[169]. Vendidad, Farg. xix, 4.
[170]. Rig-veda, ii, 30, 40.
[171]. The bird Karsipta dwells in the heavens. Were he living on the earth he would be the king of birds. He brought the law into the Var of Yima, and recites the Avesta in the language of birds (Bund. xix and xxiv). As a bird, because of the swiftness of his flight, was often considered an incarnation of lightning, and as the thunder was supposed to be the voice of a god speaking from above, so the song of a bird was often thought to be the utterance of a god.
[172]. Chips, Vol. I, p. 167.
[173]. Clas. Dict., p. 1015.
[174]. Clement says: “The Persians, first taking coals from the lightning which fell from heaven, preserved them by ordinary fuel, and honoring the heavenly fire as a god, were honored by the fire itself, with the first kingdom, as its first worshippers. After them the Babylonians, stealing coals from the fire that was there, and conveying it safely to their own home and worshipping it, they themselves also reigned in order. And the Egyptians, acting in like manner, and calling the fire in their own dialect Phthaë, which is translated Hephaistus or Osiris, he who first reigned amongst them is called by its name.”—Clementine Homilies, IX, Chap. vi.
[175]. Chips, Vol. I, pp. 162-177.
[176]. Sa. Bks. of the East, Vol. IV, Int., pp. 56, 83.
[177]. Sa. Bks. of the East, Vol. XXXI, pp. 6-194.
[178]. Having an especial Yast.