"And the waists of both were brought close, and so connected together that it was not clear which is the male and which the female, and which is the one whose living soul (nismô) of Aûharmazd (God) is not away (lacking). As it is said thus: 'Which is created before, the soul (nismô) or the body? And Aûharmazd said that the soul is created before, and the body after, for him who was created; it is given unto the body to produce activity, and the body is created only for activity; hence the conclusion is this, that the soul (rûbân) is created before and the body after. And both of them changed from the shape of a plant into the shape of man, and the breath (nismô) went spiritually into them, which is the soul (rûbân)." [18] With all deference to the learned translator, I cannot think his exegesis here quite satisfactory. In the first sentence nismô is the breath of God; and although in the second the same word is used for the human soul, the writer seems to have aimed in the last sentence at a distinction: the divine breath or spirit (nismô) creates a soul (rûbân), to receive which the plant is transformed into a body fitted for the "activity" of an imbreathed soul. West twice translates nismô "living soul," but rûbân only "soul." Does not this indicate Ahura Mazda as the source of divine life, as in Genesis ii. 7, where Jahveh-Elohim breathes into man, who becomes a "living soul,"--a being within the domain of the god of life, not subject to the god of death? Is it not his rûbân that is the image of nismô? (Cf. Genesis ix. 5, 6.) Turning now to the Avesta, we find the famous Favardin Yast, a collection of litanies and ascriptions to the Fravashis. "The Fravashi," says Darmesteter, "is the inner power in every being that maintains it and makes it grow and subsist. Originally the Fravashis were the same as the Pitris of the Hindus or the Manes of the Latins, that is to say, the everlasting and deified souls of the dead; but in course of time they gained a wider domain, and not only men, but gods and even physical objects, like the sky and the earth, had each a Fravashi." "The Fravashi was independent of the circumstances of life or death, an immortal part of the individual which existed before man and outlived him." In Yast xxii. 39, 40, it is said: "O Maker, how do the souls of the dead, the Fravashis of the holy Ones, manifest themselves?" Ahura Mazda answered: "They manifest themselves from goodness of spirit and excellence of mind." Favardin Yast, 9: "Through their brightness and glory, O Zarathrustra, I maintain the wide earth," etc. 12: "Had not the awful Fravashis of the faithful given help unto me, those animals and men of mine, of which there are such excellent kinds, would not subsist; strength would belong to the fiend."