﻿§2 THE SIXTH DISCOURSE : 



into Pahlavi the fine inscription exhibited in the 

 Gidistan, on the diadem of Cyrus ; and I had the pa- 

 tience to read the list of words from the Pazcnd in the 

 appendix to the Farliangi Jehangiri. This examina- 

 tion gave me perfect conviction, that the Pahlavi 

 was a dialect of the Chaldak; and of this curious fact 

 I will exhibit a fhorr proof. By the nature of the 

 Chaldean tongue most words ended in the first long 

 vowel, like shemia, heaven ; and that very word, un- 

 altered in a single letter, we find in the Pazend, toge- 

 ther with lailia, night ; meyd, water ; nira, fire ; 

 matra, rain ; and a multitude of others, all Arabic or 

 Hebrew, with a Chaldean termination ; so zamar, by 

 a beautiful metaphor, from pruning trees, means in 

 Hebrew to compose verses, and thence, by an easy 

 transition . to sing them ; and in Pahlavi we see the 

 verb zamrunilen, to sing, with its forms zamrunemi, 1 

 sing, and zamrunid, he sang ; the verbal terminations 

 of the Persian being added to the Chaldaic root. 

 Now all those words are integral parts of the lan- 

 guage, not adventitious to it like the Arabic nouns 

 and verbals engrafted on modern Persian ; and this 

 distinction convinces me, that the dialect of the 

 Gabrs, which they pretend to be that of r Leratusht, 

 and of which Rahman gave me a variety of written 

 specimens, is a late invention 01 their priests, or sub- 

 sequent at least to the Musclmau invasion; for, 

 although k may be possible that a few of their sacred 

 books were preserved, as he used to assert, in sheets 

 of lead or copper, at the bottom of wells near Yezd, 

 yet, as the conquerors had not only a spiritual, but a 

 political interest in persecuting a warlike, robust, and 

 indignant race of irreconcileable, conquered subjects, 

 a long time must have elapsed, beiore the hidden 

 scriptures could have been safely brought to light, 

 and few, who could .perfectly understand them, 

 must then have remained ; but, as they continued 

 to profess among themselves the religion of their 

 forefathers, it then became expedient for the Mubeds- 



