This, so far as it goes, is satisfactory enough; but it is groping in the dark, and without a pilot. A few pages, in the distance, will, however, bring us to the right understanding of these points also; meanwhile, I return to the Mosaical record, for the insight therein afforded into the history of Cain.
We are told then that he “knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch”: and as this name signifies initiation in sacred rites, as well as it does an assembly of congregated multitudes,—in which latter sense it was accurately applied to the “city” which he had “builded,”—it shows that the new religion bade fair for perpetuity.
Irad, the name of Enoch’s son, proves the crowning finish of the matured ceremonial, for intimating, as it does, consecrated to God, we are naturally led to connect its bearer with the profession of that worship which his name represented.
As Irad signifies consecrated to God, so Iran does the land of those so consecrated; and accordingly we may be assured that it was in that precise region that the Budhists had first established the insignia of their empire.[265]
Let us now inquire what light will the Dabistan afford to our labours. It is known that Sir John Malcolm was no ready convert to its merits; his abridgment of it, therefore, cannot be suspected of any colouring; and, as I like the testimony of reluctant witnesses, I shall even make him the interpreter of its recondite contents.
“In almost all the modern accounts of Persia,” says he, “which have been translated from Mahomedan authors, Kaiomurs is considered the first king of that country; but the Dabistan, a book professedly compiled from works of the ancient Guebrs, or worshippers of fire, presents us with a chapter on a succession of monarchs and prophets who preceded Kaiomurs. According to its author the Persians, previous to the reign of Kaiomurs, and consequently long before the mission of Zoroaster, venerated a prophet called Mah-abad, or the Great (rather the Good) Abad, whom they considered as the father of men. We are told in the Dabistan that the ancient Persians deemed it impossible to ascertain who were the first parents of the human race. The knowledge of man, they alleged, was quite incompetent to such a discovery; but they believed, on the authority of their books, that Mah-abad was the person left at the end of the last great cycle, and consequently the father of the present world. The only particulars they relate of him are, that he and his wife, having survived the former cycle, were blessed with a numerous progeny, who inhabited caves and clefts of rocks, and were uninformed of both the comforts and luxuries of life; that they were at first strangers to order and government, but that Mah-abad, inspired and aided by Divine Power, resolved to alter their condition; and, to effect that object, planted gardens, invented ornaments, and forged weapons. He also taught men to take the fleece from the sheep, and to make clothing; he built cities, constructed palaces, fortified towns, and introduced among his descendants all the benefits of art and commerce.
“Mah-abad had thirteen successors of his own family; all of whom are styled Abad, and deemed prophets. They were at once the monarchs and the high priests of the country; and during their reigns, the world, we are informed, enjoyed a golden age, which was, however, disturbed by an act of Azer-abad, the last prince of the Mahabadean dynasty, who abdicated the throne, and retired to a life of solitary devotion.
“By the absence of Azer-abad his subjects were left to the free indulgence of their passions, and every species of excess was the consequence. The empire became a scene of rapine and of murder. To use the extravagant expression of our author (the Dabistan), the mills, from which men were fed, were turned by the torrents of blood that flowed from the veins of their brothers; every art and science fell into oblivion; the human race became as beasts of prey, and returned to their former rude habitations in caverns and mountains.
“Some sages, who viewed the state of the empire with compassion, intreated Iy-Affram, a saint-like, retired man, to assume the government. This holy man, who had received the title of Iy (pure), from his pre-eminent virtues, refused to attend to their request, till a divine command, through the angel Gabriel, led him to consent to be the instrument of restoring order, and of reviving the neglected laws and institutions of Mah-abad. Iy-Affram founded a new dynasty, which was called the Iy-abad; who, after a long and prosperous reign, suddenly disappeared, and the empire fell again into confusion. Order was restored by his son, Shah Kisleer, who was with difficulty prevailed upon to quit his religious retirement to assume the reigns of government. His successors were prosperous till the elevation of the last prince of the dynasty, whose name was Mahabool. This monarch, we are told, was compelled by the increasing depravity of his subjects to resign his crown.
“He was succeeded by his eldest son, Yessan, who, acting under divine influence, supported himself in that condition which his father had abandoned. This prince founded a new dynasty, which terminated in his descendant, Yessan-Agrin. At the end of his reign the general wickedness of mankind exceeded all bounds, and God made their mutual hostility the means of the Divine vengeance, till the human race was nearly extinct. The few that remained had fled to woods and mountains, when the all-merciful Creator called Kaiomurs, or Gilshah, to the throne.”