BABYLON AND PERSIA

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.