From this we may without hesitation draw the inference that Auramazda and Angromainyu did not belong to the original belief of the Arians of Iran. From the absence of any myth about Auramazda, and the character of the names, "the wise lord," "the destroying spirit," it further follows that the gods thus named could not be the creation of any primitive religious feeling. These names belong to a period of reflection, which strives to make a presentment of the general operation of the good and evil powers, of their intellectual and ethical characteristics, and at the same time seeks to express their nature, as well as their relation to the world. Finally, the wavering position which Auramazda takes up in the Avesta towards the old deities, shows that he is of later origin. Though now the supreme deity, he sacrifices to Tistrya, in order to give him strength for the victory over Apaosha (p. 120); to Ardviçura, that Zarathrustra may be obedient to him (p. 129); and to other gods of the old period. Beside him Mithra is praised in the old style as the highest power; he instructs Zarathrustra to invoke the old gods, who still continue in their traditionary activity. But we have express evidence that Auramazda belongs to the reform. "The first man," so the Avesta says, "who sacrificed to Auramazda was the sacred Zarathrustra."[227] In the transformation, however loose, of the divine nature into "the wise lord," with his change from a natural force to an ethical and intellectual power, and elevation to be the creator "of the heaven and the earth" (p. 87), lay the most decisive step taken by the reform; by these conceptions it had raised the ancient possession of the Arians of Iran to a new stage. It is a remarkable fact that the evil spirits in the Avesta bear the name of Daevas. The Arians of India called their good gods, the gods of light, Devas; from the same root has sprung the general name of the gods among the Greeks, Italians, and the Celts. Hence among the Arians of Iran also it must once have been in use for the spirits of light. Why the names Bagha and Yazata became used in the Avesta for the good gods, while the evil spirits received the name of Daevas we cannot discover; nor can we decide whether this change of name came in with the reform. We can only discover that an analogous change has taken place in India also. In the Rigveda the good gods are comprised under the name Asura (old Bactrian Ahura), _i.e._ the lord; at a later time the evil spirits among the Indians were always called Asuras, while in Iran the name is allotted to the highest among the good spirits. FOOTNOTES: [197] "Yaçna," 29; Roth; "Z. D. M. G." 25, 6 ff. _Geus urva_ means soul of the bull; the priests identified the soul of the first created bull with the protectress of the flocks, the Drvaçpa, _i.e._ having mighty horses. Spiegel, "Avesta," 3, 74. [198] "Aban Yasht," 17-19. [199] "Afrin Zartusht," 4. [200] "Yaçna," 9, 42. [201] "Farvardin Yasht," 93, 94.