Around and about this nucleus of religious belief there grew up in course of time a number of legends, some of which possess considerable interest.  Like other thoughtful races, the Iranians speculated upon the early condition of mankind, and conceived a golden age, and a king then reigning over a perfectly happy people, whom they called King Yima—­Yima-khshaeta—­the modern Persian Jemshid.  Yima, according to the legend, had dwelt originally in Aryanem vaejo—­the primitive seat of the Arians—­and had there reigned gloriously and peacefully for awhile; but the evils of winter having come upon his country, he had removed from it with his subjects, and had retired to a secluded spot where he and his people enjoyed uninterrupted happiness.  In this place was “neither overbearing nor mean-spiritedness, neither stupidity nor violence, neither poverty nor deceit, neither puniness nor deformity, neither huge teeth nor bodies beyond the usual meassure.”  The inhabitants suffered no defilement from the evil spirit.  They dwelt amid odoriferous trees and golden pillars; their cattle were the largest, best, and most beautiful on the earth; they were themselves a tall and beautiful race; their food was ambrosial, and never failed them.  No wonder that time sped fast with them, and that they, not noting its night, thought often that what was really a year had been no more than a single day.  Yima was the great hero of the early Iranians.  His titles, besides “the king” (khshaeta), are “the brilliant,” “the happy,” “the greatly wealthy,” “the leader of the peoples,” “the renowned in Aryanem vaejo.”  He is most probably identical with the Yama of the Vedas, who was originally the first man, the progenitor of mankind and the ruler of the blessed in Paradise, but who was afterwards transformed into “the god of death, the inexorable judge of men’s doings, and the punisher of the wicked.”

Next in importance to Yima among the heroes is Thraetona—­the modern Persian Feridun.  He was born in Varena—­which is perhaps Atropatene, or Azerbijan—­and was the son of a distinguished father, Athwyo.  His chief exploit was the destruction of Ajis-dahaka (Zohak), who is sometimes represented as a cruel tyrant, the bitter enemy of the Iranian race, sometimes as a monstrous dragon, with three mouths, three tails, six eyes, and a thousand scaly rings, who threatened to ruin the whole of the good creation.  The traditional scene of the destruction was the mountain of Demavend, the highest peak of the Elburz range south of the Caspian.  Thraetona, like Yima, appears to be also a Vedic hero.  He may be recognized in Traitana, who is said in the Rig-Veda to have slain a mighty giant by severing his head from his shoulders.