ART. 11. PAKSEE CEREMONIAL OBJECTS CASANOWICZ. 7 



Zoroastrianism did not ignore the body for the elevation of the souL 

 Physical culture was extolled, and it allowed generally a whole-souled 

 enjoyment of life. Wealth and a large family are signs of virtue. "He 

 who has children is far better than he who is childless ; he who has 

 riches is far better than he who has none. ..."'' 



The Parsees, constituting one of the smallest religious communities 

 in the world, occupy a most prominent place among the several na- 

 tionalties and religious sects of India, and exemplify in their life the 

 true worth of the teachings of the great Prophet of Iran. They up- 

 hold the best of the tenets of the old faith with regard to religious 

 observations. They are distinguished by temperance, purity of life, 

 energy, enterprise, and capacity, and their reputation for benevolence 

 and generosity toward all men is world-wide. 



THE HEREAFTER, OR ESCHATOLOGY IN ZOROASTRIAN THEOLOGY. 



God's righteous rule involves the idea of judgment and retribu- 

 tion, and Zoroastrian eschatology provides a judgment both for 

 the individual and for the world. The judgment of individuals 

 takes place at death, in which each man's destiny is determined by 

 his religion and by his thoughts, words, and deeds in this life. After 

 death the soul lingers three days and three nights near the body. 

 During these intervening days the soul of the pious tastes " as much 

 of felicity and joy as the entire living world can taste," and the 

 soul of the wicked tastes " as much of misery as the entire living 

 world can taste." On the fourth day at dawn the soul sets out on 

 its journey to the place of judgment at the chinvat bridge. To the 

 righteous comes a perfumed breeze wafted as it were from the south, 

 while the wicked is struck by a cold blast as out of the demonic 

 north, laden with foul stench. At the bridge ^lithra, Sraosha, and 

 Rashnu sit in judgment.^ Rashnu weighs the merits and demerits 

 of the departed on an "undeceiving" golden scale, and his fate is 

 decided according to the result of the weighing, whether the good 

 works or the bad ones tipped the scales. Thereupon the soul has to 

 cross the chinvat bridge, which is spanning the abyss of hell. To 

 the good soul it appears to be nine spear-lengths, or even a parasang 

 (between three and four miles) wide, lead by a fair maiden— the 



7 Zarathustrian doctrine is the first serious attempt to conform material interests and 

 duties with the spiritual needs and longings of mankind, and to reconcile the temporal 

 with the eternal, by regarding the former as reflecting and preparing for the latter. The 

 religious root-idea of Zarathushtrism, when first distinctly expressed, which, as history 

 shows, has not remained fruitless, ia tliat the life of the pious is a sacred labor and 

 struggle, cor.stantly directed against the evil and impure in what we are wont to dis- 

 tinguish as the world of nature and that of the spirit, in order that both may at last 

 be thoroughly purified — in short, that every pious man,, according to his abUity, is a 

 fellow-worker with God." (C. P. Tiele, Elements of the Science of Religion, Edinburgh 

 and London, 1897, vol. 1, p. 192.) 



8 Parallel to Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus, the three judges of the dead, in 

 Greek mythology. 



20107— 22— Proc. N. M. vol. 61 12 



