The other wing of the second school attempts to trace the origin of the devil-worshippers to a Persian source on the basis of certain resemblances between the two religions. Conspicuous among the representatives of this school is Professor A. V. Jackson, of Columbia University. This distinguished scholar is considered an eminent authority on Iranian religions, and particularly an eye-witness authority on the Yezidi question. His views, therefore, not only deserve careful consideration, but they demand their full share in solving such an important problem as the one under discussion. I have preferred his discussion of this theory to that of others because he has expressed himself clearly and consistently and without rendering himself liable to misapprehension on the part of the reader. Briefly stated, Dr. Jackson’s position is as follows: “The Yezidis may actually show some surviving traces of old devil-worship in Mazandaran, which Zoroaster anathematized so bitterly,” and “some old reminiscences of common Iranian faith.” To verify this hypothesis, he proceeds to point out many instances. One example he cites is that “the Yezidis are shocked if one spits upon the earth, because they interpret this as an insult to the devil.” He traces this abhorrence to “Zoroastrian prescription, forbidding the earth in any way to be defiled.” “The Daevayasna or devil-worshippers in Avesta,” he goes on to say, “may indirectly have had a kindred notion, _i. e._, not mentioning the name of Satan.” Moreover this American critic is informed that the Yezidis “believe in a father primeval, that lived before Adam, and did not fall into sin.” And this information leads him to think that such a notion helps “the Zoroastrian student to recognize at once a far-off reminiscence of Avestan Gaya-Mashai, the Iranian Adam and Eve.”[101]