improbably composed by Zarathustra himself, and may be held to express his
belief and his thoughts in his own words. The second part, or “Younger Yasna,”
is of a much later date and less lofty tone. The invention of some of the Master’s
disciples or priests, it re-establishes the Polytheism which Zarathustra so
strenuously condemned; and furnishes the believer with a manual of prayers and
incantations (in prose) to the genii of the woods and streams and hills, the
powers of fire and earth and water, and all the invisible spirits which haunt the
luminous air.
We come next to the Visparad, a collection of prayers in three-and-twenty
chapters, written in Zend, and of a similar tenour to those in the younger Yasna.
These prayers refer to the preparation of the sacred water, and the consecration
of certain offerings—such as the sacred bread—which are carried round about
the sacred fire, and after having been exhibited to it, are eaten by the priest and
by the votary on whose behalf the ceremony is performed.
The Yashts (Yêsti)—that is, worship by prayers and sacrifices—fall to be
considered in the third place. Of these devotions, which are consecrated to the
praise and worship of one Divine Being, and of a certain limited group of
inferior deities, twenty-four are extant. In using them the votary endeavours, by
a wearisome enumeration of the glorious achievements of the deity he is
addressing, and of the miracles he has wrought, to induce him to come and enjoy
the meal prepared for him, and then to bestow on his fervid worshipper a
blessing not inferior to the boons bestowed on his children in bygone times. So
far as concerns the legendary history of the ancient Iranians, and in connection
with their belief in the pantheon of Magianism, the Yashts are of great value, and
indeed, from this point of view, are the most precious portion of the Zendavesta.
While the three parts already described exhibit more or less of a liturgical
character, the fourth division, known as the Vendidad, forms a collection of
customs, observances, laws, pains, and penalties, the growth of a period much
later than that of Zarathustra, when Ritual began its encroachments on Religion.
It is the essence of all genuine Ritual that it should illustrate and explain
Doctrine, but this is never found to be the case in the primitive creeds. In all such
it becomes merely the ingenious invention of a subtle priesthood, by which its
members established their influence over an ignorant community. In the eyes of
the unlearned its complex character invested it with an air of mystery; they were
led to look upon the “form” as of greater importance than the “spirit,” and to
attribute a strange, a wonderful potency to rites and ceremonies which they
could not understand. While it is the special feature of the faith of CHRIST that it