EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



hundred years afterward the worship of Ahura- 

 Mazda retained its ascendency in the countries 

 between Euphrates and the Indus, until in the 

 seventh century after Christ this whole region 

 was overrun by Mohammedans, and converted 

 to their faith. For a long time, no doubt, the 

 Magian religion continued to survive alongside 

 of Islam, as we see from the frequent allusions 

 to " fire-worshippers " in the "Arabian Nights," 

 where they are indeed most abominably slan- 

 dered. But after a while the good Ahura- 

 Mazda, yielding to this last and gravest mis- 

 chief wrought by the adversary, devised yet 

 another abode for the remnant of his people, 

 and led them to Bombay and its neighbourhood, 

 where, under the name of " Parsis," or " Per- 

 sians," they still keep up their old ceremonies 

 and their old faith. 



The legend of the sixteen countries created 

 by the good spirit was regarded by Bunsen as a 

 historical tradition of the migrations by which 

 the ancestors of the Indo-Persians reached the 

 countries where, at the beginning of authentic 

 history, we find their descendants. But it will 

 not do to attach too much historical value to 

 legends like this. For, however venerable may 

 be the record, the very mist of antiquity which 

 shrouds it prevents us from knowing how or 

 whence it got the information which it imparts. 

 The story before us, indeed, has neither the 

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