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

CHAP. III.] A MIRACULOUS BIRTH. 151

ceremonies. This Homa corresponds to the Soma of the Hindus, Soma being the Sanscrit form of the Avesta word Homa. This plant is the Asclepias acida or Sarcostemma viminale of botanists. It is said to possess medicinal and stimulating properties. According to the ninth chapter of the Yasna, it was Pourushaspa, the father of the Prophet, who, having performed certain religious ceremonies and prayers, drank of the juice of this plant, which possessed properties that improved the health, soothed the mind, and strengthened the energies. The purport of that passage seems to be that under the effects of this soothing elixir, drunk after solemn prayers and ceremonies, he prayed to the Almighty to favour him with a child. This request was granted, and Zoroaster was born unto him. No mention is made of the name of Zoroaster’s mother in the Avesta, but in Pehlevi works she is known by the name of Dogdho. Zoroasters birthplace, the town of Rae, was, according to the Vendidad (chapter xix. 4), situated on the banks of a river named Darji. This river flowed from a mountain named Jabr situated in Ayriana Vaeja. We meet with no authentic account of Zoroaster’s infaney in the Avesta. But it appears from the Pehlevi books that the extraordinary circumstance of Pourushaspa’s performing the Homa ceremonies and getting a son in answer to his prayer, as a reward for

his extreme piety and virtue, was publicly talked