Zoroaster

the founder of the Parsee religion. Aristotle supposes him to have lived 6,000 years before Plato. Modern authorities locate Zoroaster about 1,000 B. C. He is regarded as a historical personage. He appears to have been a fire-priest among the Bactrians, a simple agricultural people. His teachings spread to Media and Persia and were the basis of the national religion of Persia. He taught the existence of one god, the creator of the world, to whom all worship should be paid. Other doctrines are a heaven and a hell, immortality, a day of judgment, the resurrection of the body, and the coming of a Messiah. The tillage of the soil is the best of actions. Among his followers the priests were known as Magi, whence the word magic. The sacred writings of the followers of Zoroaster are called the Zend-Avesta. The text is written from right to left in the Zend, an ancient language of central Asia, recognized as a sister language to the Sanskrit.

The Zend-Avesta may be regarded as the Bible of the Persians. According to its theology, the supreme being created Ormuzd or Oromasdes, the source of all good, and Ahriman, the source of all evil. Ormuzd created man and made him happy; Ahriman created savage beasts, serpents, and poisonous plants. On this account the Zend-Avesta reminds the reader of the Garden of Eden. It is the fountain source of western ideas of Satan, the Prince of Darkness. As taught by the Magi, the followers of these two principles of right and wrong are involved in a long struggle, but right is the more powerful and will ultimately prevail. In point of high morality the Zend-Avesta is regarded as next to the sacred writings of the Hebrews--the Bible of the Christian.

During the spread of Mohammedanism the followers of Zoroaster were given the choice of the Koran or the sword. A few fled from Persia into Hindustan, where their descendants still exist and are known as Parsees or fire worshippers. There are 60,000 of them in Bombay. They are well known, and have a reputation for honorable dealing. Some 30,000 live in other parts of India, in Burma, and in China. A few thousand still linger in Persia. There is bitter enmity between them and the Jews. They eat neither beef nor pork. Their dead they expose on a high tower or scaffold. They do not worship the fire they kindle in their fire temples, but they consider kindling the fire an act of worship.