ALLUSIONS IN SAC K KD LOOKS OF TIT K LAST. 



183 



the Vendidad, and the Bundahis,* and for purposes of illustration 

 or elucidat ion I have referred to later works, The Bahman Yast, 

 Dina-i Mainog-i Khivad, or "The Opinions of the Spirit of 

 Wisdom," and Manuskihar ; in the Jewish Pseudepigrapha, 

 IV Ezra, the Book of Jubilees and the Slavonic and Ethiopic 

 Books of Enoch. Other books, both Jewish and Persian, do 

 indeed yield a few slight astronomical references, but nothing 

 of sufficient importance for my present purpose to warrant its 

 inclusion within the narrow limits of this paper. 



The Vendidad. 



The Vendidad, or the Anti-Demoniac Law, is part of the 

 Avesta proper. It does not concern us here to discuss the date 

 of it as a whole ; its eminent editor, the late James Darmesteter, 

 concludes that it has come down to us substantially from the 

 Achasmenianf kings, — in round numbers its date may be put 

 as about the 5th or 6th century B.C. The major part of it is 

 concerned with ceremonial laws for the conduct of the faithful 

 in the matters of their daily life or in their worship, sickness, 

 cleansing, or death. Twenty out of its twenty-two Fargards 

 or chapters may be likened indeed to a Mazdayasnian Leviticus, 

 but in these there is little or no astronomical allusion, and they 

 do not concern us here. But the first two Fargards might find 



* The VII Ith Yast, known as the Tir or Tistar Yast, is of peculiar 

 astronomical interest, but I have discussed it elsewhere. See The 

 Observatory, vol. xxxv, pp. 393 and 438, and vol. xxxvi, p. 136, "The 

 Zoroastrian Star Champions." Also Journal of the British Astronomical 

 Association, vol. xxiii, p. 425, "The Four Star Champions of Iran." 



t It may be convenient to note here that Cyrus the Great took Babylon 

 538 B.C. ; Darius, the son of Hystaspes, who, like Cyrus, was of the 

 Acelemexian race, acceded to the throne of Persia, 521 B.C. Alexander 

 the Great overthrew Darius Codomannus, the last of the Achiemenian 

 kings, 330 B.C. Alexander died 323 B.C., and one of his generals, Seleucus 

 Nicator, founded the Seleucid dynasty and established his authority 

 over all the eastern conquests of Alexander, 312 B.C. During the reign 

 of Antiochus II., the third of the Seleucid line, a Parthian prince 

 Arsaces made himself independent, and was succeeded by his brother, 

 Ars ices II., who about 248 b.c. founded the Askaxian or Arsacid 

 monarchy of independent Partbia. The Parthian Empire increased in 

 power until it had absorbed the whole of the ancient Persian Empire 

 east of the Euphrates, and was strong enough to oppose successfully the 

 power of Pome. About a.d. 225, the Persians threw off the Parthian 

 yoke, and the second Persian Empire was founded under the Sassaxiax 

 Dynasty. This last was overthrown by the Arabs at the battle of 

 Nahavend in a.d. 639. 



