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of the Achemenidex, it was strangely mixed up with Magism, a religion of much more Semitic, or even, it may be suspected, Turanian form; and the two were at that time so blended, that in the accounts of. the Greeks at least it is impossible to separate the one from the other. At the time when the Greeks first make us practically acquainted with Persia, Tree and Serpent Worship had ceased to be regarded as the religion of any impor- tant body in the state, though ‘the probability is that it may have been followed to a considerable extent by large classes of people in that vast empire, As, however, PERSIA. Al the Persians despised, and the Greeks did not observe the: Ophites, we are Teft almost ‘entirely at the mercy of the Mahomedan historians and poets of the eleventh and following centuries for such faint glimmerings of truth as can be picked up, and anyone who has ever opened one of their books will know what blind guides they are in such an investigation. It is doubtful whether even the critical skill of European scholars will ever sift a substratum of tangible history out of the fables of Firdausi or Mirkhond, At present the task has hardly been attempted, and when it has, with only a small modicum of success. By far the most important ‘and most interesting person in ancient Persian history, for our present purposes at least, is ZohAk. According to all accounts he came from Arabia, and took his title, Bivar-asp, from. his body guard of 10,000 horsemen by whom he was always accompanied.* His genealogy from Tézi or TAj, the eponymous of.the Arabs, is given both in the Bundehesch and the Mojmil.+ His father is represented as a simple possessor of flocks and herds, but he is said to have conquered Central Asia, and to have fixed his residence at Babel.t Tis reign, or rather that-of his dynasty, is said to have lasted 1,000 years, when he was overthrown by Feridtin, with the assistance of Gavah ‘the blacksmith, by whom the original line of Jemshid was then restored. j Feridan has been identified almost without doubt with Thraétaona of the Zend- Avesta, celebrated as the slayer of the three-headed Serpent Dahika, who was the creation of the evil power Angra Mainyus,§ or more popularly, Ahriman. Zohak is represented by all the Mahomedan historians as having two snakes growing at his. back, one from each shoulder, and they add that it was necessary to appease these monsters by sacrificing daily two young men in order that their cravings might be satisfied with their brains.|| All this has hitherto been mysterious enough, but as we shall presently see, all women of the Naga race had one ‘serpent between. their shoulders, and all me seven heads ; the two of Zohdk seem an earlicr form, being the exact duplication of those of the females, and it is alsocprobable that the three heads of the Zend-Avesta%] include the human head between the two snakes. We shall be in a better position to judge of this’ presently, but whatever explanation we adopt, it seems only to be an earlier form of a myth with which we are néw becoming familiar in India, The human sacrifices are only what we find so universally accompanying Serpent Worship all the world over. The most. startling novelty with regard to Zohdk is the assertion that he came from Arabia, where we have no reason to suppose’ that Serpent Worship then pre- , foe, * Justi Bundehesch, 1868, Glossary 8 v. béwardsp. Handbuch der Zendsprache, 1866, Glossary s. Ve Dahika. t Windischmann, Zoroaswische Studien, pp. 30, 37, c. 39. { Is it possible that this is the Arab dynasty which, according to Barus ruled i in Babylon in the 13th century B.c. ? Rawlinson’s Ancient Monarchies, vol. I. p. 193. § Windischmann, quoting from the Yagna, TX. 8, p. 29. See also Westergaard in Weber’s Indische Studien, vol. II. p. 416. {| Mojmil (156) ; Windischmann, 87; Shah Nameh, Atkinson’s translation, p. 14, ; {| Tribus oribus preditpm, tribus capitibus. Masaudi, TI. p. 252, and the Mahomedans, on the contrary, always speak of “Two Serpents borne on the shoulders of Dahak.” ; 4799.) F 4D INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. vailed. Perhaps it only means right bank of the lower Euphrates, which to a man writing in Afghanistan, or the north-east of Persia’ might be so described; the original seat of the empire beiig Babylon would bear that interpretation. Moses of Chorene* would try to persuade us that Zohdk was identical with Astyages the Mede, but’as his assertion seéms to rest more on a verbal coincidence than on historical evidence, too much reliance must not be placed upon it. The Serpent dynasty most ‘probably reigned in Media rather than in Persia proper, but they must have been extinct before the time of Cyrus, though all this requires more careful examination than it has yet met with. Onc remnant of the race of Zohdk seems to, have survived: in Cabul, and it would be especially interesting to us, if we knew more about it, as it seems the connecting link between the Persian and Indian Serpent Worship. According to the Mojmil, “When _ “ Taj, the primogenitor of the Arabs, was settled in Babel, one of his sons married “a daughter of Feridin and settled in Cabul, and his Son was Rustem’s maternal . - grandfather.’ We find further particulars of the family in the Shéh Némeh. When Z41 the son of SA4m went to Cabul he found Mihrdb, a descendant of Zohdk, on the throne, and having fallen in love with his daughter, Rudabeh, he was forbidden by _ the Mubids to marry her, because the chief of Cabul was of the family of Zohdk, the Serpent King. The father too from this circumstance dreaded the resentment of ‘Manuchehr if he allowed the union, and not without reason, for the king ordered Sém to destroy Kabul by fire and sword, and especially the house of Mihrab, then -ruler of the serpent race, and all his adherents were to be put ta death.{ Fortunately for the lovers the difficulty was got over, and the result was the. birth of Rustem, the most wonderful hero of Eastern romance. The point of interest to us, however, _ is, that it is probably .to ‘the preservation of this race of Serpent worshippers that we owe that remarkable development of Buddhism, which distinguished the valley of the Cabul river between the decline of the Greco- Bactrian kingdom and the rise of the Mahomedan power in that quarter. : ~The last material trace of Serpent Worship that is found in Persia occurs in a bas-relief at Nakshi-Rustem, near Persepolis. It represents Ormuzd bestowing the circlet. of-royalty on Ardishir Babegén the first king of the Sassanian line (A:pD. 226). Beneath the feet of the horse on which the god (?) is seated, lies Ardevan, the last of the Parthians, and round his head are twisted two writhing snakes,§- not such as probably adorned the -shoulders of Zohék, but still sufficiently important to mark that the sculptor intended to represent the Parthian as of the ‘hated race of Zohdk, the _. follower of the accursed Abriman, whom Ormuzd tramples under foot while bestowing the emblem of royalty on the Zoroastrian, Fire-Worshipping Sassanian.- The more closely it is looked at the more probable does it appear that not only in this instance, but throughout the whole ancient history of Persia, the so-called dualism is much more an ‘eihngeanphical expression than the result of any theological * Tistory of Armenia, Postscript to Book I. “Les déscendans d’Astyages établis en Arménie portoient encore le nom de Vischabazouni, ce qui signifie Race de dragon. .- Cette dénomination leur venait du nom-du roi des Médes.”-—St. Martin, I. 285, - { Windischmann, 37. ‘+ Atkinson’s translation of Shah Nameh, p. 77 et seq. § Ker Porter, vol. I. plate xxiii. ; Flandin et Coste, Voyage en Perse, plate anor - PERSIA. 43 elaboration. It was the opposition of Turan to Iran, of Zohak to Zoroaster, of Ormuzd to Alriman—an Aryan race, with their pure elemental worship, intruding into a country occupied by a serpent-worshipping people of Turanian- origin, but mstead of totally abolishing and ignoring the religion of the conquered, forcing it into an unnatural ‘combination with their own. All this, however, was carried, out in such a manner as to represent their own, as the source of all that is good and elevated, and that of the subject race as the origin.of all that is evil and accursed. The answer to the question whether Free Worship did-or did not prevail in Ancient Persia will mainly depend on the signification scholars may eventually agree to assign to the “Homa or Soma worship, which forms so important a ceremonial observance both in the. Vedas and the Zend-Avesta. If the Soma plant always was ‘the Asclepias acida or Sarcostema viminalis, which is now used by the Brahmans | for that purpose, it cannot be called Tree Worship-in the sense in which the term | ‘is used throughout. this essay. The Asclepias is. & creeping shrub, almost without ~ Jeaves, and. only remarkable for a milky juice,’ to which the most important virtues are ascribed. It is now used as freshly expressed,* but in former timés was fermented so as to produce intoxication. — ~ On the other hand, Windischmann, who had probably rendered himself more familiar with the spirit of the Zend-Avesta than any other scholar, thus expresses himself on the subject. “‘Woma is the first of the trees planted by Ahura-Mazda “ in the fountain of life. He who drinks of its juice never dies. According to the “ Bundehesh, the: Gogard or Gaokerena tree bears the, Toma, which gives health and “ generative power, and imparts life at the resurrection. The Homar plant does not * decay, bears no fruit, resembles .the vine, is knotty, and has leaves like jessamin, “ yellow and white.”’+ . “In another place he says, “ From this it appears that the White Homa or the “ Tree Gokard is the Tree of Life which grew in Paradise.