth century B.C.), but in asort of underhand* Justi, " Geschichte des Alten Persiens," p. 88,

372 MEDLA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA. -way, being introduced and favored as we mightexpectby the Magi :" There is another custom which is spoken of with reserve, andnot openly, concerning their dead. It is said that the body of a malePersian is never buried, until it has been torn either by a dog or abird of prey. That the Msigi have this custom is beyond a doubt,for they practise it without any concealment. The dead bodies arecovered with wax and then buried in the ground."This last practice looks very much like a conces¬sion' to the Magian teachings, as a layer of wax maybe considered to isolate the body and thus preservsthe earth from pollution. Nor, strictly speaking,can any of the elements be polluted by a body shut_up in a coffin or sarcophagus and then deposited,not in the earth itself, but in a chamber hewn in thehard, dry rock. That the Persians of Dareios' time,moreover, shunned the nearness of a corpse, as en¬tailing impurity, we may infer from another passageof Herodotus, which tells us that this king himself,on one occasion, refused to enter Babylon througha certain gate, because above that gate, was the sep¬ulchre of Queen Nitokris, the mother of Nabonidus,who, from some unaccountable whim, had chosen forherself that peculiar place of rest,"^he story maynot be true, but it is significant.7. If Dareios had hoped to aver^ further troublesby the .swift and .skilful blow which he struck at the' very root of evil, in the person of the impostor Gau¬mata, that hope was deceived, and he was given buta very few months for the work of reconstructionwhich he at once undertook. The Satraps of thedistant provinces had tasted the sweets of inde-

57. BUILDING KNOWN AS " RUSTEM's TOMH," AT NAKHSHI-RUSTEM.(Compare ill, 43).373

374 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.pendence during the long absence of Kambyses andthe late period of comparatively slack rule, andwere loth to return under the strict control of thecentral authority. The populations were highlypleased with the Magian's way of governing, and themajority of them undoubtedly still believed him tobe what he represented himself ; so the sparks offuture disturbances were by no means stamped out.A year had not elapsed, when the conflagrationbroke out nearly simultaneously on all points of theempire. And this unheard of thing came to pass, thatevery province that rebelled was led by an impostoror pretender: the success of the tragi-comedy en¬acted by the Magian Gaumata had borne plenteousfruits and produced a perfect epidemic of the samekind of deceit.The one reliable source of informamationfor the gigantic struggle in which Dareiossuddenly found himself engaged almost single-handedagainst adversaries that sprang up on every side ofhim, is of course his own narrative on the Behistunrock ; it is singularly modest and unassuming agreat contrast to the bragging of the Assyrian royaldocuments. We cannot do better than follow itstep by step, even when not quoting from it.8. The first to openly rebel was Elam, or Susiana.A certain Atrina there declared himself king.Atthe same time a man of Babylon, Nadintabiraby name, " thus lied to the state of Babylon : ' I amNebuchadrezzar, the son of Nabonidus.' " The wholestate of Babylon went over to him, and acknowl¬edged him for its king. The movement at Susa ap¬pears to have been easily quelled, as all that Dareios

375

376 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.says about it is this: "I went to Susiana; thatAtrina was brought to me a prisoner ; I slew him."Not so the rising at Babylon ; it needed a real cam¬paign to put it down. The rebel's forces were placedon the Tigris and it cost a battle for the royal armyto effect a passage. Another battle was fought onthe Euphrates near the capital, and, though defeated,the pretender did not surrender, but fled with a fewhorsemen and threw himself into Babylon, where hesustained a regular siege. Dareios records with greatsimplicity that he " by the grace of Ahura-Mazda,took the city and seized on the false Nebuchadrez¬zar," whom he put to death. This expedition occu¬pied several months, and while he was detained inBabylonia, no less than nine countries revoltedagainst him at once, of which he gives the list : Per¬sia, Susiana, Media, Assyria, Armenia, Parthia, Margiana,Sattagydia, and Sakia. (See map.)9. This second rising of Elam was of little import¬ance, and the people themselves put it down, cap¬tured the leader and slew him. Far greater was thedanger in Media, for there a man of the name ofFravartish (Phraortes), a Mede, had declared him¬self to be " Khshatrita, of the race of Kyaxares " andcalled on the country in the name of its most popularnational hero, the founder of its greatness. The ap¬peal was eagerly responded to : even the Mediantroops which had been left at home, went over tothe pretender, who was proclaimed king of Media.The rising in Sagartia was headed by a man whoalso gave himself out as a descendant of Kyaxaresand set up an independent kingdom. But by far th^

378 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.worst feature in this confiscation was the defectionof Persia proper ; another false Bardiya appearedthere, and the people accepted him.He was strongenough to initiate aggressive proceedings, bysending out troops against the satrap of the Arachosia,one of the few loyal servants of Dareios,and to bear most unflinchingly the brunt of severalbattles, though the result was not favorable to him¬self. The fortunes of Persia's lawful and heroicking may well be said to have been desperate atthis juncture. Detained in a rebellious country bya siege of which the issue was doubtful, cut off fromthe rest of the empire, he could rely only on thetroops he had with him, as he expressly says that" only those Medes and Persians who were with himremained true, and they were few in number."Yetof these few he wasforced to send off two detach¬ments to try and stay the evil in Media and in Ar¬menia, whence the insurrection was rapidly spreadingto Assyria. For in the east only two Satraps thoseof Bactria and Arachosia persisted in their allegi¬ance, and his father, Plystaspes, did his best in hisown provinces of Hyrcania and Parthia, but was un¬able to keep them from declaring in favor of theMedian pretender.As for Dareios himself, he couldnot stir from Babylon, and was forced to leave hisfaithful friends to shift for themselves for the time.His two generals in Media and Armenia were notvery successful, being too inferior in numbers to therebel forces, and all they could do was to hold theirown in strong positions, until he was able to ccAieto their assistance,

DAREIOS L : CIVLL WARS. 37910. Every thing now seemed to depend on thepersonal efforts and presence of the king.Had thecapture of Babylon been delayed much longer, it isprobable that the evil would have been beyondremedy. As soon as Babylon fell (September, 519B.C.) things began to take a more hopeful aspect.The prestige of the royal presence worked wondersapart from the welcome reinforcements. Dareiosfirst proceeded to Media, rightly considering the ris¬ing in that country the most threatening, because ofthe national principle it represented and the questionwhich was at stake, really amounting to a renewal ofthe old contest for supremacy between Media andPersia. Phraortes boldly came forward to meet theking with an army, offering battle. His confidencewas not justified by the event : he was routed andbarely escaped with life. Accompanied by a fewhorsemen, he fled to Rhagas, where he was capturedby some troops sent in pursuit by Dareios. Thecruel treatment he experienced sufficiently showshow dangerous he was deemed and how essential itwas thought that he should be not only put outof the way, but degraded in the eyes of the people." I cut off his nose, and his ears, and his tongue,"says the king ; " he was kept chained at my doorallthe kingdom beheld him. Afterwards I crucifiedhim at Agbatana." The same treatment was dealtto the Sagartian who claimed, like Phraortes, to beof the race of Kyaxares, and who was defeated andcaptured by a Median general, only that he wascrucified at Arbela as an example to the Assyrianrebels^ Now at last Dareios could send reinforce-

380 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.ments to his father, who, with a few troops, hadbravely held the defensive, and who now gained adecisive victory over the rebels of Parthia and Hyr¬cania.This was in 518 B.C., and within the sameyear the faithful Satrap of Bactria routed those ofMargiana.II.In 5 17 B.C. Persia alone virtually remained in astate of insurrection.Yet the king stayed in Media,which he thought safest to control by his presence,and sent an army against the false Bardiya.Verywisely he kept his Persian troops in Media and sent'the Median troops to Persia to avoid the contagiousinfluences of national sympathies.After two battlesfought in Persia the impostor was taken and executedin the summer of 517 B.C. ;but his followers in Ara¬chosia held out several months longer, and it was onlyin February, 516, that their leaders were at lastcaptured and put to death.But it seemed as thoughas fast as threads were fastened at one end theyravelled out at the other.While the king was inMedia and Persia, Babylon for the second timerevolted from him in favor of a man who pretendedthat he was Nebuchadrezzar the son of Nabonidus.This new rising, however, was easily quelled by oneof Dareios' generals, and the impostor was slain(January, 5 16 B.C.).The king meanwhile had already,in his indefatigable activity, gone to Egypt, wherehe put forth all his powers of conciliation to retainthe affections of that important part of the empire.Egyptian monuments bear arriple witness to his suc¬cess, and his wise rule obtained for him a place^mong the great national lawgiversof the Egyp-

DAREIOS I. : CIVIL WARS. 381tians. Yet it seems that all troubles were not evenyet at an end in Asia. The last column of theBehistun inscription, though injured beyond allhope of decipherment, allows a glimpse of a third,though short-lived, rising in Elam and a war in thefar east, against a Scythian people distingushed fromother tribes by the name "Saki of the pointedcaps." We can just make out that their chief,Sakunka, was taken prisoner, and probably put todeath. Fortunately for Dareios, Asia Minor, thePhoenician cities, and the Ionian Greeks had notbroken the peace through all these eventful years.The only attempt at rebeUion was made by thePersian Satrap at Sardis, who tried to set up an in¬dependent principality for himself by uniting Lydiaand Phrygia under his rule and refusing allegiance.This attempt is not mentioned in the great inscrip¬tion, probably because it was not put down by forceof arms, but by the assassination of the culprit, whowas put to death by his own guard in obedience toa written order from the king.12. It is the story of the almost superhumanstruggle of these first years of his reign that Dareiosconfided to the great rock at Bagistana. The sculp¬tured panel at the top of the inscription is a forcibleillustration of the narrative. (See ill. 39.) It rep¬resents the king, protected as usual by the hoveringemblem of Ahura-Mazda, and attended by two dig¬nitaries, one of whom is Gobryas, his father-in-law,in an impetuous attitude, one foot firmly planted onthe prostrate form of a man who stretches out hishands as though imploring, mercy, while a proces-

382 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.sion of prisoners approaches, tied together, neckand-neck,by one rope, and with hands bound behindtheir backs. These are the nine principal rebels andimpostors whom it took over six years and nineteenpitched battles to overcome. They were all cap¬tured alive. The last of the band is noticeable forhis pointed cap ; it is the Scythian Sakunka. Shortinscriptions placed above the head of each leave usno doubt about their identity. Attached to -theprostrate figure is the following declaration : " ThisMagian, Gaumata, lied; he spoke thus: 'I am Bar¬diya, the son of Kurush. I am the king.' " Abovethe first standing figure we read : " This Atrina lied ;he spoke thus : ' I am king of Susiana I ' " and so onfor every one.13. In the introduction to this matchless piece ofhistory, Dareios gives a list of the countries of which,by the grace of Ahura-Mazda, he had become king.There are twenty names. The number increases tothirty in the last of his inscriptions, that on histomb, and includes such remote provinces towardsthe four quarters of the worid as, in the east severaldistricts of India (Hindush), in the west "thelonians beyond the sea " (the people of the Greekislands, perhaps even of the Greek continent), the" Scythians beyond the sea " in the north (the peo¬ple of Southern Russizi), the Libyans and Kyreniansin the southwest. It stands to reason that many ofthese countries, situated on the extremest verge ofthe empire, even though visited and more or lessconquered by Dareios, and by him' incorporated inthe list of " Satrapies," 2. ^. provinces governed by

DAREIOS I. : CIVIL WARS. 383Satraps, did not really consider themselves his obedi¬ent subjects, scarcely his vassals ; but they had allfelt the great king's arm, and their name mustneeds grace the list of " the countries that belongedto him." In his tomb-inscription there is the fol¬lowing effective address to his successor or any onewho may behold the monument : " If thou thinkestthus ; ' how many were the lands which King Daraya¬vush ruled ?'look on this effigy : they bear mythrone, that thou mayest know them. [See ill. 39 and54.] Then shalt thou know that the Persian man'sspear reaches far, that the Persian man has foughtbattles far away from Persia."-o^^c^^^i©^B

XIV.DAREIOS I. SECOND PERIOD :YEARS OF PEACE.I. Six years had been absorbed by the civil wars;all the provinces needed rest, and Dareios adjournedthe plans of conquest which his ambitious spirit wasmaturing until the wounds of the state should behealed and the growing generation should havereached manhood, For seven years he devoted him¬self to works of peace, and showed a genius for ad¬ministration and statesmanship, suchas has neversince been surpassed and seldom equalled by thegreatest organizers and founders of states.His sys¬tem was based on the simplest principle : the great¬est possible prosperity of the subject, as conduciveto the greatest possible joower and wealth of the state,represented by a vigilant, active, and absolute cen¬tral government.The means, which he used, theinstitutions which he created in order to achievethis great result, are startlingly modern inspirit, andeven in the technical details of execution. In the firstplace he divided the empire into twenty provinces or"satrapies ; " for, in the words of an eminent modernhistorian,'* " the insurrections which hjid marred thebeginning of his reign had shown him how apt a bun-' Justi, " Geschichte des alten Persiens."384

DAREIOS I.: YEARS OF PEACE. 385die of countries with such utterly divergent nationali¬ties and interests is to fall apart, and that the hugeempire could be held together only by the uniformrule of a class of devoted officials, controlled and di¬rected in all their actions by the king and his coun¬cillors." Such a class was formed of the Satraps andtheir subordinate officers. The king appointed themfrom the highest nobility of Persia, whose youngsons were carefully educated for this special purposeunder the king's own eyes.The power entrusted tothe Satraps was very great, and an extraordinarylatitude of action was very wisely allowed to thoseof the remote provinces, who could at any momentbe called upon to face some unexpected emergency,when the delay of communication with the centralauthority could have dangerous and even fatal con¬sequences.Yet they were never suffered to forgetthe duty that bound them on one side to the sover¬eign whom they represented, and on the other to thepeople whose welfare was given into their care.Thus a Satrap of Egypt was put to death by orderof Dareios because he had presumed to coin moneyin his own name. The king, too, frequently under¬took tours of inspection through the empire ; aiiidwoe to the Satrap whose province was found in apoor condition, the people needy, oppressed, anddespoiled, the fields neglected, the plantations un-Icared for, the villages and buildings in bad repair,while favors and honors were liberally bestowed onthose who could show the master a prosperous landand contented population. As the language, religion,and national peculiarities of each country were scru-2C

386 MEHIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.pulously respected, the local customs and institutionsin no case interfered with, there was nothing to pre¬vent such a result but deliberate misrule or mis¬management onthe part of the Satraps and theirofficials, who were accordingly held responsible.2. Not that Dareios was at all neglectful of theinterests of the crown or over-indulgent in the mat¬ter of taxation. He was, on the contrary, very keenin all that concerned the income of the exchequerso much so, that so Herodotus tells us those whohad called Kyros "father" and Kambyses "mas¬ter," nicknamed Dareios " huckster," because " helooked to making a gain in every thing," and moreespecially because he introduced a system of regulartaxation, instead of the voluntary gifts which histwo predecessors had been content to accept fromthe provinces. Yet, in this, as in all things, he pro¬ceeded with real moderation, justice, and caution.He had the entire empire surveyed and every mileof ground appraised according to its capacities forproduction ; on this valuation he based an impar¬tially graded land-tax. It is ever to be regrettedthat these estimates perished, for in them we havelost the earliest known specimen of statistical work.It was probably from the original official documentsthat Herodotus drew his Hst of taxes, which is evi¬dently genuine.We gather from it that, over andabove ground-tax in gold, silver, or gold dust, mostcountries paid a special tribute in kind, accordingto their respective staple produceshorses, mules,sheep, grain, ivory, slaves, etc., besides tolls onsluices, and dues on mines, forests, and fishing.The

DAREIOS I.: YEARS OF PEACE. 387richest of all thp provinces was that made up ofAssyria and Babylonia, ^^it paid by far the largesfsum, more than even Egypt and Libya. The en¬tire income of the state is valued fit about 165 mil¬lions of doUars, equal to eight times that sum at thepresent rate of estimating the worth of money, yet, .at a rough calculation of the proportion between thepopulation and the taxation, the burden scarcelyamounted to one dollar per head.* Only Persiaproper, the royal province, was exempted from alltaxes and discharged its obligations to the head ofthe state in military and civil service. Voluntarygifts were of course expected and cheerfully offeredwhenever the king came among his countrymen andclanspeople, but as these were occasions of nationalrejoicing and the king on his side was liberal withpresents, the good offices were in a way mutual andhelped to maintain the old clan-bond firm andsacred. f3. All these reforms and innovations, however,fine as they were in theory, could have availed butlittle in practice without some means of easy andrapid communication between the central power andthe most outlying border-lands' of the empire.Without such means neither the Satraps nor thesubject nations could bemade sufficiently to feeltheir dependence on the royal authority ;nor, onJusti, "Geschichte des alten Persiens," p. 59. He says : "660million marks," which gives 165 million dollars, at four marks tothe dollar. Of course all such calculations are approximative.f An ancient custom demanded that the king should give a goldpieceto each woman of Pasargadw whenever he came to his old clancity.

388 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.the other hand, could they enjoy tlie feeling of secu¬rity which comes from the certainty of promptadvice and succor in emergencies. These considera¬tions, together with others of a purely militarynature the desirability of means for the rapid andunhindered movements of troops pointed to onegreat need : roads. Roads then Dareios proceededto construct, from end to end of his empire, withthe energy and thoroughness which he brought toall he undertook. One of these roads we can tracealong its entire course, from Susa to the Mediter¬ranean coastland. It did not by any means taketh'e straightest line, for it had several purposes toserve, not the least of which was to connect theprincipal cities of the west and northwest, those citieswhich' were capitals of provinces, held by Persiangovernors and garrisons. So the royal road fromSusa went to Arbela, thence to Nineveh, thence,touching the Tigris and crossing the Euphrates, toKomana in Cappadocia, from whence, steppingacross the Plalys by a handsome fortified bridge, itwent on through Phrygia to Sardis and the seacoast.Where it just skirts the border of Cilicia(before reaching Komana), it was protected by agarrisoned post in the shape of a gate-building. ' AUalong this literally royal highway relays were placedat regular intervals, consisting of station-houses(there were one hundred and eleven between Susaand Sardis), with saddled horses kept night and dayin readiness for any royal couriers who might comealong with despatches, orders, or messages from theking. It is astonishing how quickly news and orders

DAREIOS I. : YEARS OF PEACE. 389spread through the empire by this simple means.Dareios thus originated and instituted areal postalservice ;nothing was wanting to make it the exactmodel of our own mailaside, of course, from thegreater facilities. for rapid locomotionbut to allowthe public the use of the convenience, combining theserviceof the people and that of the state, withequal advantages to both.How 'long it was beforethis obvious and very natural step was taken we donot know. Other roads connected Susa, which,under Dareios I., became to all intents and purposesthe capital of the empire, with Babylon, Damascus,and Phoenicia, with Agbatana and Rhagai and theremote eastern provinces, branching off, near theeastern boundary, to India and to China.4. There is no doubt that Dareios, when he en¬dowed his empire with that prime promoter ofintercourse and civilization good roads, had theinterests of commerce as much in view as politicaland military considerations. He gave many otherproofs of his solicitude for the welfare of his sub¬jects in this respect, and two of the grandest concep¬tions of modern times arose in his great mind : thenecessity of uniform coinage, and the desirability ofuniting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, andthus opening a direct water-route to India, acountry to which, moreover, he was the first to sendan exploring expedition. He equipped for the pur¬pose a fleet, which, after descending the Indus andemerging from its mouths into the Indian Ocean,sailed round Arabia, entered the Red Sea by theStraits of Bal-el-Mandeb, and pursued its course

390 MEDIA^ BABYLON, AND PERSIA.northward until it came to anchor in the Bay ofSuez. Having thus tested and practically estab¬lished the possibility of a direct Indian route, Darei¬os proceeded to finish a canal, begun once on a timeby Ramses II., then continued centuries later byNecho I., for the purpose of uniting the Nile withthe Red Sea consequently, indirectly, the Mediter¬ranean with the Indian Ocean. Three granite steleshave been discovered at different points of the canal,bearing sculptures and a fourfold set of inscriptions,in Persian, Scythian, and Assyrian cuneiform, andin Egyptian hieroglyphics ; on one of the steles aprofile face could be made out, which appears to bean attempt at a real portrait of Dareios. This crea¬tion of three great statesmen and conquerors evi¬dently was premature, too much ahead of the timesto be generally appreciated, for the canal soon fellinto neglect, and though it was cleared of the sandthat choked it, and deepened some two hundredyears later, it was once more, and this time finally,forgotten and disused. It was reserved for our ownage to resume the work and carry it out in a newand probably indestructible form. In the introduc¬tion of a uniform gold and silver coinage Dareioswas more successful ; but the Persian empire was toovast, and its component provinces too many andvaried in race, culture, and customs to allow ofcarrying out the reform to its full extent, and thoughhe consistently tried to call in all the different localcoinages by receiving them for taxes, then weighingthem, smelting them down, and recoihing them inthe royal mint after the established standard, we do

DAREIOS I. : YEARS OF PEACE. 39 1not see that Babylon, Asia Minor, Phoenicia, orEgypt e'^er renounced their own monetary sta'ndards.5. Seven yearsfrom 51$ to 508 B.C.were de¬voted by Dareios to works of peace. This short periodsufficed him for all the innovations and reformswhich turned an empire loosely composed of discon¬nected and incongruous elements into a compactstate, the first model of modern monarchies. It wasalso during this interval that he began and in greatpart achieved the constructions which, being contin¬ued by his son and grandson, are the immortal gloryof the eariy Akhaemenian era. We have seen thatSusa was considered by foreigners and virtually wasthe capital of the empire, being fitted for the pur¬pose by its ancient royal associations and especiallyby its vicinity to such important centres, alwaysneeding supervision, as Babylon and Agbatana, aswell as to the' Syrian provinces and Asia Minor.Yet Susa was by no means exclusively honored bythe king's presence. It became customary for himto spend a portion of each year at the other twocapitals, from motives both of policy and health,Babylon offering the inducements of a deliciouswinter climate, while Agbatana, cool and secludedamidst the Zagros highlands, was an incomparableresort for the summer months. But the Persianmonarch could not neglect his own native state.He was bound, on the contrary, to endow it with aroyal residence that should equal, if not surpass inbeauty and magnificence, those of the older rivalcountries. So Dareios selected a favorable and ap-'propriate site in the finest, healthiest, and most fqr-

392 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.tile part of Persia proper, and set his artists andcraftsmen-many of them, no doubt, Greeks fromIoniato work, building him a palace and- an audiencehall worthy of his greatness. A city naturallyrose around the pillared marble dwelling of royaltyspecially Persian capital which we know onlyunder the name given to it by the Greeks, Persepohs," the City of the Persians." What the name wasinPersian, has never been known, but it is mostprobable that the Greek was a translation of it.This is the city which, together with its incompara¬ble citadel of palaces, perished in the conflagrationlit by Alexander's own hand, in a fit of drunkenfurya deed the eternal shame of which is scarcelybalanced by the conqueror's many great qualities orexcused by his extreme youth. The city must havein part survived or been rebuilt, for on its site therestood a Sassanian city, of the name of Istakhr. Ofthis, as well as of its predecessor, nothing remainsbut the name, and some formless rubbishfrag¬ments of masonry, of earthed up walls, of loosebrick, stone, ironlike that which alone marks theplace of the once flourishing city of Bagistana at thefoot of the historical rock of the same name, whereGreek and Sassanian inscriptions and sculptures butpoorly contrast with those of the Persian hero.6. The Chaldeo-Assyrian architectural principle ofbuilding palaces on elevated platforms was adoptedby the Persian inheritors of that ancient art ; but,different therein from the Assyrians, they knew howto save labor and improve their work by making useof natural advantages and local materials. Such were

DAREIOS I. . YEARS OF PEACE.393the considerations which determined the selection ofthe site fixed on for the new citadel. The mountains,ivhich for some distance follow the course of the Pul¬war (see p. 300), on both sides, suddenly open outtowards west and east near Istakhr, The easternspur falls off steeply and ends in a low, wide, andl|| llnilllllJiliJii. ' liilSK?aiy^ /;ii,|ii^iui;^>ti\l!iillll!|ilil\, -X,' / >!S1 itlllllll""if|tv!i"iiiii,60, masonry of great I'L.VrFOKM AT PERSEPOLIS.nearly flat rocky platform, in shape almost an irregu¬lar square, which invites the builder's choice. Com¬paratively little preliminary work was needed. Therugged and slightly sloping surface was easily con¬verted into a triple terrace, each stage rising abouttwenty feet above the preceding one a dispositionwhich gives to the constructions an almost theatri-

394 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.cally effective majesty, set off as they were by thedark background of the rock against which the ter¬races leaned, the almost perpendicular face of themountain now known as Mount Racilmed. Theouter edges of the platform were cut down straightto the ground, giving wall-surfaces ranging in heightfrom fifteen to forty feet, according to the unevennessof the soil above, which the first terrace rose.These surfaces were cased with blocks of marble fur¬nished by the abundant quarries of Mount Rachmed.The construction of this casing or marble masonry,the stairways which ascend to the first terracefrom the plain, and those that connect the threeterraces, are, in their way, no less a wonder, as anachievement of unaided human labor, than thepyramids of Egypt or the transport of the Assyrianwinged bulls and lions. The _single blocks of thecasing are from thirty to fifty feet in length (thedepth of an average house), not less than eight feethigh, and from four to six feet in thickness.Someare still longer ;and although no cement or mortarhas been used, such is the power of cohesion im¬parted by the mere tremendous weight of thesehuge masses, that even now the joints are scarcelyperceptible to the eye, and the iron cramps whichheld them together in places, and which havecrumbled away in the course of time, leavingonly a rusty mark, are proved to have been virtu¬ally a superfluous precaution ! (See ill. 60.) Thisis probably the most perfect existjng specimenof that most ancientkind of masonry which hasbeen called Cyclopean, and which may have been

DAREIOS I. : YEARS OF PEACE. . 395borrowed from some of the old Ionian city walls.Wherever this casing has been preserved, it has alsokept its admirable polish so perfect that the mar¬ble, to this day, reflects things like a mirror, wherethe surface has not been in some way injured or de¬faced by the barbarous and inane performances oftourists, who think they achieve immortality byscratching their worthless names on the most hal¬lowed master-works of antiquity.7. - As to the stairs, which always strike the travelleras the most imposing feature of these grandestof ruins, they are considered the most astonishingconstruction of the kind in "the worid. There areseveral of them, and they are disposed rather irregu¬larly, according to convenience. Even the princi¬pal stairway, ascending to the first terrace from thewest, is not placed quite in the middle. It is a dou¬ble flight, with a wide landing half-way up ; thereare over a hundred steps, each not quite four incheshigh, so wide that ten riders can commodiouslymount them on horseback abreast. The wholeis of marble, several steps being hewn out of oneblock. On the southern side there is another stair¬way, a single flight, somewhat steeperthirty steps,cut out of one block ! The stairs that lead fromone terrace to another are constructed on thesame magnificent scale, though somewhat less colos¬sal, and not quite so gently graded as the main stairs.When the visitor has recovered from the bewilderingimpressionhitherto produced by mere size and har¬mony of lines, his attention is claimed and enthralledby the profuse and exquisite ornanaentation which

S

PARElds I. : YEARS OF PEACE. 397covers every available space of the parapet andouterstair-walls. The natural triangular panelsformed by the first few steps are everywhere filledout with an artistic composition representing, in62. PARAPET OF STAIR, PERSEPOLIS.highly finished relief sculpture, that favorite groupof Oriental mythologythe fight of the Lion andBull, in a disposition most skilfully adapted to thelimited space, and followed, as soon as the wideningroom permits, by processions of guards, while the

398 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.sculptured inside' of the parapet or banisters givesthe illusion of a long file of soldiers, guests, and cour¬tiers ascending the stairs, one on every step.. (Seeill. 62.) The decorative effect is completed by A.ssyrianrosettes, and a peculiar carved pattern used inthe lintels of all the doors and windows, a distinctive63. CARVED LINTEL OF WINDOWS AND DOORS.(Persepolis.)feature of Akhaemenian architectural ornamentationfound also in the frieze of the palace at Firuz-abad(see ill. 52), and on the rock-sculptured fagade of theroyal tombs (see ill. 56).8. In the southern terrace-wall, Dareios placedfour large marble slabs, with the usual trilingual in¬scription, giving titles, a list of subject nations, and.the customary invocation : " May Ahura-Mazda pro^tect this land of Persia from invasion, dearth, and

400 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.lie!" {i. e., evil), the exact equivalent of the Chaldeanand Assyrian foundation cylinders. The Scythic in¬scription completes the Persian one by this state¬ment : " Says Darayavush the king : These greatpalaces have been built on this spot, where therewere no palaces before."A central hall, flanked bytwo sets of apartments, of four rooms each, with afront entrance composed of a door and four windowsopening on a porch supported by four columns, andforming at the same time the landing between thetwo flights of stairs,such is the simple and harmo¬nious arrangement which the ruins easily discloseeven in their present mutilated condition.The dis¬tribution of the doors and windows is one of perfectsymmetry, each entrance being in the middle of itswall, greatly differing from the Assyrian halls, wheredoorways were opened anywhere, near corners asoften as not, apparently at random.The size andshape of the apartments,too, are very differentlyproportioned, quite in accordance with our modernideas on the subject, showing that no difficulty hadto be encountered in roofing the Persian palaces.'*9. Behind this palace, the moderate proportions ofwhich show it to have been designed for the king'sown dwelling-place, and more to the east, occupyingvery nearly the centre of the entire platform, is thefamous Hall of the Hundred Columns, also built byDareios I. ; its size and peculiar arrangement suffi¬ciently enlighten us on its destination: two hundredand twenty-seven feet every way, with two entrancesand several windows in each wall, this magnificentbuilding contained only one vast hall, the roof of* See " Story of Chaldea," pp. 62-68,

14->;MSZ .39 E- ei of-' S6 "O _"o .5"a!oH2D

402 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.which, of mighty cedar and cypress beams, was upborneby one hundred columns:ten rows of tenof that peculiar and matchlessty fanciful typewhich is the most distinctive feature of Akhaemen¬ian architecture. Tall and slender, they restedlightly on their invertedflower-base, carrying theraftered ceiling j^roudly and with ease on thestrongbent necks of the animals which adornedtheir capitals. (See ills. 49-51). We have here thethrone and audience hall, the reception and ban¬queting hall of the great Dareios. If nothingelse, the sculptures in the eight doorways would as¬sure us of the fact.Here we see the king seated onhis throne, which is supported by rows of warriors,in the flowing Median garb or the tight-fitting Per.sian doublet and hose, or of figures personating sub¬ject nations. (See ill. 54-) Here he receives ambas¬sadors or visitors bringing presents.His figure islarger than nature, to elevate him above commonhumanity, and the attendant who stands behind thethrone with the fly-flapper wears the paitiddna, asthough officiating before the sacred fire (see p. 114),while the master of ceremonies holds his hand beforehis mouth, and all who approach the royal presencekeep their hands in their long sleeves in token ofpeaceful intentions.There again the king is pre¬sented to us as the earthly image of Ahura-Mazda,fulfilling his god-given mission of warring with andannihilating the evil creation of Angra-Mainyu, by ,stabbing an ugly Daeva in the shape of a monstrouscomposite animal, after the manner of the Chaldeanwicked demons*the "Ahrimanian Beast," as it* See " Story of Chaldea," ills. 54 and 55, 72, 73, and 74.

66. D"AREIOS FIGHTING A MONSTERA DAEVA OR "AHRIMANIANBEAST.'-(Persepolis, Hall of the Hundred Columns.)403.

404 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.has been called.At some of the entrances wingedbulls mount their watch, but slightly altered fromtheir Assyrian prototypes, (see ill. 48). It is easyto imagine the royal throne placed somewheretowards the end of the middle aisle, and the vasthall adorned and, if need be, partitioned by curtainsand hangings of precious stuffs, made priceless bycostly dyes and embroideries, and which, accordingas they were looped up or left to fall to the ground,concealed the royal majesty or allowed it to shineforth on the courtiers and guests.The I'ings andother appurtenances for regulating thehangingsmust have been somehow attached to the roofrafters,which, like the ceiling, were almost certainlygilt ;indeed, it is very likely that the inner surface ofthe walls may have been cased in gold plating also,after the manner of the old palaces at Agbatana; anumber of short metal tacks have been found, whichcould scarcely have served any purpose but that offastening such platings.10. Pillared halls and porticos being an essen¬tially Aryan form of architecture, there is no doubtthat when Dareios built his residence at Susa headded to it a reception hall similar to that at Per¬sepolis, and, from what the latter teaches us, we canhave no difficulty in picturing to ourselves the royalbanquet described in the Book of Esther, as givenat that capital,perhaps on the king's birthday, oratNew-Year, the two great occasions of feastingand merry-making at the Persian court,^by Xerxes,the son of Dareios, whom the Hebrews have named.A.hasiierus ;

67. DOCK OF PALACE OF DAREIOS, PERSEPOLIS.4O6

406 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA."No-HT it came to pass . . . that in those days, when the kingAhasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, -which was in Shushanthe palace, ... he made a feast unto all his pi-inces and servants ;the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and princes of the prov¬inces, being before him. "When he slibwed the riches of his gloriouskingdom, and the honor of his excellent majesty many days. .The king made a feast unto all the people that were present in Shu¬shan the palace ... in the court of the garden of the king'spalace; where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened withcords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble ;tlie beds \i. e., the couches or seats] were of "gold and silver upon apavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble." Andthey gave them, drink in vessels of gold ... and royal wine inabundance according to the slate of the king ..." (Book ofEsther, ch. I., 1-7).II. This same Xerxes, the son of Dareios, had apalace of his own at Persepolis, of comparativelysmall dimensions, but his principal constructionthere was a fine peristyle or waiting-hall which hebuilt at the head of the great western staircase.That such was its destination appears from thesculptures, as well as from the inscription, whichcalls it a "gate," and we can easily imagine somesuch apartment, where ambassadors, visitors, peti¬tioners, tribute-bringers, could await'the royal pleas¬ure, processions muster and form, etc., to be adesirable and even necessary addition to the throneandaudience-hall. Behind the " gate-building " cameanother pair of stairs, also constructed by Xerxes,and leading up to the second terrace, on which hehad erected, a little apart from his father's palace, anew reception-hall on a scale scarcely less magnificentthan that of Dareios. Seventeen of the seventy-twoblack marble columns are still standing, though in a

..,1)7,*'ip^'fj^^.' :. -^J- -^i5.,--=AS 5.':e:,*'--c5.68. PILLARS OF THE HALL OF XERXES,(Black Marble. Height from busc lo capital44 feet ! of capital 16 feet;circumference 16 feet ;53 flutings.)407

408 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.sadly mutilated condition, and bear witness to thesplendor of the building, which seems to have beenunenclosed by walls.The airiness of such an opencolonnade would be particularly suited for summeifestivals and receptions, and it may be that it wasthe need of a cooler audience-hall which caused thisone to be built.Ruins of palaces belonging to laterAkhaemenian kings,and of the same architecturaltype, are scattered somewhat irregularly on differentpoints of the platform, but none are either so exten¬sive or interesting asthose we have attempted todescribe.12. It is remarkable that nothing is left standingof the -masonry of the Persepolitan palaces but thedoorways and windows, with their posts and lintels,all of huge marble blocks, with no vestige of walls.These ruins thus present the exact counterpart ofthose of Assyrian palaces, where nothing is left butthe massive walls.Mr. Dieulafoy, guided by his ob¬servations and actual discoveries at Susa, as well asby examination of the rubbish at Persepolis, suggestsa more than plausible reconstruction of the missingmasonry :" I think," he says, " that the Akhaemenian palaces, with the ex¬ception of the columns, doors, windows, and stairs, were built inbrick cased with tiles ; that these tiles, colored in two tones, lightgray and a grayish ro.se-eolor,* were disposed in mosaic patterns ;that the high cornice above the dentieules of the entablature was or¬namented with bas-reliefs in blue tiles representing bulls f ;thatinto the composition of the outer casing of the walls there entered acertain amount of blue tile. . . .\* Something like what we call " crushed-strawberry."f Just as possibly lions or dogs. ,:|: Revue Archi'ologiijue, Juillet, 18S5.

4IO MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. 'In another place, however, Mr. Dieulafoy admitsnot having found many fragments of tiles at Per¬sepolis, whence he infers that the decoration inglazed tile-work was not any thing as p-.evalent thereas it was at Susa, where in fact all the ornamenta¬tion appears to have been in that material, probablyin imitation of Nebuchadrezzar's palace at Babylon.In fact the near and ever open quarries of Mt. Rach¬med were irresistibly suggestive of sculpture, so thesterner and more solidly magnificent As.syrian modeof decoration prevailed. Unlike the A.s.syriansculptures, however, the Persian ones do not dealwith historical subjects ; there are" no battles orsieges, no marches in distant lands, no royal hunts,or^ attempts at landscapes ; all that meets our eyebrings before us various moments of court ceremonialregulated by the strictest of etiquettes. Here we seethe king on his throne, there he meets us, seeminglywalking into his own palace, through its main door(see ill. ej) ; there again along the outer wall of thebroad stair-landing, his guards are ranged in effigy asthe living ones no doubt stood in the same place,day after day, presenting arms. (Sec ill. 65). Theonly alternarion from court pageantry is to religiouscompositions, and of these the number is limited toone or two subjects of a set, unchanging type. But ifPersian art was more restricted in its range of sub¬jects, it was freer than the Assyrian in its treatmentof the human figure. Sculptors and tile-paintershad undoubtedly seen Greek models and had someGreek training; very likely the work was directedby Greek artists, and the influence tells in the natu-

DAREIOS I. : YEARS OF PEACE. 4l'lral handling of the draperies and the disappearanceof those muscular exaggerations which are so offen¬sive in the Assyrian reproductions of the humanform.13. A survey of the PerseiDolitan monumentswould be incomplete without a mention of the threeroyal tombs cut in the rocky side of Mt. Rachmed,just behind the palaces of the living.They are inevery particular similar to those at Nakhshi-Rustem,making with these seven in all, which leaves onlytwo of the Akhaemenian kings unaccounted for.Here as there, the door in the sculptured front is asham one, not made to open, and it has been as yetimpossible to discover the real entrance to themostly capacious sepulchral chambers behind.Allwe know, from Greek historians, is that the bodieswere raised by means of windlasses to- be depositedin their place of rest. The openings which arefound at present have evidently been made by plun¬derers. All the tombs were found empty androbbed. As the tomb of Dareios I. is the only onethat has an inscription, the others could not beidentified.

XV.DAREIOS I. : THIRD PERIOD : FOREIGN WARS.I. That Dareios, after several years of peaceableand useful work, should have deliberately set out ona series of foreign wars, instead of staying at hometo enjoy and let his people enjoy their hard-earnedprosperity, really seems sheer perversity ; unless, ashas been suggested, " he felt that for a nation likethe Persians war and conquest were a necessity, inorder to preserve their energy and escape the dangerof becoming effeminate in the enjoyment of wealth."*His thoughts turned quite naturally to the west andnorth. All that was to be reached in Asia beingalready under the Persian domination, Europe wasnow to be brought under it, and of course there wasno lack of good reasons, commercial and political,for such a course. In the first place the Black Seawas to be converted into a Persian lake ; the nationson its eastern and southern shore obeyed the rule ofSusa and Persepolis, and those on the western andnorthern shoresthe Thracians and the Scythiansshouldclose the circle. Moreover, they were strong,independent, half-barbarous, and might become dan¬gerous neighbors. So Dareios determined, in avague sort of way, to go over and conquer Scythia.* Justi, " Geschichte des alten Persiens."412

DAREIOS I. : FOREIGN WARS. 413He knew the way was long ;so it was to Egypt orto Bactria; he knew there were someunusual ob¬stacles a sea arm and a great wild river: theyshould be bridged ;as for the country and the people,he knew nothing about them, indeed,but othershad submitted, why should not they?2. In this latter respect the Greeks had greatlythe advantage of him ; they did know a good dealabout the Scythians and their country. The doubleline of their colonies which gradually extended alongthe shores of Thracia and Asia Minor had reached,from river to river, the mouths of the great Thracianriver, the ISTER (Danube), and those of the numer¬ous Scythian (now Russian) ones, along the northernshore of the Black Sea. These rivers flowed throughvast and fertile lands, of which they brought theproducts straight into Greek hands, enlarging andenriching the Greek storehouses and commercialstations. One of these, Olbia, at the mouth of theHypanis (Bug), grew into a large and luxuriouscity by nothing but its corn-trade and its fisheries.From all accounts, it must have held very much theplace that Odessa now holds, from the same causesand in the' same conditions. As Southern Russianow supplies half the world with wheat, so it didthen, as far as the "world" went at the time, andthe entire export trade was centred in Olbia as itnow is in Odessa. The next great station wasByzantium, another Greek colony, situated on theBosporus, where Constantinople now stands. Theships that had taken their lading of corn at Olbiahad to carry them out through the Bosporus, so

414 , MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.Byzantium held then, as it does now, the key of theentire Black-Sea trade.Some seventy years afterthe time of Herodotus we find from conternporaryevidence that 600,000 bu.shels of Scythian corn wentto Athens alone every year, and when Philip ofMacedon, the father of Alexander, wished to starveAthens, he tried to gain possession of Byzantium.Itis probably owing to the importance which the peopleof the vast region answering to Southern Russia hadfor the Greeks, both of the colonies and at home,that they took some pains to explore it, and . theirknowledge of it, as imparted to us by Herodotus,who himself visited Olbia and a portion of the sur¬rounding country, is far less defective than on manymuch less remote places.Indeed, the descriptions ofHerodotus have become more and more the base ofall geographical and archaeological research on thesubject of ancient Russia, and where they bear onclimate and the outer features of the country, theyare still found amusingly correct.3. Nothing can be truer than the general remarkhe makes :" The country has no marvels except itsrivers, which are larger and more numerous thanthose of any other land.These and the vastness ofthe great plain are worthy of note. . . ." Thenagain :" The land is level, well-watered, and abound¬ing in pasture ;while the rivers which traverse it arealmost equal in number to the canals of Egypt.Ofthese I shall only mention the most famous and suchas are navigable to some distance from the sea."He proceeds to describe the five chief rivers of thatpart of the worldthe ISTER- (Danube), the Tyras

DAREIOS I. : FOREIGN WARS. 4I 5(Dniestr), the PIypanis (Bug), the Borysthenes(Dniepr), the Tana'is (Don), and a few more -vvhichit is not so easy to identify.The Danube he calls" of all the rivers with which we are acquainted themightiest," and admires its volume of water swelledby so many tributaries, each itself a great river.But of the Dniepr (Borythenes). he speaks with theenthusiasm which that most beautiful and bountifulof streams has never ceased to excite in travellers orits own country people :" Next to the Ister," he says, " it is the greatest of them all, andin my judgment it is the most productive river, not merely in Scythia,excepting only the Nile, with which no stream can possibly com¬pare. It has upon its banks the loveliest and most excellent pastur¬ages for cattle ; it contains abundance pf the most delicious fish ; itswater is most pleasant to the taste ; its stream is limpid, while allthe other rivers near it are muddy ; the richest harvests spring upalong its course, and, where the ground is not sown, the heaviestcrops of grass ; while salt forms in great plenty at the mouth with¬out human aid, and large fish are taken iii it of the sort called antaccei(sturgeon), without any prickly bones, and good for pickling."Every word of this applies now, even to that lasttouch about the sturgeon, which is to our day afavorite fish for pickling. He is not less correctwhen he speaks of the " Woodland " which stretchesby the lower course of the Dniepr, where the riverdivides into many arms, and which, though not to becompared in thickness with the forests of a morenorthern tract, presents a refreshing contrast to theabsolute barrenness of the surrounding steppes; orwhen he places the most fertile lands higher up alongthe course of the river, and describes them as beingsettled with a nation which he calls " Husbandmen,"

4l6MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.or "Agricultural Scythians,"'whose pursuit was farm¬ing, and who raised most of the corn that was soldat Olbia and exported.Beyond these he places adesert region or steppe-land, ranged over by nomadicScythians, and there, at no great distance from theriver, he tells us the torhbs of the Scythian kingswere situated. Modern research has proved thisparticular also to be correct, by discovering and ex¬ploring the largest of the innumerable barrows ormounds which there cover the plain, varying its flat¬ness with some undulation, and leading us to thinkthat those steppes served as a burying-ground, notto the kings alone, but to the nation at large.4. As he gets farther away from the sea-shore andthe Greek settlements, his descriptions naturally be¬come less distinct, less accurate, and at last growquite vague and fabulous in their details.But eventhen agood many traits remain which are easy torecognize or, at least, to interpret.So his accountof the climate, asfar as his personal observationgoes, is perfectly true to nature as well as amusingwith the quaintness of the impression produced ona Greek by the to him unfamiliar phenomenon of afrozen ground : -" The whole district whereof we have discoursed,." he says, " haswinters of exceeding rigor. '. . . The frost is so intense, thatwater poured upon the ground does not form mud, but if a fire belighted on it, mud is produced. The sea freezes . . .At thatseason the Scythians make warlike expeditions upon the ice. ....For winter there is scarcely any rain worth mentioning, while insummer it never gives over raining . . . and thunder comesonly in summer, when it is very heavy. , , , Horses bear thewinter well, cold 'as it is ...",

DAREIOS I.; FOREIGN WARS. 417Now there is not one word in this that does nottell. But when we come to such a passage as the fol¬lowing, it is not hard to say that observation hasgiven place to hearsay :"Above, to the northward of the farthest dwellers in Scythia, thecountry is said to be concealed from sight and made impassable byreason of the feathers which are shed abroad abundantly. The.earth and air are full of them, and this it is which prevents the eyefrom obtaining any view of the region."We are familiar through Grimm'.s nursery-taleswith the old German snow-myth, of Frau Hollaemptying her feather-beds, and so we are pleasedand amused to see our dear old friend's good com¬mon-sense giving him the clue to what seemed tohim at first only an absurd rumor :^ " "With respect to the feathers which are said by the Scythians tofill the air and to prevent persons from penetrating into the remoterparts of the continent, or even having any view of those regions,my opinion is, that in the countries above Seytliia it always snows,less, of course, in the summer, than in the winter time. Nowsnow when it falls looks like feathers, as every one is aware, whohas seen it come down close to him. These northern regions, there¬fore, are uninhabitable l)y reason of the severity of tlie winter ; andthe Scythians, witii their neighbors, call the snow-llakes feathers,because, I think, of the likeness which they bear lo litem."One can gather a good deal more valuable in¬formation through fanciful stories about cannibals,one-eyed men, and griffins. It is plain that the goldwhich the latter guard is that of the Oural mines,which certainly were known to the Greeks of Olbiaand the other Black Sea colonies ; and as certainlythere was an overiand route frequented by Greektraders;it is said that seven interpreters wereneeded for the journey, the way lying through na-2 E

4l8MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.tions speaking seven different languages. It is verypossible that the Greeks purposely kept these thingsrather dark, so as not to divulge the secret of theircommercial operations and the sources of theirgreatest profits.5. The country of which Herodotus gives us sodetailed and animated an account answers to thesouthern half of Russia. Of the nations which in¬habited or roamed those vast and in great part wildregions, he only gives us the names as far as theywere known to him, and in the Greek forms, whichmake foreign places and people so hard to identify;as to their manners and customs, he dismisses themmostly with this sweeping and uncomplimentary re¬mark : " The Euxine (Black), Sea, where Dareiosnow went to war, has nations dweUing around it,with the one exception of the Scythians, more un¬polished than those of any other region that weknow of." Accordingly he devotes to the Scythiansmany most interesting pages. In the first placehe notes that they really were named Skoloti,but the Greeks had got into the habit of call¬ing them Scythians. This agrees with what weknow from other sources, namely, that " Scythians "was not a race-name at all, but one promiscuouslyused for all remote, little known, especially nomadicpeoples of the north and northeast, denoting tribesas well of Turanian as of Indo-European stock ; tothe latter the Scythians of Russia are now uni¬versally admitted to have belonged. He dividesthe nations into the " Husbandmen," the only por¬tion of it that was settled and given to farming

DAREIOS I. : FOREIGN WARS. 4I9(see p. 414), the " Royal Scythians," including prob¬ably the royal and noble clans, and " the wanderingScythians, who neither plow nor sow," whose coun¬try, "the whole of which is quite bare of trees,"answers to the immense steppe region between theDniepr and the Don. These nomads, like manyTuranian tribes of our own day in Eastern Russiaand Central Asia, followed their herds and flocksfrom pasture to pasture, living in wagons drawn byoxen or tents carried on wagons and easily plantedinto the ground. This mode of life greatly impressedHerodotus, as implying the peculiar manner of war¬fare, the advantages of which the Persians had justfound out to their cost. Only he ascribes to pre¬meditated wisdom what was merely a natural out¬come of all the conditions of their existence."The Scythians," he says, "have in one respect, .and that thevery most important of all those that fall under man's control,shown themselves wiser than any nation upon the face of the earth.The one thing of which I speak is the contrivance by which theymake it impossible for the enemy who invades them to avoid de¬struction, while they themselves are entirely out of his reach, unlessit pleases them to engage with him. Having neither cities nor forts,and carrying their dwellings with them wherever they go ; accus¬tomed, moreover, one and all of them, to shoot from horseback,and living not by husbandry, but by their cattle, their wagons theonly houses that they possess, how can they fail of being uncon¬querable, and unassailable even ? "6. With the appearance and costume of these an¬cestors of the Russians we are familiar chieflyfrom the marvellously beautiful and finished worksof art found in a Scythian royal tomb at Kertch,ancient PantiCAP^ON (a colony of Miletus on thef - -

420 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.extreme eastern point of the Crimean peninsula),and consisting principally in vases of silver and elec¬tron.They are two or three hundred years later indate than the time we have arrived at, and of pureGreek workmanship ;but they most certainly, andall the more faithfully, are portrayed from nature ;the types they represent could not have changed inso short a time, since now, after a lapse of two thou¬sand years, we recognize in them those of our modernRussian peasantry, where it has not been modifiedbeyond recognition by contact with foreigners ornew-fangled imported fashions.The costume toothe belted kaftan with its border of fur and its em¬broideries, the trousers struck into the soft boot(probably felt), and, in some cases, the bandaged feetis worn, scarcely changed at all, in every Russianvillage.Their fondness for vapor-baths, also, thoughthey knew them only in a rudimentary and barbarousform, has descended to the present owners of the land.As for any others of their customs, they appear savageand crude in the extreme in Herodotus' narrative,though hardly more so than those of many Germanand other warlike tribes in the early part of the Mid¬dle Ages.It is curious that he asserts tliat theytook their vanquished enemies' scalps, and describesthe process exactly as the American Indians havealways practised it.But they must have surpassedeven these in fierceness, if it is true that they notonly hung the scalps to their bridle-rein, taking pridein these trophies in proportion to th.eirnumbers,but " made themselves cloaks by sewing a quantity'together.""Others," we are told, "flay the right

422 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSLA.arms of their enemies, and make of the skin whichis stripped off with the nails hanging to it " (as we doof lions' and tigers' skins), " a covering for theiiquivers."Such tilings are entirely foreign and, onewould think, repugnant to Greek culture, which isgenerally mild and temperate; yet Herodotus merelyobserves that "the skin of a man is thick and glossy,and would in whiteness surpass almost all otherhides I "Nor does he express any horror at theirway of using their enemies' skulls asdrinking-cups,at feasts, receptions of guests, and other solemn oc¬casions, after casing them on the outside withleather, and if rich enough lining the inside withgold.True, he remarks in one place, that " theircustoms are not such as he admires," a blamewhich probably is meant to cover these traits, andsome others far more objectionable, because imply¬ing cruelty to the living.Such were their humansacrifices and especially the funerals of their kings.Not only they put to death and burned with him atleast one of his wives and all his chief body-servantstogether, with his favorite horse or horses, but aftera year had elapsed, strangled fifty more youths fromamong his best attendants, and as many of the finesthorses, and disposed them around the mound, themen astride of the horses, in ghastly imitation of amounted guard of honor.Stakes passed throughthe bodies inaintain them in the required position.7. Such were the country and nation whichDareios, surely somewhat lightly, determined to in¬vade, never doubting but that he would, withoutany very uncommon difficulty, add it to his empire.

mmmj'y^ ^iSm ^"^^-i 1mmilt!liml[£&:.

424 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSrA.He would on the same occasion make sure of Thraciaand the Greek cities on both sides of the Bosporusand Hellespont, as well as of several Greek islands.It is said that one of his brothers entreated him todesist, and tried to make him realize the great diffi¬culties he was going to encounter. But his mindwas made up, and he sent messengers to all theGreek cities of Asia Minor, with orders to equip andman six hundred ships with three rows of oars{trteres), which were to sail up to the Bosporus andthere to build a bridge of ships across the straits,while he himself collected the contingents of theseveral Asiatic nations. His army numbered 700 000when he led it from Susa. He found all doneand the fleet assembled when he arrived at the Bos¬porus, which he immediately crossed, leaving thebridge in the charge of part of the fleet and theGreek cities along both sides on the Bosporusalthough they had but recently been conquered andannexed. He had no difficulty with the Thracians *they either submitted as he passed or had given" earth and water " to his envoys before. Only onenation, close to the Danube, attempted resistance,but was crushed by numbers. Besides, he did not govery far inland, 'but skirtedat a distancethesweep of the Black Sea, accompanied and supportedby the fleet. The trysting-place was the mouths ofthe Danube, which the ships entered, while the landarmy stopped, until the river was bridged, just behindthe Delta, i. e., the place where it separates intoseveral branches. The ships sent by "the Ioniancities were commanded by the respective tyrants of

DAREIOS I. : FOREIGN WARS. 425these cities, and to them Dareios entrusted thekeeping of the bridge during his absence, appointinga certain time during which they were to keep faith¬ful watch, and after which they might, if they didnot see him or his army, give him up for lost and re¬turn to their homes.8. From the moment that Dareios had crossedthe Danube and plunged into the land of Scythia,which began at once on the opposite bank, everything about his movements becomes uncertain. Thedetailed account of his marches and countermarchesin all possible directions, as given by Herodotus,lacks consistency, or rather common-sense, and caneasily be seen to come through the magnifyingmedium of Scythian legends, not improved by Greekrendering. What we can gather with certainty isthat the Scythians, after sending their families awayto distant pastures and to various neighbors for safe¬keeping, immediately engaged in their own peculiarmode of warfare that warfare which Herodotus sohighly admires (see p. 419), and which consisted indrawing the enemy farther and farther into the coun¬try, never actually fighting, but always harassing him,so as to wear and starve him out, without ever stak¬ing their fate on the issue of a battle. Detachments oftheir light infantryand in fact they were all lightinfantry began to' show themselves three days'march from the Danube. The ponderous Persianhost at once prepared for an engagement, and fol¬lowed, expecting that the enemies were showingthem the way to a convenient battle-ground. ThusDareios committed his one and fatal mistake : he al-

426 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.lowed himself to be decoyedaway from the sea¬shore,and consequently cut off from retreat andsupplies alike.It was long before he discovered thetrick, which was continually repeated, with unvariedsuccess, and when he did he was very far north, stillpursuing an elusive, unfindable foe.The army bythis time must have greatly suffered from want, notof water, but of provisions.For there were no cul¬tivated lands to be plundered, no cities to be sacked,and the flocks and herds were kept out of the way.At length the Persians found themselves in a land ofwoods and marshes, by the sources of some of thegreat rivers.Here Herodotus gives a little incidentwhich has a great look of genuineness about it :" This had gone on so long, and seemed so interminable, thatDareios at last sent a horseman to the Scythian king, with the fol¬lowing message :' Thou strange man, why dost thou keep on flyingbefore me, when there are two things thou mightest do so easily ?If thou deemest thyself able to resist my arms, cease thy wanderingsand come, let us engage in battle.Or if thou art conscious that mystrength is greater than thine, even so shouldst thou cease to runaway ; thou hast but to bring thy lord earth and water, and to comeat once to a conference.' To this message the Scythian king replied :This is my way, Persian. I never fear men or fly from them. Ihave not done so in times past, nor do I now fly from thee.Thereis nothing new or strange in wdiat I do :I only follow my commonmode of life in peaceful years. . . . If, however, you must needscome to blows with us speedily, look you now, there are our fathers'tombs :seek them out and attempt to meddle with them, and thenwe shall see whether or no we will fight with you.Till ye do this,be sure that we shall not join battle, unless it pleases us. . . .Earth and water I do not send ;but thou shalt soon receive moresuitable gifts.' "9. Still the Scythians ceased to draw the Persianson, and began, instead, to harass them with unex-

DAREIOS I. : FOREIGN WARS. 427pected attacks and cavalry night skirmishes.soon came the mysteriously promised gifts.And

MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.They had not now to complain of the Scythians'unwillingness to attack and fight, but were glad whenthey succeeded in keeping them off their track, orin deceiving them by little devices, such as keepingtheir tents pitched and their camp-fires burningwhile they stole away at dawn.10. Meanwhile, the disaster which they dreadedwas very near actually happening. Some Scythianshad had a parley with the Ionian princes and urgedthem to " break the bridge and hasten back to theirhomes, rejoicing that they were free, and thankingthe gods and the Scythians." The temptation wasgreat. Here was a chance at one stroke to restorethe liberties of all the Greek cities, and MiLTlADES,a young Athenian nobleman, who was the chief, orrather king, of the peninsula which skirts the Helles¬pont on the European side, and who had but latelysubmitted to the Persian rule, was all for followingthe Scythians' advice, on patriotic grounds, thinkingit a shame to miss such an opportunity of throwingoff a yoke which, mild as it might be, still was aform of bondage, of slavery. The Ionian princes, atthe war council which was held on the subject, wereready to join him, when the chief among them, HlS-TIAIOS, tyrant of Miletus, who enjoyed greater weightand influence from being the ruler of the first amongthe Ionian cities, reminded them that it would beentirely against their interests to break their trust." It is through Darius," he said, "that we enjoy ourthrones in our several states. If his power be over¬turned, I cannot continue lord of Miletus, nor yeof your cities. For there is not one of them which

DAREIOS I : FOREIGN WARS. 429will not prefer democracy to kingly rule." Thisargument was found so persuasive, that when thevotes were collected, Miltiades saw himself aloneof his opinion. It was therefore decided to hold thebridge for Dareios. Historians have praised orblamed this decision, according as they took thestandpoint of patriotism and love of liberty, or ofduty to a trust. It was, however, not this latter .feeling, noble under any circumstances, but purelyselfish considerations which influenced the Ionianprinces, proving, at all events, the wisdom of Kyros'policy in placing native tyrants over the cities, thenshowing them favor, honor, and trust. The newlyannexed cities on the Bosporus showed more patrioticzeal, and destroyed or damaged the bridge left in theircharge, so that Dareios, who was now so hotly pur¬sued by the Scythians, even after having recrossedthe Danube, that he could not shake them off onthe march through Thracia, down to the very sea¬shore, had to change his route, and cross the Helles¬pont on ships ;nor did he feel himself safe until hereached Sardis. Thus ended this extraordinary un¬dertaking, the only absolutely unreasonable act thatcan be charged to this great king. Yet his losseswere not so great as his recklessness deserved ; theydid not amount to more than one tenth of his army.And one advantage was gained : the subjection ofthe Greek colonies all along the Thracian shore, theHellespont, and the Bosporus. These latter had topay dearly for their act of rebellion, for Dareios, ashe crossed back to Asia, left a general behind, withanother tenth of his army, on purpose to punishthem and keep the others in obedience.

430 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.II. To the last period of Dareios' reign alsobelong the expeditions, at one end of the empire,into Penjab, and at the opposite end, west ofEgypt,, across the desert, into the territory ofKyrene and Barka. But neither of the expeditionswas conducted personally by the king ; neither werethey of much importance in the general history ofthe times, nor had any very notable results, exceptthat the near approach of a Persian army causedCarthage to enter into negotiations and buy herselfoff from a threatened invasion, by a tribute which shepaid regulariy for several years. 'Very different isthe interest which attaches to the movements of theGreek cities in Ionia and the adjoining province.For there a beginning had been made, a leaven hadbeen stirred, which was not to be quelled with theease that the Persian king had encountered till nowin his dealings with these portions of his empire.The spirit of independence shown by the northerncities had proved contagious after all, and revoltsand conspiracies against the foreign rule broke outhere and there. The centre and soul of these con¬spiracies was Miletus, whose love of liberty Histiaioshad well judged. The beautiful city was besieged,taken, and destroyed almost entirely, to the unut¬terable consternation of the entire Hellenic worid.Her citizens were deported to the Persian Gulf, heryouths and maidens taken for booty or sold forslaves, while the rebellious cities on the Hellespontwere burned down. The Persian rule, as it becameolder, was gradually changing its charactergrowingheavier and harsher, and, when opposed, drifting

432 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.ointo ordinary Oriental cruelty. Besides, Dareios hadreturned home bitterly mortified and irritated byhis bootless and senseless expedition into the wildsof Scythia, and gladly vented his irritation on thosewho displeased him. His great grudge was nowagainstthe Greeksnot those of Asia, but thoseacross the sea, the people of Hellas.He knew thatthey were one nation with these rebellious colonies,that they gave them support, encouragement, andsympathy, and determined to make an end of theentire obnoxious race.Little did he dream tliat themortification and losses of his Scythian campaignwere as nothing to those which he was to exj.erienceat the hands of this nestful of traders,seamen, farmers, and craftsmen ; that Miltiades, afterbeing overruled by his timid and selfish compeers onMara?h°on,^'^^ Danube, would yet satisfy his patriotic490 B.C. ambition, and, as the hero of Marathon, bea check on the overwhelming deluge from the East ;or that not only not he himself, but his children,'his children's children should ever be able to achievethe task which he now undertook, with all the cau¬tion and preparation of a wise general, indeed, butwith absolute faith in its quick and easy completion.But this glorious struggle and triumph of the fewlifted to superhuman heroism by an ennobling moralprinciple, as against the, merely brutal force of num¬bers, does not properiy belong any more to the history 'of the East, nor to that of remote antiquity :it isthe dawn of a new star, in the West, and of timeswhich, from their spirit, actors, and achievements,may almost be called modern. At the bottom of

DAREIOS I. . FOREIGN WARS. 433the new departure lies the differencebetween theidealsthe conception of the beauty and dignity ofpolitical and social lifeset up by the Oriental andWestern man : " A good master ! " is the prayerand ideal of the Asiatic. " No master ! Liberty atany price, asthe highest good in itself ! " is thatof the Greek. And the Greek wins the day, for. hisown time and for his own race, and for future tiAiesand races to come.2F

INDEX,Aahmes, see Amasis.Ab-Karkha, ancient Choaspes,river, 334.Achasans; an eariy Greek nation,, of Pelasgic stock, 202, 203.Aderbeidjan, see Atropatene.Adityas, a group of Aryan deities,41.Aeshma-Daeva, first of Daevas,gS ;see Asmodeus.Agamtunu, see Agbatana.Agbatana (modern Hamadan),capital of Media, 262 ;and citadel of, 263-266.palaceAhasuerus, Hebrew- name ofXerxes, 404.'Ahi, the Aryan Cloud-Serpent, 47.Ahriman, see Angra-Mainyu.Ahuna-Vairya (Parsi Honover),the most sacred and potent text,86; itspower over the fiends, 87.Ahura-Mazda, the supreme godof Eran, meaning of the name,61 ; originally a sky-god, 61, 62';his connection with Mithra, 62,63 ; the chief of the Amesha-Spentas, 75 ; their creator, 77.Airyana-Vaeja, ^ the primevalhome of the Aryas, 37.Aji-Dahaka (same as Aji), 88.Aji, the Fiend-Serpent, 80 ; seeAhi.Akhasmenes(Hakhamanish),prince of the Pasargada, thefounder of the Persian heredi¬tary monarchy, 279, 286.Akha:menidse, name of the dynastyfounded by Akhtemenes, 279 ;genealogical table of the, 287.Ako-mano,""Worst Mind," op¬posed to "Vohu-mano, 103.Alarodians, supplanted by Aryansin Urartu, 187.Alexander the Great of Mace¬don burns down Persepolis, 27. .Alborj, see Hara-Berezaiti.Allegory, asdifferent .from myth72.Alyattes, king of Lydia, aggran¬dizes Lydia, 219 ; his war withIMedia, 220 ;makes peace AvithKyaxares and marries his daugh¬ter to Kyaxares' son Astyages,221 ; the greatest of the Mermnadae,306.Amardians, orMardians, one ofthe nomadic Persian tribes,probably un-Aryan, 278.Amasis (Aahmes) dethronesHophra and usurpsof Egypt, 307 ;the crownhis liberal poli¬cy obnoxious to the Egyptians,347, 348 ; prepares against aPersian invasion under Kam¬byses, 348, 349.Amazons, origin of the fable, 198-201.Ameretat, see Haurvatat andAmeretat.Amesha-Spentas, the seven" Bountiful Immortals," 74-78 ; the Amshaspands or arch¬angels of the Parsis, 74.Ammon, temple of, ami expedi-435

436MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.tion sent against the Ammoni¬ans by Kambyses, 355.Am.shaspands,tas.see Amesha-Spen¬Amytis, or Amuhia, queen ofNebuchadrezzar of Babylon,221 ; the Hanging Gardensconstructed for, 234., daughter of Astyages ofMedia, probably married to Ky¬ros, 295.Anduan, see Anshan.Angra-Mainyu (Ahriman), theArch-Fiend, 88.Anquetil Duperron, French schol¬ar and traveller, his journey toIndia in search of Parsi manu¬scripts, 8-1 1 ; his success, 11,12 ; abused by William Jonesancl other scholars, ib.; his realvalue, 13.Anshan, also Anzan, Assan, andAnduan, a part of Elam, 278 ;occupied by the Persians, 280.Anzan, see Anshan.ApSm-Napdt,"Son of the AVaters,"a name of Lightning,_^ 45,Apanm-Napat, a80 ; see Apam-Napat.name of Atar.Apaosha, the Drought Fiend, hisconflict against Tishtrya, 82, 83.Apollo, the Greek Sun-god, hisshrine and oracle at Delphi,189, 210 ; at Miletus, 209.Apries, see Hophra.Aptya, see Trita.Arabs, their conquest and oppres¬sion of Persia, 2-4.Aramati, an Aryan deity, 76.Ardvi-Silra Andhita, the celestialspring, Eranian goddess, 65.Ardys, king of Lydia, son of Gy¬ges, 218.Ariaramnes (Ariyaramana onPersian monuments), son ofTe'ispes and king of Persia,280, 286.Ariyaramana, see Ariaramnes.Arsames (Arshama on Persianmonuments), son of Ariaramnesandking of Persia, 280, 286.Art, Persian, oldest relics of,Armenians, the Aryan settlers of ^sense, 100.Urartu, 187.Atar, Fire, connection with Ahu-atPasargadse, 303, 304 ; imitative,ib.; at Susa, 333-343 ;sepolis, 392-404 IAssyrian, 410.at Per¬compared toArtaxerxes, palace of, at Susa,334-Artemis, temple of, at Ephesus,,209.Aryas, primeval, 37 ;their natureworship,38-40 I their Sun-Myth, 43 ;their Storm-Myth,44 ; their ideas of sacrifice, 47Aryenis, daughter of Alyattes,married to Astyages, son of Ky¬axares, 221.Asha-"Vahishta, " Perfect Holi¬ness," one of the Amesha-Spen¬tas, 75.Ashavan, follower of Truth, 103.Asia Minor, never subdued byAssyria, 186, 187; subject to-Greek influences, 190, 202 ;,Greek colonies in, 207.Asinodeus, the Hebrew equivalentof Aeshma-Daeva, 157.Aspahe-ashtra, an instrument ofpunishment in the "Vendidad,158.Assan, see Anshan.Astyages (Ishtuvegu on cuneiformmonuments), son of Kyaxares,marries Aryenis, daughter ofAlyattes, king of Lydia, 221 ;succeeds his father in Media,224 ; his contemptible charac¬ter, 261 ;dethroned by Kyros,from cylinders, 289 ;rodotus, 2go ;ed by Kyros, 296.from He¬generously treat¬Asura, " Lord," by-word of Dy¬aus and Varuna, 40.Asura, Sanskrit equivalent ofAhsura, 61 ; used in an evil

INDEX.Ai;xa-Mazda, 62 ; his demands onmen, 79.Atesh-Gah, fire altar, 118, 152.Atharvan, one of the oldest Sans¬krit names for " Lightning," 42;the son of "Varuiia, 16 ;deriva¬tives, 16.Athravan, the Eranian priests inthe Avesta, 150, 152.Athwya, see Thraetaona.Atrina, the first impostor andusurper of Elam, under Dareios1., 374 ; captured and slain, 376.Atropatene, modern Aderbeidjan,144 ; the country of sacred fires,152.Avesta, the no-\v generally accept¬ed name for the sacred book ofthe Eranians, 20 ; its compo¬nent parts, 29-31.Avesta-u-Zend, proper name ofthe sacred book of the Erani¬ans, 20.Avestan Creed, or Profession ofFaith,III.Avestan, the now generallyadopted name for the languageof the Avesta, 20.Avil-Marduk (Evil-Merodachofthe Bible), son and successor ofNebuchadrezzar, 319.B.Babil, mound of ; uncertaintyabout, 233.Babylon, walls of, built by Nebu¬chadrezzar, 228-230 ;the greatbridge at, 231 ; the palace, 232 ;the hanging gardens, 234-23S ;temple of Bel at, 238-240 ;mits to Kyros, 327-328.Babylonian Empire ;the Assyrian spoils, 173.customs, 242-260.sub¬its share of-women, independent positionof, 255-257.Bactria, probably the country ofKing "Vishtaspa, Zarathushtra'sfriend, 26.Bagistana, see Behistiin.Bakhdhi, capital of ancient Bac¬tria, mentioned in the Avesta,26.Bakhtiyari mountains, 278.Barashnum, the great nine nights'purification, 136.Bardiya (called by the GreeksSmerdis), younger son of Kyrosthe Great, 345 ;assa.ssinated byorder of Kambyses, 350 ;sonated by an impostor, 357,per¬Baresma, bundle of sacred twigs,ri8 I 120 ; probably introducedby Turanian influences, 148, 149.Barsua, see Parsua.Behistun or Bisutun, ancient Bag¬istana ; rock of, 282 ; explora¬tion of, by Sir Henry C. Rawlin¬son, 284 ;sculpture and inscrip¬tions on the rock of, 285, 286,360, 361, 366, 381, 382.Bel-shar-uzzur, see Belshazzar.Belshazzar (Bel-shar-uzzur), son ofNabonidus, 322.Berlin, Mr. Geo., Assyriologist,252 and 254, notes.Bombay, city on the western coastof India, head-quarters of theParsis, 5, 6.Borsip, temple of Nebo at, 227.Borysthenes, modern Dniepr, aScythian river, described byHerodotus, 415.Bosporus, 413 IDareios crosses iton a bridge of ships, 424 ;cities on, rebel, 429.GreekBourchier, George, English travel¬ler and scholar, 8.Branchidce, the hereditary priestsof Apollo at Miletus, 209.Bug, Russian river, see Hypanis.Bunanitu, a Babylonian woman,often recurring in the Egibitablets, 251, 256, 259, note.Bundehesh, a Pehlevi sacred book,32.Burnouf, Eugene, French Oriental¬ist ;his work on the Zoroastrianbooks, 14, 15.Byzantium, a Greek colony on the

438MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.Bosporus, controls the trade ofthe Black. Sea, 413, 414.Cappadocia, a country of AsiaMinor; Hittite traces in iqR-201. ' ^Caria, acountry of Asia Minortroops from support Gyges, 18S.'Chmvat Bridge, 95, loS?,' ''^A°S^' 140 ; mentionedin the Gathas, 162, 165Chishpai'sh, see TeispesChoaspes, river of Susa; onlvwater drunk by Persian kings318. *= 'Cilicia, a country of Asia Minorsubmits to Cyrus, 317.Coining, invented by the Lydians212-217.Corpses, impurity of, 124 ; how todispose of, 124-128; pollutionciy, and purification, 135-1-37 -not to be carried by one m.an138; how to be treated inwinter, out of reach of DakhmasJ32, 142.Cylinder, containing proclamationD.Eaevas, demons, fiends, 64Daevayasnian, meaning of theword, 95.Dakhmas, the Zoroastrian ceme¬teries, 124-128 ; impurity of, andsculptures and inscriptions oitthe rock of Behistun, 282-287his account of Gaumata's usurpa-'tion 361 ; plots against the falseBardiya, 362 ; with six compan¬ions attacks and slays him, 364-365 ; his tolerance and respecttowards foreign religions, 368his tomb at Nakhshi-Rustem'369 ; himself a Mazdayasnian,369, 370 ; faces and fights downrebellion in all the provinces,372-381 , institutes the satrapies, 384-3S6 ; introducesregular taxation, 386, 3S7 construets roads, and founds thepostal system, 387-389 ; unitesthe Mediterranean with the Redfea. .389, 390 ; introduces uni¬formity of coinage, 390; foundsPersepolis, 391 ; his buildingsthere, 392-404 ; invades Scythia422-425 ; his unsuccessful cam¬paign,^ 425-429; prepares acampaign against Hellas, 432Dehtzsch, Professor Friedrich? onthe House of Egibi, 246Delphi, shrine and oracle of Apolloof m''k°''-.^^'"'^^' 327 ; annals at ; questioned bv Gyges, iSo01 JNabonidus, 289 328210. ' '^ ' y-Cyprus, isle of,occupied by Amasis.^'T^'-i'l^- *^'^-' '^'gl^^'*' peak ofthe Elburz range, 64, note ;the house of Egibi, 244Darayavush, see DareiosDniepr, see Borysthenes.Dareios I., son of Hystaspes,Dniestr, see Tyras. .king of Persia, successor ofDog, the sacred animal of theKambyses II. (Darayavush onAvesta, 139 ; the care and re¬tile Persian monuments) ; his Ispect due to it, 139-141.DE^Tnf P " ""der, 97, note.IJESTUR, Parsi high-priest, 13, jcDevas, gods of light in India, 99Dieulafoy, Mr. E., French ex¬plorer of Susa, 319, 333-343on the palaces at Persepolis'408-410. '^ 'Aji-inentonousness of pulling themdown, 131 ; original meaning ofDizful, a modern city near Susa333-the name, 370.Danube, see Ister. DareiosDjamaspa, a follower of Zarathusthtra,108.crosses it on a bridge of ships424. ^Djumdjuma, mound of,site of

INDEX.439Don, see Tana'is.Dorians, one of the Greek tribes ;their descent from Epirus andThessaly into lower Greece andthe Peloponnesus, 204-207.Dosabhai Framji Karaka, a mod¬ern Parsi writer, quoted, 4.Vruj, the Spirit of Lie, 106 ;Nasu, the corpse fiend, 93, 135 ;mode of purification from the,136.Drujvan, follower of falsehood,103.Dyd-us, the Aryan sky-god, 40.E.Eclipse, battle of the, 220.Egibi, banking house of, at Baby¬lon, 244-250 ; the name prob¬ably equivalent to the HebrewYakiib,- 246.Elam, see Susiana.Elburz, 64, note.Elvend, Mt., see Mt. Orontes.Ephesus, a Greek city in Asia Mi¬nor, temple of Artemis at, 208,209.Eranians, one of the great divi¬sions of the Aryan race in Asia,15 ; their migrations and hardstruggles with nature, 57-59 ;their character, their dualismand its origin, 59, 60 ; their lackof imagination, 65, 66.Ethiopians, conquered by Kam¬byses, 355.Evil-Merodach, see Avil-Marduk.Ezekiel, his prophecy about Tyre,183 ; about Egypt, 184.F.Fars or Farsistan, see Persis.Feridthi, Eranian hero-king, 97,note.Fire- Worshippers, name given tothe Parsis, a misnomer, i, 6.Frangrasyan, a Turanian ruffian,81.Frashaostra, a follower of Zara¬thushtra, 108.Fravartish (Phraortes), the impos¬tor and usurper of Media, underDareios I., 376 ; his capture andexecution, 380.Fravashis, Spirits of the Departed,71 ; supply their kindred withwater, 83,84, 154; transformedprobably under 'Turanian influ¬ence, 155 ; in the Pehlevi peri¬od, 156.G.Ganges, great river of India, 56.Gaokerena, or AVhite Haoma, thecelebrated Tree of Life, 65.Garmapada, fifth month of thePersian calendar = July-Au¬gust, 360.Gar6-nmdna, the Eranian Para-,dise, 63.Gdthas (Songs) oldest portion ofthe Avesta, 24 ; contain Zara¬thushtra's own teaching, 97.Gaumata, the Magian, an impos¬tor ; personates Bardiya, son ofKyros and usurps the crown,360 ; slain by Dareios and hissix companions, 365.Gebers, see Parsis.Gerrha, a Babylonian colony onthe Arabian coast, 241.Geush-Urvan, the guardian of cat¬tle, 100 ; his petition to Ahura-Mazda, loi.Gobryas, the Mede, a general ofKyros, occupies northern Baby¬lonia and Babylon, 328.father-in-law of Dareios I.,one of the seven -ivho slew Gau¬mata the Magian.Gomlz, purification by, 136.Gujerdt, or Guzerat, a peninsula ofIndia, 5.Guyard, Stanislas, French Assyri¬ologist, 146, note.Gyges (Gugu), founder of the Ly¬dian dynasty of the Mermnadse,story of, 188, 189 ; his gifts to

MEDIA, BABYLON AND PERSIA.the Delphic Apollo, 210 ;bly invented coining, 212.H.proba¬Hakhamanish, see Akh^menes.Halevy, French Semitist, 146,note.Halys, modern Kizil-Irmak, a riverof Asia Minor, 187.Hamadan, see Agbatana.Hanging gardens at Babylon, 234-238.Haoma, Vae sacrificial hquor, 30 ;" White " or , Gaokerena, 65,'118, 120.Hara-Berezaiti, the sacredtain of Eranian myth, 63.Haraiti-Bareza, seeaiti.moun¬Hara-Berez¬Hariez, Mgr. C. de, French trans¬lator of the Avesta, his views onTuranian influences in the Av¬esta, 147-156.Harpagos, a Median lord, helpsKyros to overthrowAstyages,290 ; part assigned to him in thefabulous legend of Kyros' child¬hood, 292-293 ; conquers theGreek cities of Asia Minor forKyros, 316.Harpies, Lycian death-goddesses,193.Haurvatat and Ameretat, "Healthand Immortality," the two lastAmesha-Spentas, 76.Hebrew affinities, in the Avesta,15&-158.Hellas, the national common nameof Greece, 202.Hellenes, national name of theGreeks, 204.Hellespont, crossed by Dareios inhis retreat from Scythia, 429.Hermos, a river in Lydia, 207,312.Herodotus, his description of Ba¬bylonian customs, 242-244.Hindus, one of the great divisionsof the Aryan race in Asia, 15.Histiaios, tyrant of Miletus, per¬suades the Ionian princes tokeep the bridge on the Danubefor Dareios, 428.Hittite, sanctuaries in Asia Minor,198-201.Hophra (Apries), king of Egypt,succeeds his father Necho II.,180 ; goes to the rescue of Jeru¬salem, but is routed and drivenback, 180, 181 ; dethroned byAmasis, 307.Hukairya, a peak of the Hara-Berezaiti, 65.Huzvaresh, the Semitic part of thePehlevi texts, 22.Hvareno, "Kingly Glory," 80, 81.Hypanis, modern Bug, a Scythianriver, 413 ; 415.Hystaspes (Greek form of "Vish¬taspa), father of Dareios I., 2S6 ;was heir presumptive but neverIba,reigned, 288.I.son^of Silla, a man namedin the Egibi tablets, 246.Iddina-Marduk, son^of Basha,man named in the Egibi tablets257,Imgur-Bel, inner wall of Babylon,230.India, its geographical conditionsand influence on the Aryan con¬querors, 56-57.Indo-Eranians, 37.Indj-a, the Aryan Thunder-god46.Indus, great river of India, 56.lonians, one of the old Greektribes, of Pelasgic stock, 204.Ishtuvegu, see Astyages.Istakhr, modern name of the siteof Persepolis, 392.Ister, modern Danube, 413, 414.J- *Jeconiah, see Jehoiachin.Jehoahaz, son and successor ofa/

INDEX. 441Josiah, submits to Necho, andis carried away captive, 171.Jehoiakim, another of Josiah'ssons, succeeds his brother Jeho¬ahaz, 172 ; submits to Nebu¬chadrezzar, 174 ; dies, 176.Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, succeedshis father Jehoiakim, as king ofJudah, and gives himself up toNebuchadrezzar, 176.Jeremiah, his preaching and im¬popularity, 175 ; urges submis¬sion toNebuchadrezzar,i77-iSo;endures persecution, 181.Jerusalem, taken by Nebuchadrez¬zar, 176 ; retaken and destroyed,181-183.Jews, carried into captivity byNebuchadrezzar, 1S3 ;call Ky¬ros, king of Persia, 326, 327 ;delivered from captivity by Ky¬ros, 330.Jones, William, English Oriental¬ist, abuses Anquetil Duperron,12 ; founder of Sanskrit studies,15-Josephus, the Jewish historian,233-Josiah, king of Judah, defeated, by Necho at Megiddo, 171.K.Kambujiya, see Kambyses.Kambyses (Kambujiya), son ofKyros theGreat,, at Babylon,330 ; viceroy of Babylon, 331 ;succeeds his father," 344 ; hischaracter, 344. 345 : preparesfor a campaign against Egypt,346-349 ; has his brother Bar¬diya assassinated, 349, 35° ;in¬vades Egypt and defeats Psam¬metik III. at Pelusion, 351 ;takes Memphis and subdues allEgypt, ib.; his moderate ruleand respect shown to Eg>'ptiancustoms and religion, 352-353 ;his reluctance to return to Persiaand increasing mental perturba¬tion, 354 ;sends an expeditionagainst the Ammonians andhimself leads one into Ethiopia,355 ; receives the news of ageneral revolt at hoir.e and theusurpation of the throne by animpostor, 357 ; confesses hiscrime and takes his own life,358.Kambyses L, son of Kyros I-,and king of Anshan, 280.Kandaules, king of Lydia, storyof, 188, l8g.Karkhemish, battle of, 172.Karpans, priests of hostile reli¬gions, 108.Kasr, mound of, the site of Nebu¬chadrezzar's palace, 232.Kassandane, Persian queen ofKyros the Great, 297.Kava 'Vishtaspa, see 'Vishtaspa.Kayster, a river in AsiaMinor,207.Kertch, ancient Fanticapseon,Scythian royal tomb at, 419.Khordeh Avesta (Lesser Avesta),a portion of the Avesta, 30 ;itstendency to a revival of polythe¬ism, 161, 162.Khrajstraghna, instrument tokill impure animals with, 118.Khrajstras, impure creatures, 114.Khshathra-Vairya," ExcellentSovereignty," one of the AmeshaSpentas, 75.Kirmanshah, modern town be¬tween Baghdad and Hamadan,2S2.Kizil-Irmas, see Halys.Komana, in Cappadocia, 201..Koresh, see Kyros.Kroisos, son of Alyattes of Lydia.262 ; succeeds his father, 307 ;meditates war against Kyros,ib.; consults Greek oracles,308 ; his gifts to Delphi. 309 Ideclares war to Kyros, 310 ; hisdefeat and capture, 310-312 ;his attempted self-sacrifice mis¬understood by the Greeks,313-316,

442MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.Kshatrapa, see Satrap.Kurash, see Kyros.Kurush, see Kyros.Kyaxares, king of Media, founderof the Median Empire, declaresw^ar against Lydia, 219 ;makespeace, and marries his son As¬tyages to Aryenis, daughter ofAlyattes of Lydia, 221 ; diesKyme, an Ionian city in AsiaMinor, 201, 20S.Kyros I., son of Teispes, andking of Anshan, 2S0.Kyros II., the Great (Kurush inPersian, Kurash in Assyrian,Koresh in Hebrew), king ofgenerous treatment of Kroisos,315 ; his first unsuccessful at¬tempt against Babylon, 323 ;called by the priesthood ofBabylon, 325 ; enters Babylon,. 328 ; delivers the Jews, 330 ;honors "V'ahveh and Marduk, yetremains a Mazdayasnian him¬self, 330-331 ; unce'rt£iinty abouthis death, 331 ; his noble char¬acter, 332 ; his race undoubted_ly and purely Aryan, 332, noteKyros, river, see Pulwar.L.Labashi-Marduk, son and suc¬cessor of Nergal-shar-uzzur, 320.Lacedcemon, see Sparta.Languages, of ancient Persia(Avestan and Pehlevi), 20-22 ;of Asia Minor, iq6 :of Susianaor Elam, 278 ; of the un-AryanPersian inscriptions, 286.Lenormant, Franjois, on the in¬vention of coining, on the in¬vention of cheques and drafts248-250. 'Lycia, a country of Asia Minor,rock tombs in, igo-ig3 ,' sub¬mits to Kyros, 317.Lydia, its last royal dynasty, theMermnadEE, 188, 189 ; tombs in190.Lyon, Dr. D. G., assyriologist, on"Tablets of Precedents," 2S';note.Anshan and Persia, proclama¬Ma, a Hittite nature-goddess, hertion of, 282; his conquest oftemple at Komana, 201.Media, on the cylinders, 289 ;Masander, a river in Asia Minorfrom Herodotus. 290 ; fabulous207.legend of his birth and youth,291-293 ; subdues Eastern Eran,Magi, the Median priests, 14S ; aseparate Median tribe, 268 ;296, 297 ; favors the Persians,probably originally un-Aryan,'297 ; and next to them the269, 270 ; substituted to theMedes, 29S ; builds at Pasar¬gada;, 300 ; conquers Lydia andAthravans, 271 ; their politi¬captures Kroisos, 310-312 ; hiscal independence and power272.M.Mandane, supposed daughter ofAstyages, and mother of Kyrosthe Great, 291.Mantra (sacred text, Sanskrit), itspower, 49.Manthras, or sacredtexts, whenrecited, 30 ; used for conjuring,49 ; their efiicacy, 86 ; againstsickness, 138.Maraphians, one of the threenoblest Persian tribes, 278Marathon, battle of, 432.Maspii, one of the three noblestPersian tribes, 278.Massagette, a barbarous people bythe Sea of Aral, 331.Mazda, see Ahura-Mazda.Mazdayasnians, meaning of theword, 95.Mazdeism, the religion of Zoroas¬ter, essence of, 102-104.Medes (iMadai), under Assyrian

INDEX. 443kings, 144 ; their origin and ele¬ments as a nation, 267, 268.Median empire,its constitution,share of the Assyrian spoils,r73-tribes, 267, 268.wall, built by Nebuchad¬rezzar, 226.Megiddo, battle of, 171.Mermnada;, the last native dynastyof Lydian kings, founded byGyges, 188, i8g ; fall of the, 312.Migration of the Eranians, fromeast to west, 57, 143 ; bringsthem under Turanian influences,144, ff.Miletus, the queen of Ionian citiesin Asia Minor ; temple of DidymreanApollo at, 209 ; makesterms with Lydia, 218 ; withKyros the Great, 317 ; revoltsagainst Dareios, is besieged,taken, and sacked, 430.Miltiades, the Athenian, proposesto destroy the bridge on theDanube, 428 ; is overruled byHistiaios and the Ionian princes,429 ; wins the battle of Mara¬thon, 432.Mithra, the Eranian light-god,his connection with Ahura-Mazda, 62, 63 ; his mythicalfeatures, 67-69 ;transformation, 69-73.his allegoricalMitra, the Aryan light-god, 41.Mitra-'Varuna, the Aryan duad ordivine pair, 41.Murghab, present name of the siteof Pasargadce, 280, 300.Myazda, offering at sacrifices, 120.Myrina, a Greek city in AsiaMinor, 208.Mysia, a country of Asia Minor,196 ; annexed to Lydia, 217.N.Nabonidus (Nabu-nahid), last kingof Babylon, his accession, 320 ;his fondness for the ancientChaldean gods and sanctuaries.321 ; neglects Marduk andNebo, and makes enemies ofthe Babylonian priesthood, 321,322 ; betrayed by them, 325 ;delivered into the hands of Ky¬ros, 328 ; his death, ib. and 329.Nabopolassar, king of Babylon,dies, 172.Nabu-naliid, see Nabonidus.Nadintabira, the impostor and usur¬per of Babylon under Dareios I.,374 ; captured and slain, 376.Nakhshi-Rustem, rock of, contain¬ing tombs of Akhcemenian kings,369 ; sepulchre of Dareios at,369. 370.Nasu, the corpse fiend, 93 ;exor¬cised by the look of dogs, 93,94. 135 ; purification from, 136 ;probably of Turanian origin,150.Ndvsdri, a city on the westerncoast of India, gives refuge tothe fugitive Parsis, 5.Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon,defeats Necho of Egypt at Kar¬khemish, 172 ; succeeds hisfather Nabopolassar, 172 ; hiscampaign in Syria, 174-177 ;besieges and takes Jerusalem,176 ; appoints Zedekiah king ofJudah, 177 ; retakes and de¬stroys Jerusalem, 182, 183 ; be¬sieges Tyre, 184 ; makes peacebetween Lydia and Media, 221 ;his works of defence and embel¬lishment in Babylonia and inBabylon itself, 225-241 ;deathof, 3?9-Necho II. succeeds his fatherPsammetik,and plans a cam¬paign into Asia, 170 ; his war inSyria, ib. ; defeats Josiah ofJudah at Megiddo, 171 ; is de¬feated by Nebuchadrezzar atKarkhemish, 172 ; dies, 180.Nehavend, battle of, won by theArabs over the Persians, 2.Nergal-shar-uzzur(Neriglissar),successor of Avil-Marduk, 320.

444 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.Neriglissar, see Nergal-shar-uzzur.Nimitti-Bel, outer wall of Baby¬lon, 228.Nitetis, the Egyptian princess,story of, 347.Nitokris, queen of Babylon, 240mother of Nabonidus, 320 ; herdeath and mourning for 'her,323 ; said to have chosen hersepulchre above one of the gatesof Babylon, 372.Olbia,O.the Greek colony at themouth of the Hypanis, 413.Orontes, river, in Hamath, iSimountain, by Agbatana(modern Hamadan), 263-264.Ouralo-Altaic, meaning of thename, 278, note.Ouranos, Greek equivalent of theSanskrit "Varuna, 40.Palaces, of Nebuchadrezzar atBabylon, 232, 233; at Agbatana,263-266; at Susa, 333-343;at Persepolis, 392-411.Panticap^on, see Kertch.Parodarsh (the cock), the sacredbird of the Avesta, 141.Parsis, their small numbers, r ;their importance, ib.; theirmonotheism, 2; their settle¬ments in India, 5 ;their rever¬ence for fire, 6 ; their belief in aspiritual hierarchy, 7 ; professthemselves followers of Zoroas¬ter, ib.Parsua, or Barsua, a nation occur¬ring in the Assyrian inscriptions274.Pasargada, the noblest of Persiantribes, 278.the clan city of the Pasar¬gadae, 279; ruins of Kyros,great palace at, 300 ; Kyros'tomb at, 300-303.Pazend, Eranian portion of Peh¬levi texts, 22.^^}}^^h>h ^^"g"age of Persia inthe Middle Ages, 20-22Pelasgi the old Aryan stock from"^vhIch the various Greek na¬tions descended, 204.Pelasgic, Aryan type of language.Penalties, for performing purifica¬tion without being an Athravan,116, 117 ; for burying a corpse,133 ; for carrying a corpse alone,137; for ill-using or killingdogs, 140; extravagant, forsmall offences, 158-160.Penjdb, a part of Northern India5-first country in India oc¬cupied by the Aryas, 38.Persepolis, capital of the Persiankings, burned down by Alexanaei"..27,342, 369. 392 ; Akhae¬menian constructions at, 392-I 411 ; great platform, 393, 394stairs, 395-398; paLace ofDareios, 400 ; Hall of the Hun¬dred Columns, 400-404 peri¬style or gate-hall of Xerxes,406 ; audience hall of Xerxes,406-408 ; royal tombs, 411.Persian tribes, 277-279.Persians, an Eranian nation kin¬dred to the Medes, and origi¬nally vassal to them, 273; theirhardy nature, 276; a mixed peo¬ple, as a nation, 277-279.Persis,_ classical name of ancientPersia, modern Fars or Farsis¬tan, 273 ; its climate and pro¬ductions, 275.Phanes, commander of Amasis'Greek body-guard, deserts toKambyses, 349.Pheidon of Argos, supposed bysome to have invented coining217 note.Phraortes, see Fravartish.Phrygia, a country of Asia Minor,inscriptions and language of,

INDEX. 445196 ; king of, sends gifts to theS. .Delphic Apollo, 210.Physicians, and surgeons, in theAvesta, 138, 139.Pitris, "Fathers," Aryan spiritsof the departed, 53 ; honorsrendered them, 54.Pognon, French Assyriologist,146 note.Pollution, inflicted by the presenceof a corpse, 132 ;on the earthby burying a corpse, 133 ; bythe Druj Nasu, 135 ;a corpse alone, 137.by carr)'-Profession of faith, see AvestanCreed.Psammenit, see Psammetik III.Psammetik III. (Greek Psam¬menit), son of Amasis, succeedshim, 350 ; loses the battle ofPelusion, 351 ; captured atMemphis, ib.PAitika, sea, where pollutedwaters are purified before re¬turning to the sea 'Vouru-Kasha.Pulwar, river, ancient Kyros,flows through the valley ofMurghab, 300.Purification, ^to be performed bynone but Athravans, 116, 117;prescriptions for, in the "Vendi¬dad, 134 ; by gomez, 136.R.Rachmed, mount, at Persepolis,394 ; royal tombs in, 411.Rages, a city in Media, seeRhagae.Rashnu, "uprightness, justice,"7^ : ^59- .,.RhagEE (Rages in the Book ofTobit), a great city in Media,157; the seat of the "Zarathushtrotema,"272.Riblah, on the Orontes, a city inHamath, 181.Rig- Veda, the oldest of the Hin¬dus' sacred books, 38.Sacrifice., demanded by gods, 84 ;its effieacy, 85.Sadyattes, Icing of Lydia, his waragainst Miletus, 218.Sagdid ceremony, meaning anddescription of, 93, 94 ; 136 ; 142.Sakunka, rebel chief of the Sakse,taken prisoner, 381.Sandon, the name of the Sun-godin Lydia, 209.Sanskrit, language and studies, 15.Sardis, capital of Lydia, captureof, by Kyros, 312 ; revolt at,317-Sassanian dynasty, 2 ; restoresthe ancient texts, 28.Satrap, Persian "Kshatrapa,"meaning of the word, 317, note;position and duties of, 384-386.Scythia (south of Russia), knownto the Greeks, 413 ;its rivers,414, 415 ; its climate, 416 ; itspeople, 418 ;their mode of life,419 ; their appearance, 420 ;their customs, 420-422.Semiramis, building of Babylonattributed to, 240.Shapfir II, king, proclaims theAvestan law, 28.Shushan, see Susa.Sippar, reservoir at, dug by orderof Nebuchadrezzar, 225.Skoloti, real name of theEuro¬pean Scythians, according t 1Herodotus, 418.Smerdis, see Bardiya.Smyrna, a Greek city in Lydia.201 ; 2o8.Soma, god and plant, 48.Spaka, supposed nurse of Kyrosthe Great, 292 ; mythical sig¬nificancy of the name, 294.Sparta, one of the two chief citiesof Hellas, also Lacedsemon, 312.Spartans, make alliance withKroisos, 308 ; are too late tohelp him, 312 ;Sardis, 316.defy Kyros at

446 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.-Spenta-Armaiti, " Holy Piety,"one of the Amesha-Spentas, 75.Spenta-Mainyu, one of the namesson-in-law of Astyages, kingof Media, 296.Sraosha, "Obedience to the Law,"71 ; the chief of "i'azatas, 78107.^axares, 221.T.Tablets of precedents, the base ofBabylonian law transactions.,252-256.Taera, principal peak of the HaraBerezaiti, 64.Tanais, modern Don, ariver, 415.ScythianTanaoxares, Tanyoxarkes, namesgiven to Bardiya, son of Kyrosthe Great, 345, note.Tei'spes (Chishpaish on cuneiformmonuments) son of Akhaemenes,the probable annexer of Anfehan ,280, 286, 287.Teredon or Tiridotis, a city buil):by Nebuchadrezzar at the mouthof the Euphrates, 241.of Ahura-Mazda, its meaninsrTeva, probably a quarter of Baby¬74. ^'lon, 322, note.Spiegel, Dr. Friedrich, EranianThales of Miletus, a wise manscholar, German translator ofamong the Greeks, predicts anthe Avesta, 157, note.eclipse, 220.Spitama, name of Zarathushtra'sThermodon, a river in Asia Minor,clan, 25.201.Thracia, submits to Dareios, 424.Thraetadna, son of Athwya,Eranian equivalent of Sanskrit'Trita, son of Aptya, 97, note.Tigranes I., king of Armenia, saidSraosho-charana, an unknown in¬to have been Astyages' brotherin-law,strument of punishment in the"Vendidad, 158.296 ;ib.friendly to Kyros,Suleiman range of mountains, 274.Surdt, a city on the western coastTiridotis, see Teredon.Tishtrya (the star Sirius) the chiefof India, gives refuge to the fu¬of all the stars, 81 ; the giver ofgitive Parsis, 5.rain, 82 ; his conflict againstSusa (Shushan) one of the capitalsApaosha, the drought fiend,of the new Persian empire, 318 ;82, 8,3.Akhaemenian palace at, exploredTombs, Lycian rock-tombs, 190-by Mr. Dieulafoy, 318, 333-193 ; royal Akhaemenian, at- 343-Nakhshi-Rustem, 369, 370 ; atSusiana, ancient Elam, 27S ; un¬Persepolis, 411.certain when annexed to PersiaTrita, son of Aptya, Sanskrit318.equivalent of Eranian Thraeta¬Syennesis, king of Cilicia, helpsona, son of Athwya, 97, note.in reconciling Alyattes and Ky¬Turanian influences on the Erani¬ans' religion, 144-156.Turanians, natural enemies ofEranians, 97, 98.Tyras, modern Dniestr, a Scythianriver, 414.Tyre, siege of, by Nebuchadrezzar,1S3. 184.V."Vara, Yim,a's garden,^gi, 92."Varuna, the Aryan sky-god, 40.Vayu, the Aryan wind-god, 46."Veda, sacred books of the Hindus,Vendiddd, a portion of the Avesta ;meaning of the word and con¬tents, 30 ; its character, 113(1. ;not strictly followed by the Per-

INDEX. 447sians under the Akhaemenians,37°-- Vendiddd- Sadeh, the Parsi liturg)',8, 31.Verethraghna (victory), 71, 73 ;Eranian form of ""Vritrahan,"76."Vezaresha, the daeva who takesthe souls of the wicked, 164."Vishtaspa, or Kava "Vishtaspa,King Zarathushtra's friend anddisciple, 26, 102.(in Greek, Hystaspes) fatherof King Dareios I., (see Hys¬taspes.)Vispered, a part of the Avesta,contents, 30."Vohu-Mano," Good-Mind," oneof the Amesha-Spentas, 75.Vouru-Kasha, sea, mythical, 64.Vritra, the Aryan cloud-fiend,46.Vritrahan, " Killer of Vritra,the proudest title of Indra, 46 ;found in the Eranian " "Vere¬thraghna," 76.W.West, Dr. E. W., a Pehlevischolar.Women, Babylonian, independentposition of, 255-257.X.Xerxes, son of Dareios I., his con¬structions at Persepolis, 404-408.. Y.Yakub, said to be the Hebrewequivalent of Egibi, 246.Yama, the Aryan death-god, 52 ;first man, 53 ; king of the dead,ib ; ilis dogs, ib.Yasna, a part of the Avesta, con¬tents, 30.Yazatas (good spirits), 62, 66 ;Yzeds of the Parsis, 78 ; allcreated by Ahura-Mazda, 161.Yeshts, a part of the Avesta ; con¬tents and character, 31.Yezdegerd III., last Sassanianking, 3.Yima, his story, 89-93 ; his con¬nection with the Hindu Yama,89 ; his fall, 92.Yzeds, see Yazatas.Z.Zaothra, holy water at sacrifices,120.Zarathushtra, known to classicantiquity, 2, 7, 23 ; was he areal person ? 23 ; his questiona¬ble date, ib. ; his personality asshown in the Gathas, 24-27 ;was a reformer, 36 ; his missionand his work, 96." Zarathushtrotema," the head ofthe Magi, 272.Zedekiah, a son of Jehoiakin andbrother of Jeconiah, appointedby Nebuchadrezzar king of Judea,177 ; rebels against him,180 ; barbarous treatment andcaptivity of, 182.Zend, meaning of the word, 20.Zend-Avesta, sacred book of theEranians, 19 ; an incorrectname, 20.Zohak, a wicked usurper, a formof the mythical Aji-Dahaka, 93.Zoroaster, see Zarathushtra.Zoroastrians, i. e., followers ofZoroaster, persecuted by theArab conquerors, 3, 4 ; theirwanderings and landing in Gu¬jerat, 4, 5.

ttlfee (3re$l&ai»,Pttg0,I;NWIK, SSOTHERS,' CHILWOETK AND LONDON.