And so may we be such as make the world renewed, And may
     Ahura Mazda and Righteousness lend their aid, That our
     thoughts may there be [set] where Faith is abiding.

     10

For at the [final] Dispensation, the blow of annihilation to Satan shall come to pass; But those who participate in a good report [in the Life Record] shall meet together In the happy home of Good Thought, and of Mazda, and of Righteousness.

     11

If, O ye men, ye mark these doctrines which Mazda gave, And [mark] the weal and the woe—­namely, the long torment of the wicked, And the welfare of the righteous—­then in accordance with these [doctrines] there will be happiness hereafter.

The Visperad (all the masters) is a short collection of prosaic invocations and laudations of sacred things.  Its twenty-four sections form a supplement to the Yasna.  Whatever interest this division of the Avesta possesses lies entirely on the side of the ritual, and not in the field of literature.  In this respect it differs widely from the book of the Yashts, which is next to be mentioned.

The Yashts (praises of worship) form a poetical book of twenty-one hymns in which the angels of the religion, “the worshipful ones” (Yazatas, Izads), are glorified, and the heroes of former days.  Much of the material of the Yashts is evidently drawn from pre-Zoroastrian sagas which have been remodeled and adopted, worked over and modified, and incorporated into the canon of the new-founded religion.  There is a mythological and legendary atmosphere about the Yashts, and Firdausi’s ‘Shah Nameh’ serves to throw light on many of the events portrayed in them, or allusions that would otherwise be obscure.  All the longer Yashts are in verse, and some of them have poetic merit.  Chiefly to be mentioned among the longer ones are:  first, the one in praise of Ardvi Sura Anahita, or the stream celestial (Yt. 5); second, the Yasht which exalts the star Tishtrya and his victory over the demon of drought (Yt. 8); then the one devoted to the Fravashis or glorified souls of the righteous (Yt. 13) as well as the Yasht in honor of Verethraghna, the incarnation of Victory (Yt. 14).  Selections from the others, Yt. 10 and Yt. 19, which are among the noblest, are here given.

The first of the two chosen (Yt. 10) is dedicated to the great divinity Mithra, the genius who presides over light, truth, and the sun (Yt. 10, 13).

     Foremost he, the celestial angel,
     Mounts above Mount Hara (Alborz)
     In advance of the sun immortal
     Which is drawn by fleeting horses;
     He it is, in gold adornment
     First ascends the beauteous summits
     Thence beneficent he glances
     Over all the abode of Aryans.

As the god of light and of truth and as one of the judges of the dead, he rides out in lordly array to the battle and takes an active part in the conflict, wreaking vengeance upon those who at any time in their life have spoken falsely, belied their oath, or broken their pledge.  His war-chariot and panoply are described in mingled lines of verse and prose, which may thus be rendered (Yt. 10, 128-132):—­