History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. I.] THE HEROIC AGE.

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activity, their generosity and humanity, as for their chivalry and spirit of enterprise ; of women as brave as they were fair, and celebrated for the freedom allowed them and for their modesty. Nor had they less reason to be proud of the territorial extent of an empire which was at least eight times the size of the Babylonian at its zenith and more than four times as large as the Assyrian, or equal to half of modern Europe—an empire which touched the waters of the Mediterranean, the Aigean, the Black, the Caspian, the Indian, the Persian, and the Red Seas, and through which there flowed six of the grandest rivers in the world—the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Indus, the Jaxartes, the Oxus, and the Nile, each more than a thousand miles in length—and the surface of which reached from thirteen hundred feet below the sealevel to twenty thousand feet above, thus yielding an immense variety of temperatures and productions.

The history of the Persian people from the earhest times has been full of interest. Leaving out of consideration the kings of the race of Mahabad, we come to those of the dynasty of Gaiomard. Their chief occupation appears to have been to fight demons and giants; but Gaiomard’s grandson, Hoshang, taught his subjects agriculture, irrigation, and the making of iron tools for peace and war, and was called “Peshdad” (the legislator). The dynasty to which he belonged came consequently to be known as the