ALLUSIONS IN SACKED BOOKS OF THE EAST. 



185 



are able to follow their names from the records of the Achaemenian 

 kings or the works of classical writers down to the map of modern 

 Iran." 



Of five of the remaining six, the Pahlavi commentary suggests 

 identifications ; but, without discussing these, we may note that 

 the complete region indicated extends from Sogdiana by the 

 Aral Sea on the north to the Arabian Sea on the south, and 

 from the river Euphrates on the west to the river Sutlej on the 

 east. This was the region wherein the Zoroastrian faith attained 

 its widest diffusion ; it was the region occupied by the Parthian 

 Empire at its greatest extent. 



But the first of the sixteen good lands, " the best of all," does 

 not lie within it. Darmesteter says : — 



" The first land, the Airy ana Vae^/o by the Vanguhi Daitya, 

 remained to the last a mythical region. It was originally the abode 

 of Yima and of the righteous, that is to say, a particular form 

 of Paradise." 



I hope to be able to convince you that Iran-ve^ is no 

 <; mythical " region ; that its position on the earth is, of 

 all the sixteen ''good lands," the best defined astronomically; 

 that its place is at least as sure as the Panjab. 



The description of Iran-ve# in the 'Fargard is as follows : — 



" (3) The first of the good land and countries which I, Ahura 

 Mazda, created, was the Airyana Vae^/o, by the good river Daitya. 



" Thereupon came Angra Mainyu, who is all death, and he 

 counter-created by his witchcraft the serpent in the river and winter, 

 a work of the Daevas. 



" (4) There are ten winter months there, two summer months ; 

 and those are cold for the waters, cold for the earth, cold for the 

 trees. Winter falls there, with the worst of its plagues." 



And the Vendidad Sadah, or Liturgy, adds here : " There 

 reigns the core and heart of winter." 



Late tradition, in the time of the Sassanians, placed Iran-Ve# 

 in the mountains of Georgia, and identified the good river 

 Daitya with the Araxes. But it is quite evident to everyone 

 that nowhere in Georgia is it true that there are " ten winter 

 months there, two summer months ; " it is evident to-day, it 

 was quite as evident to the Persians under the Achamienians 

 or the Arsacides, for the Vendidad Sadah comments that : 



" It is known that there are seven months of summer and five of 

 winter." 



