The Persian god of death is scarcely changed from the Hindū Yama, who is “the king of death and the judge of the dead.” Among the Hindūs, however, he appears as the first of men who died, while among the Persians he has many ancestors. He offered sacrifices upon the summit of “the beautiful mountain,” and prayed the gods to grant him power and dominion. Thus he became a king over men and even over the Devas. As the regions of Pluto were guarded by the three-headed dog Cerberus, and the path of Yama was watched by two terrible dogs of the “four-eyed tawny breed of Sarama,” so also the souls of good men are defended from the howling and pursuing demons, by the dogs that guard THE CHINVAT BRIDGE. The Chinvat[140] or _K_invaḍ bridge reaches to Mount Alborz, and it is also called the “Bridge of the Gatherer,” over which the souls of the righteous pass easily into the abodes of bliss, while the wicked fall from it into the den of falsehood and iniquity. The Mohammedans call it the Al-Sirat, and it is represented in the Korān as being finer than the thread of a famished spider and sharper than a two-edged sword. More beautiful by far is the Bi-frost, or rainbow arch of the Norseman— the bridge between heaven and earth, which was also borrowed from Chaldea: “A link that binds us to the skies A bridge of rainbows thrown across The gulf of tears and sighs.” And every day the gods come down to the judgment hall, of the Udar fountain, at the roots of the great ash tree and ride back on heavenly steeds across the bridge of many hues. MITHRA. As fire is the favorite symbol of the Persian, so the sun-gods are their most important deities, and of these Mithra stands at the head. One of the Sanskṛit names for the sun is Mitra, and the Persian form of the word retains its full significance, as the pure light of day. The sun is never without his shrine, and he is also represented in the human form. His terrible power, especially in tropical climes, could not fail to be recognized, and hence the Persian swore by the sun, while the temples and images consecrated to this god of day arose in every part of the land. Persian decrees of the fourth and fifth centuries demanded the highest worship for the sun itself, while fire and water should receive inferior service. Christians were persecuted for refusing to perform these services in Armenia[141] and the Roman Emperor Julian centered his apostasy in the philosophy which permitted him to call the sun the living image of God and even God himself.[142]