BABYLON AND PERSIA

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-