represented by sculpture in the ruined city of JEMSHID; but the planetary worship in Persia seems only a part of a far more complicated religion, which we now find in these Indian provinces; for MOHSAN affures us, that, in the opinion of the best informed Perfians, who profeffed the faith of HU'SHANG, distinguished from that of ZERA TUSHT, the first monarch of Iran and of the whole earth was MAHA'BA'D, a word apparently Sanferit, who divided the people into four orders, the religious, the military, the commercial, and the fervile, to which he affigned names unquestionably the fame in their origin with those now applied to the four primary claffes of the Hindus. They added, that He received from the creator, and promulgated among men, a facred book in a heavenly language, to which the Mufelman author gives the Arabick title of defátír, or regulations, but the original name of which he has not mentioned; and that fourteen MAHA'BA'DS had appeared or would appear in human shapes for the government of this world: now when we know, that the Hindus believe in fourteen MENU's, or celeftial perfonages with fimilar functions, the first of whom left a book of regulations, or divine ordinances, which they hold equal to the Véda, and the language of which they believe to be that of the Gods, we can hardly doubt, that the first corruption of the

purest and oldest religion was the fyftem of Indian Theology, invented by the Bráhmans and prevalent in thefe territories, where the book of MAHA BA'D or MENU is at this hour the standard of all religious and moral duties. The acceffion of CAYU'MERS to the throne of Perfia, in the eighth or ninth century before CHRIST, feems to have been accompanied by a confiderable revolution both in government and religion : he was most probably of a different race from the Mahábádians, who preceded him, and began perhaps the new fyftem of national faith, which HU'SHANG, whofe name it bears, completed; but the reformation was partial; for, while they rejected the complex polytheism of their predeceffors, they retained the laws of MAHA'BA'D, with a fuperftitious veneration for the fun, the planets, and fire; thus refembling the Hindu fects, called Saura's and Ságnica's, the fecond of which is very numerous at Banares, where many agnihotra's are continually blazing, and where the Ságnica's, when they enter on their facerdotal office, kindle, with two pieces of the hard wood Semi, a fire which they keep lighted through their lives for their nuptial ceremony, the performance of folemn facrifices, the obfequies of departed ancestors, and their own funeral pile. This remarkable rite was continued by ZERA TUSHIT; who reformed the old religion by

represented by sculpture in the ruined city of JEMSHID; but the planetary worship in Perfia seems only a part of a far more complicated religion, which we now find in thefe Indian provinces; for MoHSAN affures us, that, in the opinion of the best informed Perfians, who profeffed the faith of HU'SHANG, diftinguished from that of ZERA TUSHT, the first monarch of Iràn and of the whole earth was MAHA'BA'D, a word parently Sanferit, who divided the people into four orders, the religious, the military, the commercial, and the fervile, to which he affigned names unquestionably the fame in their origin with those now applied to the four primary claffes of the Hindus. They added, that He received from the creator, and promulgated among men,

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facred book in a heavenly language, to which the Mufelman author gives the Arabick title of defátír, or regulations, but the original name of which he has not mentioned; and that fourteen MAHABA'DS had appeared or would appear in human fhapes for the government of this world: now when we know, that the Hindus believe in fourteen MENU's, or celeftial perfonages with fimilar functions, the first of whom left a book of regulations, or divine ordinances, which they hold equal to the Véda, and the language of which they believe to be that of the Gods, we can hardly doubt, that the first corruption of the

pureft and oldest religion was the fyftem of Indian Theology, invented by the Bráhmans and prevalent in thefe territories, where the book of MAHA BA'D or MENU is at this hour the ftandard of all religious and moral duties. The acceffion of CAYU'MERS to the throne of Persia, in the eighth or ninth century before CHRIST, feems to have been accompanied by a confiderable revolution both in government and religion: he was most probably of a different race from the Mabábádians, who preceded him, and began perhaps the new system of national faith, which HU'SHANG, whofe name it bears, completed; but the reformation was partial; for, while they rejected the complex polytheism of their predeceffors, they retained the laws of MAHA'BA'D, with a fuperftitious veneration for the fun, the planets, and fire; thus refembling the Hindu fects, called Saura's and Ságnica's, the second of which is very numerous at Banares, where many agnihotra's are continually blazing, and where the Ságnica's, when they enter on their facerdotal office, kindle, with two pieces of the hard wood Semi, a fire which they keep lighted through their lives for their nuptial ceremony, the performance of folemn facrifices, the obfequies of departed ancestors, and their own funeral pile. This remarkable rite was continued by ZERA TUSHIT; who reformed the old religion by

the addition of genii, or angels, prefiding over months and days, of new ceremonies in the veneration shown to fire, of a new work, which he pretended to have received from heaven, and, above all, by establishing the actual adoration of One Supreme Being: he was born, according to MOHSAN, in the diftrict of Rai; and it was He, not, as AMMIANUS afferts, his protector GusнTASB, who travelled into India, that he might receive information from the Brábmans in theo

logy and ethicks. It is barely poffible, that PyTHAGORAS knew him in the capital of Irak; but the Grecian fage muft then have been far advanced in years, and we have no certain evidence of an intercourse between the two philofophers. The reformed religion of Perfia continued in force, till that country was fubdued by the Mufelmans; and, without studying the Zend, we have ample information concerning it in the modern Perfian writings of feveral, who profeffed it. BAHMAN always named ZERATUSHT, with reverence; but he was in truth a pure Theist, and firongly disclaimed any adoration of the fire or other elements: he denied, that the doctrine of two coeval principles, fupremely good and fupremely bad, formed any part of his faith; and he often repeated with emphasis the verses of FIRDAUSI on the proftration of CYRUS and his paternal grandfather