Lives of Alcyone

FORTY-SEVENTH LIFE 233
previously supposed to bear away the palm for length and
unpronounceability.) He was the son of a man of high family, named
Arsati (Hector), who was the brother of Purushaspa (Siwa).
His mother (Bee) died while he was still young, so that he was
chiefly in the care of his aunt Dughda (Vajra), who was the wife of
Purushaspa, and had much to do with his upbringing. His chief
companion was her son Zarathushtra, who was two years older, and
Alcyone admired him immensely. Both families seem to have been
wealthy—that of Arasti perhaps more so. They possessed wide
lands, which were mostly devoted to agriculture. Religion was a
strong factor in the lives of both of families. We may say that
Dugdha and Zarathushtra were the principal influences in modelling
the boy’ s life, adding thereto their tutor Barzinkarus(Uranus), a
man of strong character and wide learning.
The local king was named Duransaran (Aurora), but the King
of all Bactria was Loharsp. The prime minister of the latter was a
man named Jamaspa (Castor), who with his brother Phrashaostra
(Aldeb) exercised great influence in the country. They were intimate
friends of the brothers Siwa and Hector—indeed they all belonged to
the same great family or clan.
The condition of affairs in the country was rather peculiar. A
large part of it seems to have been only half-settled; there as a
certain number of agriculturalists, but also large tracts were still
given over to nomadic tribes. The interests of these two sections of
the community were often opposed, so that as time went on they
tended more and more to separate.
It seems that even their religious beliefs differed considerably.
Both had developed curiously in opposite directions from a common