Lives of Alcyone

origin. Centuries before it would seem that some of the primitive
Aryans, perhaps offshoots from the original first sub-race of our fifth
Root-Race, had worshipped or reverenced two classes or types of
entities, which they called respectively Daevas and Asuras. The
Asuras were clearly at first regarded as higher and more spiritual,
and Varuna, who was their head, as the principal of all their deities.
The tribes of the great migrations which turned eastward into India
gradually changed or modified these ideas, and they began to apply
the title Daeva to all kings of non physical entities, but on the whole
in a good sense, while they thought of the Asuras as turbulent and
on the whole evil. They gradually allowed Varuna to sink into the
background, and substituted Indra for him.
The tribe which, after centuries of seclusion in the Susamir
Valley descended and occupied Persia, on the contrary preserved
their reverence for Varuna and the Asura, and they presently began
to think of the Daevas as evil spirits, or at any rate as comparatively
low and materail. It would seem that the lower side of the Daevas
became emphasised until they were mere personifications of the
powers of nature, and were worshipped with animal sacrifices.
Unquestionably in Persia at this period with which we are now
dealing, the Asura-worship had amalgamated with what remained of
the teaching given by the original Zoroaster thousands of years
before, and included far more spiritual conceptions than did the
creed of the Daeva worshippers. The latter were at this time
represented in Persia chiefly by the nomad tribes who killed and ate
cattle, while the Asura worshippers were mostly settled
agriculturists, who regarded the cow as a sacred animal, and its
destruction as a serious crime. They themselves seem to have