A literary history of Persia

iooLITERATURES OF ANCIENT PERSIAregions originally known to and inherited by the peopleof the A vesta.4. The Tashts^ twenty-one in number (cf. p. 98,1.5 mpra\ arehymns in honour of the various angels and spiritual beings, theAmshaspands and Izads* one of whom presidesTheYashts.,..,i r t iover, and gives his name to, each or the thirtydays which constitute the Zoroastrian month. Originally,as the Parsis hold, each of these had his appropriateYasht ;so that it would appear that nearly a third part ofthis portion of the Avesta has been lost. This mention ofthe Zoroastrian calendar reminds me of another illustration ofgenetsCgfousAnother iiiustrat^iat resurgence of ancient religiousbeliefs andobservances in the East of which I havedoctrines already spoken. The Zoroastrian year comprisesand observancesJ2 months of ^ days each) tQ which are a(]ded5 extra days, called the gatMs. The year,in short, is a solaryear, comprising, like our own, 365 days,with a suitablearrangement for further intercalation. The modern Babis,wholly Muhammadan in outward origin, and ultra-Shf'ite intheir earlier stages of development, abandoned the Muhammadanlunar year (whichfalls short of the solar by about ndays), and, taking as their numerical base their favouritenumber 19, substituted for it a solar year consisting of 19months of 19 days each, making a total of 361 (= 19 x 19)days, which were supplemented as required to maintain thecorrespondence between the calendar and the real season, bysome or all of the five extra days which represented thenumerical value of the Bab's title(B = 2,A = i,B = 2),andwere, in the Babf phrase, fixed " according to the number ofthe Hd" t.e.yof the Arabic letter which stands for five. Morethan this, each day of the Babf month, and each month of theB&bi year,is consecrated to,and derives its name from, someattribute, aspect or function of the Deity, just as each day andeach month of the Zoroastrian year stand in a similar relationto one of the angelic beings who constitute the Zoroastrian