ALLUSIONS IN SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST. 



187 



in Iranian, Fivas^at in Indian, meaning " the bright one ; " his 

 own name Yima or Yama is supposed to mean " twin" It is 

 often assumed that he and the legends about him are equally 

 mythical, woven from the wonderings of primitive peoples about 

 the dawn, the day, and the light. But of him, who became 

 known throughout the ages as Yima the Glorious — or Jamshed 

 as he is named by the later Persian poets — two things are told 

 us, which are certainly not mythical, characteristic of the land 

 in which he dwelt. None but an actual observer could have 

 transmitted to his descendants the strange relations between 

 summer and winter, between day and night, that prevailed in 

 Iran-Ve^. 



Yima, then, is one of the very early heroes of the Japhetic 

 race ; he is common both to Indian and Iranian. It does not 

 lie with me to speculate what relation he bears to our own 

 branch of the Japhetic family, whether he was our direct 

 ancestor, or only a collateral. But, as already quoted from the 

 Fargard, he was charged by Ahura Mazda to be the preacher 

 and bearer of his law. Yima refused, not in contempt, but 

 because he had neither the calling nor the knowledge, and 

 offered instead to nourish, rule, and watch over his world. 



" There shall be, while I am king, neither cold wind nor hot 

 wind, neither disease nor death." 



So Ahura Mazda brought him a golden ring and a poniard 

 inlaid with gold, and 



" Behold here Yima bears royal sway .... 



" Thus under the sway of Yima, three hundred winters passed 

 away, and the earth was replenished with flocks and herds, with 

 men and dogs and birds and with red blazing fires, and there was 

 no more room for flocks, herds and men " . . . . 



" Then Yima stepped forward, towards the luminous space, 

 southwards, to meet the sun, and he pressed the earth with the 

 golden ring, and bored it with the poniard .... and Yima 

 made the earth grow larger by one-third than it was before." 



This was repeated twice at intervals of three hundred 

 years, so that he enlarged his dominions threefold in his long 

 reign. 



Here we have described the three migrations of Yima from 

 his farthest northerly camp, southward, though we have no 

 indication given of what his southernmost limit was. The 

 three indications of his direction — " towards the luminous 

 space," " southwards," " to meet the sun " — are but three ways 



