BABYLON AND PERSIA

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