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

216 HISTORY OF THE PARSTS. [CHAP. V,

learned Orientalist Max Miiller, this fire-reverence has come down to us from time immemorial. In his lectures on “The Origin and Growth of Religion,” this learned author shows that fire, sun, moon, and such other intangible objects were the first to direct the attention of man, the primitive man, to his Maker. Again, the learned divine Bishop Meurin, in his pamphlet just referred to, proves by indisputable facts that fire-reverence was prevalent among the Aryans of very ancient times.

The first proof adduced is that of the identity of the Persian, Indian, and Roman names of the firepriests—the Athravans of the Avesta, the Atharvans (Brahmans) of the Vedas, and the Flamines of the Romans. The customs, usages, and practices of the Flamines, the old Roman fire-priests, as described in Becker's Roman Antiquities, are im many respects similar to those of the Athravans (Parsi priests) of the present day.

Again, the second proof to be adduced to show the antiquity of this fire-reverence is that of the perpetual fire among the ancient Aryans. On this point Bishop Meurin says: “The traces of this primeval Aryan worship of light or fire are so widespread, various, and numerous among the descendants of the Aryan family that their enumeration and description would fil] more than one book.”

From all this it 1s quite clear that the reverence