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

CHAP. III. ] THE RAVAYVETS. 159

desolate the royal court. And this religion, that is all the books of Avesta and Zend, written with gold ink upon prepared cow-skins, was deposited in the archives of Stakhar (Istakhar or Persepolis) of Papak. The accursed, wretched, wicked Ashmogh (destroyer of the pious) Alexiedar, the evil-doer, took them (the books) out and burnt them.”

Although the volumes in question are now lost, a description of their contents is given in the Pehlevi Dinkard (vols. viii, and ix.) and in the Persian Ravayets, which are the miscellaneous writings in Persian of the “dasturs” after the overthrow of the Persian monarchy. These volumes are reported to have contained at one time about two million verses. They seem to have formed the whole of the Avesta literature, religious and scientific, current at the time, because, as Dr. Haug says, “they treated not only of religious topics, but of medicine, astronomy, agriculture, botany, philosophy, ete.” This statement will be borne out by the perusal of the following short sketch of their contents collected from the well-known Persian Rayayet by Burzo Kamdin, and by the epitome of their contents given by Dr. Haug in his essays and by Professor Harlez in his “Introduction & l’ Etude de l’Avesta et de la Religion Mazdéenne” (Introduction to the Study of the Avesta and of the Mazdayasnan Religion).

1. The first book, called Sudkar, contained twenty-