674 
PER 
up with the royal fignet till the end of the campaign, 
when the foldiers again palled mu'fter, every one taking 
an arrow out of the fame balket. The remaining arrows 
were then counted ; and thus the Perfians afcertained the 
number of their dead. 
With refpeft to their religion, the Perfians are fuppofed 
to have been originally inftrudted in the worlliip of the 
true God by their progenitor Elan\; and to have been 
recovered from certain heretical opinions by the patriarch 
Abraham, in whofe time the oriental nations were over¬ 
powered with a falfe religion, commonly known by the 
name of Zabiifm. If, however, this was the cafe, a fecond 
corruption mull have enfued, and engaged the people in 
fuperftitious adls of reverence to the celeftial bodies, and 
in other pradtices incompatible with the true faith. 
The fplendour of their religion, however, was never fo 
far obfcured as to admit any degree of comparifon between 
it and the wOrfhip of the neighbouring heathen nations, 
for, while they abandoned themfelves to the moll abfurd 
idolatry, and multiplied their reprefentations of numerous 
deities, the Perfians zealoully adored one all-wife and om¬ 
nipotent God, whom they held to be infinite and omni- 
prefent: fo that they abhorred the idea of reprefenting 
him by images, or of circumfcribing his prefence within 
the narrow bounds of temples. The worlhip of Venus 
was indeed introduced in the decline of the ancient 
Perfian empire ; but it was boldly reprobated by the Magi, 
who remained firm to this article of their creed, “There 
is one God a principle which they carefully tranfmitted 
to their pofterity. 
The greatell religious objection to which the Perfians 
have rendered themfelves liable, refults from their vene¬ 
ration of the fun and of lire; and from thofe fymbolica. 
reprefentations, called Mithraic figures, which adorned 
certain caves, after the time of the learned Zoroafter. 
But, from the enquiries and refearches of various impar¬ 
tial and literary men, it appears that even thefe things 
were formerly mifreprefented. As to their peculiar re- 
fpedl for the Sun, it is founded on their belief that he is 
the nobleft creature of the Almighty, and the immediate 
feat or throne of the Holy One; and with regard to their 
veneration for the element of fire, they avow that they 
have chofen it as the purell fymbol of the Divine Nature. 
A declaration which mull gain fome degree of credit, if 
w r e take a retrofpedlive view of certain events and cuftoms 
in the Jewi/h hiftory, fuch as the revelation of God to 
Mofes in the burning bvjh ; the pillar of fire which pre¬ 
ceded the Ifraelitifh holt in their removal from Egypt; 
and the never-dying fire that was kept on the altar of 
burnt offerings at Jerufalem. As to the figures of the 
fun, the planets, and other heavenly bodies, which orna¬ 
mented fome of their retreats, they ferved only as mathe¬ 
matical fymbols for preferving the truefyftemof the uni- 
verfe among the Perfians, though they were afterwards 
introduced into other nations as objedls of idolatrous 
worfhip. 
Though fire was deemed the fymbol of divinity among 
the Perfians, the other elements were alfo highly ho¬ 
noured by them; infomuch that they fuffered the bodies 
of their deceafed friends to be devoured by birds and 
beads of prey, to avoid polluting the earth or infedting 
the air; and they univerfally believed, that whoever wil¬ 
fully polluted water, with the bones of dead creatures or 
other abominations, deferved punifhment of the mod 
dreadful kind both in this world and in the next. This 
attachment to purity, and efpecial regard to water, feems 
judified by the Mofaic precepts for corporal purification, 
and by the great advantage of preferving cleanlinefs in a 
climate fo hot as that of Perfia. 
Their prieds, who have been branded, by the preju¬ 
diced or mifinformed, with the name of fire-priejls, were 
in reality entitled to the appellation of priejls of the Al¬ 
mighty, for they read every day certain public prayers, 
and performed other facerdotal offices, exclufive of their 
attention to the facred lire. They never confeded their 
S I A, 
offences to any but the mod High, nor befought a re- 
miffion of them from any except him, though they in¬ 
clined to perform thofe devotional adls before fire or before 
the fun, as a fymbol of the Deity, and a vvitnefs of their 
adlions. In like manner the Ifraelites confeffed their fins 
to God in the temple while the facred fire darned on their 
altar; fo that the religious pradlice of the Perfians feems 
to have been in a great meafure free from idolatry, 
though it was drongly tindlured with fuperdition. 
In the mod ancient times the Perfians were deditute of 
temples, but ereifled altars, for the prefervation of their 
facred fires, on the tops of mountains and other folitary 
places. At length Zoroafter perfuaded them, for the 
fake of convenience, to build, over each, a pyreum, or 
fire-temple. This, however, had no relation to Mythra, 
or the Sun, towards whom they could better tedify their 
refpedl in the open air; neither did it militate againd 
their favourite principle, that the Lord of the univerfe 
fliould not be enclofed within walls; for the pyreum was 
not defigned to circumfcribe what they edeemed an image 
of the Deity, but only the fymbol of his purity, or the 
Jhadow of his nature. 
After the conqued of Perfia by the Saracens, the religion 
of Perfia became that of Mahomet, of the fed of Ali. 
The only remnant of fire-worflrippers, or Zoroaftrians, 
are perhaps the Persees. See that article, p. 648. 
The ancient Perfians did not meafure the fubdivifions 
of their months by weeks, but gave a particular name to 
every day in the month, and to every month in the year, 
which they adopted from certain angels, fuppofed to pre- 
fide over, and to influence, all the actions of thofe periods, 
committed by Omnipotence to their care. The prefidents 
of the months were regarded as a fuperior clafs to the 
rulers of the days. It was confidered as a high difrefpedt 
to addrefs to one angel the prayer proper to the day of 
another. The firfl month of the Perfian year commenced, 
from high antiquity, at the vernal equinox, and was for¬ 
merly named, together with its angel, Fire: but the 
fultan Jalaluddin, about the end of the eleventh century, 
reformed the Perfian computation of time, and tranfpofed 
the places of the months in the calendar. 
Farwardin (March) is fo named from an angel fup¬ 
pofed to be treafurer of Paradife. On the firfl: of this 
month, called nouroos, or new-year’s day, began the prin¬ 
cipal feftival among the Perfians, which lalted fix days. 
On the eve of the new year, a young man of elegant 
figure, perfonating the new year, was ftationed at the door 
of the royal bed-chamber, which he entered, without ce¬ 
remony, the moment the fun appeared above the horizon. 
The king immediately addreffing him, faid “ What art 
thou ? Whence doll thou come ? Whither dolt thou 
go ? What is thy name ? Wherefore doll thou approach ? 
What doll thou bring?” To which he anfwered ; “I 
am the fortunate and the bleffed : I am lent hither by 
God, and bring with me the new year.” Then fitting 
down, another appeared with a large (liver diffi, in which 
W'ere wheat, barley, peafe, vetches, fefame, and rice, (feven 
ears and nine grains of each,) with a lump of fugar, and 
two new-coined pieces of gold, which, as an offering, 
were placed before the king. Then entered the prime 
miniller, the general of the forces, the lord high treafurer, 
and the fuperintendant of war: after whom followed the 
nobles and people, according to their dignity and refpec- 
tive claffes. A large loaf, made of the above-mentioned 
grains, being then prefented to the king; after eating 
part of it, he offered fome to thofe who were around him, 
faying “This is the new day, of the new month, of the 
new year, of new time; when all things confident with 
time muff be renewed.” With thefe words, he gave 
robes of honour to his officers. 
On the firfl of the fix days of this feftival, the king was 
wholly engaged with the welfare of his people, and the 
means of rendering them happy. The fecond he devoted 
to the aftrologers and other learned men; the third to 
his priefls and to his counfellors; the fourth to the 
3 princes 
