“We worship Sraosha, the blessed, Whom four racers draw in harness, White and shining, beautiful and powerful Quick to learn and fleet, Obeying before speech, Heeding orders from the mind, With their hoofs of horn, gold-covered, Fleeter than our horses, swifter than the winds; More rapid than the rain-drops as they fall, Yea, fleeter than the clouds or well-winged birds, Or the well-shot arrow as it flies Which overtake not these swift ones As they fly after them pursuing, But which are never overtaken when they flee, Which plunge away from all the weapons And draw Sraosha with them, The good Sraosha and the blessed. “We worship Obedience, the blessed, Who, though so lofty and so high, yea, so stately, Yet stoops to Mazda’s creatures, even to the girdle.... For his splendor and his glory, For his might which smites to victory. I will worship him with the Yasna of the Izads, And may he come to aid us, He who smites with victory. Obedience the blessed.”[185] THE YASNA CONCLUDING. This Yasna, having been composed long after the supposed time of Zarathuśtra, can hardly be genuine in its present shape. It may, however, be an elaboration of an earlier document. “Frashaośtra the holy, asked the saintly Zarathuśtra, ‘What is, in very truth, the memorized recital of the rites? What is the completed delivery of the Gāthas?’” “Zarathuśtra said, ‘We worship Ahūra Mazda with our sacrifice as the holy lord of the ritual order, and we sacrifice to Zarathuśtra likewise as the holy lord of the ritual order, and we sacrifice to the Fravisha of Zarathuśtra, the saint. ‘And we sacrifice to the Bountiful Immortals, the guardians of the saints, and we sacrifice to all the good, heroic and bounteous Fravishas of the saints.... And we worship all the five Gāthas, the holy ones and the entire Yasna, and the sounding of its chants. ‘And we sacrifice to all the springs of water and to the water streams as well, and to growing plants and forest trees, and to the entire land and heaven, and to all the stars, and to the moon and sun, even to all the lights without beginning.... ‘We sacrifice to the active man and to the man of good intent, for the hindrance of darkness, of wasting of the strength and life, and to health and healing. ‘We sacrifice to the Yasna’s ending words, and to them which end the Gāthas, and we sacrifice to the bounteous hymns themselves, which rule in the ritual course, the holy ones.... ‘And we sacrifice to the souls of the dead which are the Fravishas of the saints, and we sacrifice to that lofty Lord who is Ahūra Mazda himself.’” CHAPTER VII. TEACHINGS OF THE ZEND-AVESTA, CONCLUDED.