History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

150 AISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. III.

ushtra, meaning “camel.” In support of this meaning it has been put forward that many ancient personages derived their names from horses, camels, cows, and other animals, which formed the chief portion of the wealth of the ancients. Such names as Biveraspa, Jamaspa, Pourushaspa, Frashaoshtra, and others that are derived from animals are instances in point.

Zoroaster was a member of the family of Spitama, a descendant of King Feridun of the Peshdadian dynasty of Persia. From the Dinkard and Bundehesh, two well-known books in Pehlevi, it appears that Zoroaster was the great-grandson of one Haechataspa, the fifth in descent from Spitama. He is therefore often spoken of in the Avesta as “Spitama Zarathushtra,” 7.e. Zoroaster of the family of Spitama.

From the ninth chapter of the Yasna and from the Aban Yasht it appears that one Pourushaspa,remarkable for a righteous life, was selected by God to be the father of the Prophet. In Pehlevi works it is said that an angel presented Pourushaspa with a glass of wine, soon after drinking which his wife Dogdho conceived and bore a son destined to create a new era in Eastern history. The wine here alluded to was, according to the more ancient authority of the Avesta (Yasna, chapter ix.), the juice of the well-known Homa plant so often spoken about in that book. The juice of this plant is still drunk by the Parsi priests while performing the Yasna