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

200 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. IV.

but that your soul, if rich in good works, will mount to immortality and partake of the happiness you have already witnessed.

“Take less care of your body, and more of your soul; the pains and aches of the body are easily cured, but who can minister to the diseases of the soul? When you set out on a journey in the lower world you provide yourself and take with you money, clothes, provisions, and are prepared against all the exigencies of the road, but what do you provide yourself with for your last journey of the soul from the lower to the upper world, and whose friendship have you to assist you on the way? Hear, O Arda Viraf! and I will describe to you the provisions requisite for the voyage to eternal life.

“In the first place, the friend who will assist you is God; but to attain His friendship you must walk in His ways, and place in Him the firmest reliance. The provisions must be faith and hope, and the remembrance of your good works. Your body, O Arda Viraf! may be likened unto a horse, and your soul to its rider, and the provisions requisite for the support . of both are good actions. But, as with a feeble rider the horse is ill managed, so with a feeble horse the rider is but ill accommodated, care ought to be taken that both are kept in order; so, in a spiritual sense, the soul and body must be kept in order by a succession of good actions. Even in the world the multi-