28 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
gained so great an influence upon earth as to lead men wholly to forsake the 
worship of Ormuzd, and to join the Devs in all their practices. Ormuzd, 
who pitied the fallen race, now sent them his law, first by his servant Hom, 
and afterwards by the great reformer Zerdusht or Zoroaster. But the 
people paid no regard to it, and hence Ahriman remained victorious for the 
last 3,000 years. Religion and virtue disappeared gradually from the face 
of the earth, and misery and destruction prevailed everywhere. 
Thus will i continue to rule with an iron rod until the eic pind 
of time, when Soszosh, the promised redeemer, will come and annihilate the 
power of the Devs, divoelhcel the dead, and sit jh final judgment upon spirits 
andmen. After that the comet Gwurzsher will be thrown down, and a general 
conflagration take place, which will consume the whole world. The remains 
of the earth will then sink down into Duzakh, and become for three periods — 
a place of punishment for the wicked. After these three periods Ormuzd 
will have compassion upon them and pardon their sins, and admit those 
into heaven who seek for it by penitence and prayer. The just will pass 
through the fiery ordeal without injury, and at once ascend into the heaven 
Gorodmone. 
Even Akriman and the Devs will after a more protracted punishment be 
pardoned and purified, and after a proper submission to Ormuzd be admitted 
into the regions of bliss. Then a new heaven and a new earth will be 
created free from the impurities of the old, and a fit habitation for the 
virtuous and good. 
The Zendavesta, the sacred book of the Persians, contains what is taught 
concerning God and his work, as well as the moral law and that which per- 
tains to their civil institutions. Their worship consists in reading this book, 
in adoring the sacred fire as a symbol of Ormuzd, in their sprinkling them- 
selves with consecrated water, in praying to Ormuzd and the good spirits, 
and in partaking of the sacramental bread and cup. 
Temples properly so called were not erected by the ancient Persians, 
neither were they in the habit of making likenesses of their gods; and 
images which did exist were looked upon with reverence, but never received 
any divine honors; they treated them in the same way as an enlightened 
Catholic may be supposed to treat the pictures and images of saints. 1.7, 
jig. 14, represents two ancient colossal idols of Afghanistan, but evidently 
belonging to a period of which we have neither record nor tradition. 
We have already said above that Mithras, the Ized of the sun, was par- 
ticularly an object of general adoration. /%g. 9 is generally considered a 
representation of a sacrifice by Mithras. A bull is evidently about to be 
slain in honor of the god; the animal having been thrown, struggles to 
regain his feet, which a youth, in a garment agitated by the wind, prevents 
by kneeling down upon him, holding with one hand the lower jaw of the 
beast, and with the other burying the sacrificial knife in his neck. A dog 
jumps up and licks the flowing blood, while a serpent and a scorpion appear 
by his side. Mithras the mediator is said to have brought this sacrifice as 
an atonement for the Ahrimanian original sin introduced into the world. 
Some consider this group as an emblem of nature on the approach of 
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