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

166 AISTORYV OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. IV.

We will first speak of the books which form the Vendidad Sade, viz. the Vendidad, Yasna, and Visparad.

1. The Vendidad (z.e. what is given to guard against the demons, which signifies against evil influences) is, in the words of Dr. Haug, “the code of the religious civil and criminal laws of the ancient Iranians.” It is made up of twenty-two ‘ pargarads” or sections. Dr. Haug divides these sections as to their contents into three parts. The first (chaps. i. to ili.) contains an enumeration of the sixteen countries then known in which the Zoroastrian religion had been propagated, an account of the lecend of King Yama, and lastly the recommendation of agriculture as a pursuit of men. The second (chaps. iv. to xvii.) dwells upon the Zoroastrian law, ceremonies, and observances. The third (chaps. xvili. to xxi.) treats of miscellaneous matters, such as the attempts of the devil to counteract the influence of Zoroaster’s good actions, the fate of the soul after death, the ways of curing diseases by various means, and other similar subjects.

2. The Yasna is, as its root implies, a composition which includes prayers that are to be offered with certain rites and ceremonies. It is nowadays recited by two priests, known as the Zaoti and the Rathvi, before a sacred fire. The articles required during the recital are consecrated water (zaothra), consecrated bread (draona) with “ghi” or butter spread over it, goat’s milk, twigs of the homa plant and of the pome-