Indeed, the controversy which prevails among scholars upon the exegesis of the Zend-Avesta is one of unusual severity, and while the storm seems to center upon the value of the Asiatic translations, there are other questions which are involved; the personality of Zarathuśtra[168] is not only questioned, but even amongst those who admit that he was an historical personage, the field of his early labors, the exact time to which he belonged, and many other points are subjects of spirited discussion. In the Gāthas, or earlier hymns, Zarathuśtra appears as a toiling prophet, and his sphere does not seem to have been greatly restricted. The objects of his concern were provinces as well as villages, and the masses as well as individuals. His circle was largely composed of the reigning prince and prominent chieftains—and these, together with a priesthood comparatively pure, were the greater part of his public. The king, the people, and the peers were all portions of it. It is claimed that Zarathuśtra had three sons, and these were respectively the fathers and chiefs of the three classes, priests, warriors and herdsmen; they played little part, however, in the Mazdean system, and are possibly only three subdivisions of Zarathuśtra, who was “the first priest, the first warrior and the first husbandman.” But when the student leaves the Gāthas and turns to the Yaśts or the Vendīdad, he goes from ground which is apparently historic into a land of fable. He leaves behind him the toiling prophet, who is apparently real, and meets the Zarathuśtra of these latter productions in the form of a fantastic demi-god. He is no longer described as one who brings new truth and drives away error, but as one who overthrows demons—the valiant smiter of fiends, like Tiśtrya and Vāyu. He smites them chiefly, it is true, with spiritual weapons, but he also repels the assaults of Ahriman with the stones which Ahūra gave him—stones which are as large as a house[169]—missiles like those that were hurled at their foes by Indra, by Agni and by Thor. These are “the flames wherewith, as with a stone,[170] the storm-god smites the fiend.” A singular incident of Zarathuśtra’s birth, according to Pliny, and later Pārsī tradition, is that he alone of all mortals laughed while being born. This tradition would indicate that his nativity was in the region which was the birthplace of the Vedic Marūts—those storm genii which are “born of the laughter of the lightnings.”