[202] "Ashi Yasht," 17 ff. [203] "Bahram Yasht," 28-33. [204] "Yaçna," 13, 18; 64, 38; 69, 65. [205] "Vend." 19, 36-137. [206] "Farvardin Yasht," 95. [207] "Yaçna," 28, 9, 44, 45; 46, 1-4; 49, 8; 50, 16, 18, according to Haug's translation, which however has been called in question. [208] "Aban Yasht," 104-106. [209] "Gosh Yasht;" cf. "Ram Yasht," 36; "Farvardin Yasht," 142. [210] "Yaçna," 45, 14 ff. [211] "Farvardin Yasht," 99; "Zamyad Yasht," 84 ff. [212] "Ashi Yasht," 49; "Aban Yasht," 112. [213] "Afrin Zartusht," 1-4. [214] "Yaçna," 52, 3; "Farvardin Yasht," 98. [215] "Yaçna," 9, 46. [216] "Ashi Yasht," 19. [217] "Vend." 3, 23; 19, 1-32, 140-147. [218] "Vend." 1, 46-48. [219] "Vend." 1, 50-52. [220] "Vend." 1, 30-32. [221] "Yaçna," 19, 51, 52; "Vend." 1, 60-62. [222] "Vend." 1, 64-66. [223] "Vend." 1, 9-12, 24; 7, 69. [224] Herodotus states expressly that some tribes of the Persians were nomads (1, 125); beside the Sagartians nomadic tribes are also mentioned among the Carmanians, Areians, etc. [225] "Yaçna," 9, 41; "Ashi Yasht," 20. [226] "Ashi Yasht," 20. [227] "Ashi Yasht," 18. CHAPTER VII. THE DOCTRINE OF THE AVESTA. When the tribes of the Aryas advanced from the Panjab towards the East, and established themselves on the Ganges, the gods to whom they had offered prayers on the Indus faded away amid the abundant fertility of the new land; and the lively perception of the struggle of the gods of light against the spirits of darkness made room for the conception of the world-soul, from which nature and all living creatures were thought to have emanated. Similar religious principles led the Arians in Iran to a religious reform of an opposite kind. The idea of an emanation of the world, proceeding without any opposition, could not maintain itself in a life occupied in labour for the means of sustenance, in toiling and struggling against nature. Luxuriant growth and dreary desolation, scorching heat and severe winter, such as were found alternating in Iran, could not flow from one and the same source. There man must be active and brave, and therefore the divine being could not be regarded as existing in repose. The nature of the table-land, divided between fertile tillage and desert, between heat and cold, not merely caused the old idea of the conflict between good and evil spirits to continue, but even increased and extended it. All nature was made subject to this opposing action of the gods, and the old conception of the conflict was developed into a complete system. With the extension of the operation of the beneficent and harmful power over the whole of nature, man was drawn into the conflict as active force. He must not only invoke the assistance of the good spirits; he must himself take part in the struggle of the good against the evil. In this way he provided for his soul and salvation better than by prayer and sacrifice; he strengthened