“And this word is the most emphatic of the words which have ever been pronounced, or which are now spoken, or which shall be spoken in the future, for this utterance is of such a nature that if all the living world should learn it, and learning, hold fast by it, they would be redeemed from their mortality.”[182] THE YASNA HAPTANG-HĀITA. This Yasna of the “Seven Chapters” appears to rank next in antiquity to the Gāthas, but the tone is considerably changed, although the dialect remains the same. We have here a stronger personification of the Bountiful Immortals, while fire is still worshipped; also the earth and grass. We find here praise to Ahūra and the Immortals, to fire, to the creation, to the earth and to sacred waters. The sacrifice to the “Soul of the Kine” is also given, and the sacrifices to both earth and heaven, to the stormy wind that Mazda made, also to the peaks of the beautiful mountain. “And we worship the Good Mind and the spirits of the saints. And we sacrifice to the fish of fifty-five fins, and to the Unicorn which stands in Vourūkasha, and to the sea where he stands, and to the Haoma, golden flowered, growing on the heights. We sacrifice to Haoma, that driveth death afar, and to the flood streams of the waters, and to the great flight of the birds, and to the approach of the Fire-priests as they approach us from afar,[183] and seek to gain the provinces and spread the ritual law.”[184] The Yasna also includes several Yaśts, or hymns of praise, some of which contain poetry as well as praise. As Sraosha is the only divinity of the later groups mentioned in the first four Gāthas, the Yaśt which is dedicated to him appears to rank in antiquity next to those fragments which are found in the Gāthic dialect. The name of Sraosha appears still to retain its meaning as the abstract quality of obedience although it is personified. THE SRAŌSHA YAŚT. “Propitiation be to Sraosha, Obedience the blessed, the Mighty, The incarnate mind of reason, Whose body is the Mithra,— Him of the daring spear devoted to the Lord For his worship, homage, propitiation and praise. “We worship Sraosha, the blessed, the stately, Him who smites with the blow of victory, For his splendor and his glory, For his might and the blow which smites with victory. “I will worship him with the Yasna of the Izads. And we worship all the words of Zarathuśtra And all the deeds well done for him...