SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF THE MAH ZEND.――It entitles the supreme Lord, Aharmuz, and acknowledges the existence, immateriality, and uncompoundedness of his essence; accounting _Bahmán_ the Great, the first-created being, who is also called _Farvardín_ the Great, and looked upon and styled pure and uncompounded; from him was derived _Ardibehesht_ the Great, along with the sublime soul and body of the empyrean heaven; from _Ardibehesht_ the Great proceeded _Khurdád_ the Great; from him _Tír_ the Great; from him _Murdád_ the Great; from him _Shahrívar_ the Great; from him _Mihr_ the Great; from him _Abán_ the Great; from him _Azar_ the Great; and from him _Dai_ the Great; these are the lords of the heavens, and after _Farvardin_ the Great, are accounted as the months as well as the heavens collectively. In all other points, speculative and practical, such as the protection of harmless creatures and the destruction of noxious animals, it agrees with the _Dasátir_. During the Ashkanian dynasty, the people conformed to the _Kah Zend_, but as Ardeshir was obedient to the second Sasán, he, in compliance with the _Dasátir_ and _Mah Zend_, studiously avoided the destruction of harmless animals: for the _Mah Zand_ is a portion of the _Dasátir_. After him, others adopted the _Kah Zand_. But Nushirvan, under the guidance of the contemporary _Azar Sasán_, although conforming to the _Dasátir_ and _Mah Zand_, was during the whole of his life innocent of the crime of slaying harmless animals; his successors however followed the precepts of the _Kah Zend_, until the fifth Sasán,[518] having uttered imprecations against the people of Iran, they became the victims of privation and wretchedness. The professors of the Abadíán faith say that Ahriman was produced by Time: they also say that the angels and the heavens have existed, exist, and will continue to exist.[519] Moreover the belief of the _Azar Húshengíáns_ or _Yazdaníáns_ is, that although the faith of Zardusht prevailed universally from the time of Gushtasp to that of Yezdejird, yet that the different intervening princes glossed it over and made it agree with the _Azar Hushengíán_ or _Mahabadíán_ system, so as never to sanction the destruction of animal life; and as they held the words of Zardusht to be figurative, they never put them in practice literally when they contradicted the _Azar Hushengíán_ faith, but invariably glossed them over.