248 
is certainly not Semitic ? The Aryan and Turanian families 
of language have both claimed it. Thus, according to Haug 
and others, the term “ magava ” signifies one possessed of 
maga, or power, i.e., spiritual or occult power ; and the 
Magavas were the earliest followers of Zoroaster. Maghavan, 
“the possessor of riches,” is a common epithet of the Yedic 
Indra, and is also occasionally applied to Agni, the igneous 
principle. On the other hand, Sir H. C. Rawlinson and 
M. Lenormant regard Magism as non-Aryan in origin, but 
engrafted with an Aryan religion.* * * § In this case the word 
must be Proto-Medic or Scythic, i.e. Turanian ; and I should 
be inclined to connect it with the Akkadian mack, “very 
high,” “ supreme.” Thus, in an Akkadian hymn,f translated 
by M. Lenormant, we read ana zae mack men, “ God, thou art 
very high.”! Whether, therefore, the term be of Aryan or 
Turanian origin, it signifies almost equally one exalted by the 
possession of wealth, of knowledge, or of power. 
3. Is Zoroaster an Historical Personage ? His Name. 
According to Sir IT. C. Rawlinson, Zoroaster was “ the per- 
sonification of the old heresionym of the Scythic race.”§ 
Zara-thushtra or thustra, the Persian and Parsi Zardosht, the 
Greek Zarastrades, Zoroastres or Zoroastris, in his theory is 
Zera-ishtar,|| or “the seed of Istaru,” the celebrated Assyrian 
goddess^] of love, war, and the planet Yenus, the zodiacal 
Yirgo, and whose two phases, Istar of Nineveh and Istar of 
Arbela, reappear together in the Phenician (plural) divinity 
Ashtaroth, the Greek Astarte. M. Darmesteter, who regards 
Zoroaster as one of the many bright powers of heaven who 
fight in an almost endless strife against the powers of dark- 
ness and evil, observes, “The meaning of the name of Zara- 
thustra is unknown. It is no fault of etymologies ; one can 
count a score, and here is a twenty-first.” And he proceeds 
to trace it to a form za, rat-vat, corresponding to the Vedic 
harit-vat, which signifies “ He-who-has-the-red (horses),” i.e. 
the sun. Zarat-vat would thus mean “red,” or “gold 
* Vide Canon Rawlinson, Herodotus, i. 34(1, et seg. ; Ancient Monarchies 
ii. 348 ; Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, 218. 
f Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, iv. 60. 
X Etude sur quelques parties des Syllabaires Cuneiform es, 12. 
§ Notes on the Early Histonj of Babylonia, 41 ; vide also Canon Rawlinson, 
Herodotus, i . 350. 
|| Assyrian, Ziru ; Heb. jnt. 
K Istaru means “goddess” {vide Geo. Smith, Chaldean Account of 
Genesis, 58). 
