BABYLON AND PERSIA

.122 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA.^" He who does not till the earth, O Spitama Zarathushtra ! with theleft arm and the right, with the right arm and the left, unto himthus says the Earth : ' O thou man ! . . . ever shalt thou stand atthe door of the stranger, among those who beg for bread ; ever shaltthou wait there for the refuse that is brought unto thee, brought bythose who have profusion of wealth.' "6. " He who SOWS corn sows holiness"(Vendldiid, III., 31). Where there is plenty andprosperity there- is no room for wickedness no roomfor envy, violence, rapine, and all evil passions ; be¬sides, honest toil leaves no time for evil thoughts,evil words, and evil deeds. This great truth is thusexpressed in quaint, truly Avestan phrase :"When barley is coming forth, the daevas start up ;when thecorn is growing rank, tlien faint the daevas' hearts ;when the cornis being ground, the daevas groan ;when wheat is coming forth, thedaevas are destroyed. In that house they can no longer stay ; fromthat house they are Ijcaten away, wherein wheat is thus comingforth. It is as though red-hot iron were turned about in theirthroats, when there is plenty of corn."Therefore, to " sow corn " is more meritoriousthan " a hundred acts of adoration, a thousand obla¬tions, ten thousand sacrifices."7. But, sowing corn and holines.s and routingthe daevas by the toil of " the left arm and theright, the right arm and the left," requires bodilystrength and endurance. So this most practical andrational of religious laws proceeds, with admirableconsistency, to enjoin proper care of that necessaryservant the body :" Then let the priest teach his people this holy saying : ' No onewho does not eat has strength to do works of holiness, strength to doworks of husbandry. . . . By eating every material creature -lives, by not eating it dies away.'"