THEORY OF THE EA11TH. 179 



ance of Cayoumortz (the bull-man, the first of 

 the human race), is preceded by the creation of a 

 great water. * 



For the rest, it would be as useless to expect a 

 regular history of ancient times from the Parsis, 

 as from the other eastern nations. The Magi 

 have left none, any more than the Brahmins or 

 Chaldeans. Of this there is nothing more requir- 

 ed for proof than the uncertainty which exists re- 

 garding the epoch of Zoroaster. It is even as- 

 serted, that the little history they may have pos- 

 sessed, that which relates to the Achemenides, 

 the successors of Cyrus to Alexander, had been 

 expressly altered, and this in consequence of an 

 official order to that purpose from a monarch 

 named Sassanidesf- 



In order to discover authentic dates of the com- 

 mencement of empires, and traces of a general de- 

 luge", we must therefore go beyond the great de- 

 serts of Tartary. Toward the east and north we 

 find another race of men, who differ from us as 

 much in their institutions and manners as in their 

 form and temperament. Their language consists 

 of monosyllables, and they make use of arbitrary 

 hieroglyphics in writing. They have only a po- 



* Zendavesta of Anquetil, vol. ii. p. 354. 

 t Mazoudi, ap. Sacy, MS. of the Royal Library, vol. viii. 

 p. 161, 



M 2 



