304 
ADDITIONAL NOTES. 
P. 253. — Earliest Notice of the Avesta. 
The earliest historical notice of the Avesta occurs at the close of the 
Median version of the Behistun (i.e. Baz-istan, “ Place of the god”) Inscrip- 
tion of Darius Hystaspes, cir. b.c. 516. This Inscription, which is about 
400 feet from the ground on the rock of Behistun, near the western frontier 
of Mada (Media, i.e. “ the country ”), and contains more than 1,000 lines of 
cuneiform writing, concludes : — 
“ And Darius the King says : — 
‘ I have made also elsewhere a book in Aryan language, that formerly 
did not exist. 
And I have made the text of the Divine Law (Avesta), and a com- 
mentary of the Divine Law, and the prayer, and the translation. 
And it was written, and I sealed it. 
And then the ancient book was restored by me in all nations, and the 
nations followed it.’ ” — (Translated by Dr. Oppert in Records of the 
Past, vii. 85, et seq.) 
Darius thus made a translation of the Avesta from the original Baktrian 
into the Persian of the Achaemenian period. 
P. 256. — Dialect of the Gdthas. 
For an account of the linguistic peculiarities of the Gdthas, vide Prof. 
C. de Harlez, Manuel de la Langue de V Avesta, 105, et seq. 
P. 259. — Non-reality. 
Expressions such as “non-reality,” “nonentity” ( Rig-Veda , X. cxxix. 1), 
and the like, when occurring in archaic poetry, are used in a physical, not in 
a metaphysical sense, and refer to what may be called Primitive Negative 
Concepts (vide Dr. Hyde-Clarke, Researches in Pre-liistoric and Proto- 
historic Comparative Philology, 21, et seq.). Amongst these are Woman, i.e. 
Not-man, Night, Darkness, Black, Evil (Not-good), Not (i.e. nought), Death, 
Dream, Shadow. The reappearance of heaven and earth after the darkness 
of night is regarded by the Vedic poets as a sort of re-creation, a rescue from 
the realm of non-reality. 
P. 264. — A su- A sura. 
“ The root as, which still lives in our is, existed in its abstract sense pre- 
vious to the Aryan separation. The simplest derivation of as, to breathe, 
was as-u, in Sanskrit, breath ; and from it probably asu-ra, the oldest name 
for the living gods.” (Prof. Muller, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of 
Religion, 191-2.) Prof, dc Harlez gives in his Lexicon, “ Anhu (ah, etrc-j- 
asu ). 1. Monde. 2. Maitre, chef” ; and “ ahu (ahf-asu), etre, vie, monde, 
— maitre, chef.” The Vedic s, except sometimes in a final syllable, appears 
in the language of the Avesta as li ; e.g. Soma, Haoma ; Asura, Almra. 
