Zoroaster (called by the Persians Zerduscht) was not, the Parsees say, the founder of their sect, but only the reviser and perfecter of the system as it now exists among them.  Living in the reign of Darius Hystaspes, he was the contemporary, probably an associate, of the prophet Daniel.  Before the advent of this reformer the Magi acknowledged two great First Causes—­i.e., the light and the darkness, the former the author of all good, the latter of every evil, moral and physical—­and these they believed were at perpetual war with each other.  Zoroaster taught, as he may have learned from Daniel, that there was One greater still, who created both the light and the darkness, making both to subserve His own will.  He also inculcated the duty of building temples for the preservation of the sacred fire from storm and tempest, when “by sudden extinction of the light the powers of darkness do gain often a signal victory.”  The Parsees hold in supreme veneration the name of Zoroaster as the most noted of all their Magi for wisdom and virtue.  They believe that the sacred fire was lighted by him miraculously from the sun—­that it has burned steadily ever since, and can never go out till it has consumed all evil from the earth and the good has become universally triumphant.  They claim also that from the reforms wrought by Zoroaster there was never the slightest change in any of their observances until about twelve centuries ago, when Persia was overrun and conquered by the Mohammedan Arabs.  But not the fiercest persecution could induce the Fire-worshipers to change their religion for that of the Koran.  Preferring liberty and their altars in a foreign land to the alternative of apostasy or persecution at home, the aboriginal Persian inhabitants fled to other lands, settling immense colonies in Surat and Bombay, where their descendants form in our day a large and valuable element of the population.  Their integrity, industry and enterprise are proverbial all over the East; and while they live strictly apart from all other races, the Parsees are never wanting in sympathy and help for those who need them.  Dwelling amid nations who are almost universally destitute of veracity, the Parsees are eminently truthful; surrounded by polygamists and sensualists, they maintain habits of purity and virtue; and accustomed to every-day association with those who make a boast of cheating, my memory fails to recall the case of a single Fire-worshiper who was not strictly upright and honorable in his dealings.

Commencing with the worship of the sun, and of fire as his emblem, the Parsee grew into a sort of reverence for the elements of air, earth and water.  The air must not be contaminated by foul odors, and of necessity no filth could be tolerated anywhere in house, street or suburb; and to this reverence for the purity of the atmosphere may be traced the absolute cleanliness for which Fire-worshipers are everywhere noted.  As the earth must receive no defilement, the Parsees