1. THE next dan was five hundred years, and God and his heavenly kingdoms prospered before Jehovih. But as to the Lord's kingdoms on earth, and as to mortal kingdoms and empires, not much light was manifested in them.
2. Ahura, who had thus falsely taken, and was known by, the name of Ahura'Mazda, established Lords to rule over mortals. And these Lords were in direct opposition to God's Lords; for the latter taught the higher heavens and the All Person, Jehovih, or Ormazd, according to the language of mortals. But Ahura's Lords taught only one heavenly kingdom, which was Ahura's, called Ctusk, the All Holy Highest Heaven.
3. God's Lords inspired mortals to everlasting resurrection; Ahura's Lords inspired mortals to Ahura's kingdom, and there the end. And since mortals had built temples for their priests (rab'bahs), who were gifted with su'is, the spirits congregated in the temples, and oft appeared in sar'gis, teaching openly their several doctrines. And the ashars that labored for Ahura extolled the glory and the delight of Ctusk, and the wonderful majesty and power of Ahura. But the ashars of God's hosts inspired and taught of the Great Spirit, Unapproachable.
4. For five hundred years were God's hosts confronted with this opposition; and it came to pass that mortals, especially in Vindyu, were divided into two great classes of worshippers. And just before God's successor came into dominion, he propounded the matter in Diva; whereupon all the members spake at great length. Afterward, Div decreed:
5. Whatsoever is worshipped, having comprehensible form or figure, is an idol. He that worshippeth an idol, whether of stone or wood, or whether it be a man or an angel, sinneth against the Creator. This was given unto all of God's Lords, and by them to the ashars, and commanded to be taught to mortals by inspiration and otherwise.
6. When the time of dan came there were seven thousand million Brides and Bridegrooms raised up to Jehovih's emancipated worlds, and the succeeding God and Lords came into dominion under more favorable auspices, but which were not to continue long.
7. The Diva had extended to fourteen members; and God's Lords had succeeded in securing kingdoms in the principal parts of Jaffeth, Vind'yu and Arabin'ya. On the other hand, the emissaries of Ahura, the false, had been most active in extending the kingdom of their idol. Ahura was p. 294 most cunning with the last Divan act: Instead of interdicting it, he altered it, so it read as followeth, to wit: Whatsoever is worshipped, having comprehensible form or figure, is an idol. He that worshippeth an idol, whether of stone or wood, or whether it be a man or an angel, sinneth against the All Highest, who is personated in Ahura'Mazda, the Holy Begotten Son of all created creations!
8. And next, Ahura, determined to found a second heaven, decreeing to his emissaries as followeth, to wit: Behold Gir-ak-shi, the heavenly region belonging above the lands of Heleste! Thither will I build a new heaven, greater than all other heavens, save Ctusk. And Gir-ak-shi is well founded, I will people it with many millions of mighty angels, Gods and Lords. And my hosts shall descend to the corporeal earth, to the lands of Parsi'e and Arabin'ya, and they shall obsess mortals day and night, and inspire them to go to Heleste, where they shall build great cities and kingdoms unto me and my hosts.
9. And when these things are fulfilled, behold, I will send my hosts to Uropa, and build there also heavenly kingdoms and mortal kingdoms; and when these are established, behold, I will send into other countries, one after another, until my heavenly kingdoms embrace all places, and until all the earth is mine.
10. For I will be God over all, and ye that labor with me shall be my Lords and sub-Gods forever. And my kingdoms and your kingdoms shall be bestowed with glories and ornaments, the like of which never was. Neither shall the Gods of other worlds come against me or mine to carry away my people. They shall no longer flatter them, calling them Brides and Bridegrooms to Jehovih, a thing, none can see or comprehend.
11. And Ahura and his emissaries set to work to carry out these decrees, and in two hundred years they had inspired the Parsi'e'ans and the Arabin'yans to emigrate by tens of thousands to the land of Heleste, which was inhabited by druks and wanderers, full of wickedness. Ahura inspired his immigrants to fall upon the native druks, and destroy them. Wherein had come to pass that which Jehovih spake in Mouru, saying: They who cannot be risen by persuasion may be aroused by less scrupulous masters.
12. For whilst Ahura's hosts were slaying the druks of Heleste by tens of thousands, God's heavenly hosts were receiving their spirits and conducting them away to other atmospherean regions.
13. These, then, were the divisions of mortals on earth at this time: First, the I'hins, who were the original Faithists. And they were capable of prophecies and miracles to such an exten that all other people called them the sacred people. Neither did the great warriors of other nations and peoples molest them. The I'hins lived secluded and separate from all other people. Nevertheless, they were the seed of everlasting life on the earth, and the foundation for raising up prophets and seers unto other peoples. Even as the mother of Zarathustra was of the I'hins, so was it with all men and women born into the world with su'is and sar'gis. For being near Jehovih, they had faith in Him, and Him only. The second race, equally ancient, was the druks, the barbarian hordes, incapable of inspiration, save for their stomachs' sake. And though they were told a thousand times: Behold, ye have a spiritual body! they understood not, cared not, and forgot it a moment after. And though it were said to them: Behold, there is a Great Spirit! they heard it not, nor understood, nor heeded the words. The third race was the I'huans, born betwixt the I'hins and the druks. To this race, in its early days, a commandment was given by God not to marry with the druks, and they had maintained that law amongst themselves by the sign of circumcision. This, then, was the first beginning of persecution against Faithists in Jehovih.
14. When Ahura usurped his heavenly kingdom, and appointed guardian angels over mortals, he determined to leave nothing undone in order to overthrow the doctrine of Jehovih, the All Person. So he decreed as followeth, to wit:
15. Since, by the mark of circumcision, they have pride in being Faithists, I will not have circumcision. After the third generation (one hundred years) whosoever hath this mark upon him is my enemy. He shall be pursued, and no profit shall fall to his lot. Suffer not little children to be maimed for my sake; rather let them be circumcised in heart.
16. And Ahura put no restriction upon his mortal followers marrying, and it came to pass that those druks not slain in Heleste married with the worshippers of Ahura.
17. And about this same period of time Jehovih brought the earth into a light region for two hundred years. And when the Diva was in session, p. 295 Jehovih's Voice spake to Div, saying: Let My Sons be not cast down because of the sins of Ahura; rather be ye wise and appropriate from his wickedness that which will be good in the end. For as it was not lawful for My people to marry with the druks, behold, Ahura hath made a law on his own account against circumcision, and it shall come to pass that by their sins even druks shall be raised up to learn of Me and My kingdoms.
18. And it came to pass that a fourth race rose up in the world, and it was mongrel, being dark and short and less noble. The I'huans were red, and brown, and tall, and majestic; the I'hins small, and white, and yellow. And Jehovih put these marks upon His peoples that the races might be read in thousands of years.
19. Ahura perceived this. One of his Lords said unto him: Behold, the marks of su'is are written! Then Ahura sought to disprove Jehovih in this. He said:
20. Behold, there are two senses to all men, the es and the corpor. When one is in abeyance the other acteth. This is su'is. Call together thy companions, and find a remedy; for I will prove all things in heaven and earth.
21. For fifty years Ahura and his hosts tried by other means to have born into the world a great prophet and seer, but failed. Ahura said: I know the way of the loo'is: They decoy the I'hin men to go with the I'huan damsels. But I have sworn there is no Jehovih; how, then, shall I go to the sacred people? And, after all, such a prophet might prove treacherous to my kingdom. So Ahura commanded his emissaries to weigh the matter for other fifty years, and then to solve the problem.
22. So Ahura's emissaries inspired thousands of experiments to be made, whereby a prophet or seer could be made amongst the mongrels. And Jehovih suffered them to discover that by pressing down the front brain of infants they could be made capable of su'is. And infants were strapped on boards, and another board strapped on the forehead to press the head flat; and every day the head-board was strapped on anew, tighter and tighter, until the forehead, which holdeth the corporeal judgment, was pressed flat, and the judgment of the brain driven up into light-perceiving regions at the top of the head.
23. Ahura thus raised up prophets and seers, and they were willing instruments in his hands. And he sent into all the divisions of the earth tens of thousands of angels, teaching this to mortals, thus lying down the foundation for his grand scheme of reducing heaven and earth into his own kingdoms.
24. Jehovih spake in the Diva, saying: Even this permit ye. The druks will heed more what one of their own people saith as a seer, than if the same thing were said a hundred times over by an I'hin.