zoroaster and the zend-avesta.—the heavenly gift of the healing plants.—ormuzd and ahriman.—practice of the healing art and its fees.

zoroaster, or more correctly zarathustra, was the founder, or at least the reformer of the magian religion, and one of the greatest teachers of the east. the date of zoroaster is involved in obscurity, but all classical antiquity agrees that he was an historical person. neither do we know his birthplace. duncker gives 1000 b.c. as his period; others consider that he was possibly a contemporary of moses. in the zend-avesta and the records of the parsees he is said to have lived in the reign of vita?pa or gushtap, whom most writers recognise as darius hystaspis. pliny notices works of zoroaster treating of nature and of precious stones. he is credited with the invention of magic; and as ancient medicine was closely connected with magic, we may, in this sense, consider him as a physician. aristotle and eudoxus stated that he lived six thousand years before plato. it is hopeless, however, to attempt to settle a question so involved in obscurity. the most characteristic feature of zoroaster’s teaching is the dualistic conception of the scheme of the universe, according to which two powers—a good and an evil—are for ever contending for the mastery—ormuzd against ahriman. ormuzd is of the light, and from this emanate the good spirits whose laws are executed by izeds, who are angels and archangels.

ahriman is of the darkness, and from this emanate daêvas, powers by whom mankind are led to their destruction—evil powers, false gods, devils. from these daêvas proceed all the evil which is in the world; they are agents of that higher evil principle druj, or falsehood and deception, which is called ahriman, the spirit enemy. these daêvas send to men, and are the causes of all diseases, which can only be cured by the good spirits. man belongs either to ormuzd or to ahriman according to his deeds. if he offers sacrifice to ormuzd and the gods, and helps them by good thoughts, good deeds, and spreads life over the world and opposes ahriman by destroying evil, then he is a man of142 asha, who drives away fiends and diseases by spells. he who does the contrary to this is a dravant,—“demon,” a foe of asha. the man of ormuzd will have a seat near him in heaven.320

according to the zend-avesta thrita was the first physician who drove back death and disease. ormuzd (ahura mazda) brought him down from heaven ten thousand healing plants which had grown around the tree of eternal life, which is the white haoma (the indian soma), or gaokerena, which grows in the middle of the sea, vouru-kasha. these are the haomas, says darmesteter.321

one is the yellow, or earthly haoma, and is the king of healing-plants; the other, or white, is that which, on the day of resurrection, will make men immortal. thrita was one of the first priests of haoma, the life and health-giving plant, and thus he obtained his skill in medicine. darmesteter says that thrita was originally the same as thraêtaona of the rig-veda.322

“we see that thraêtaona fulfilled the same functions as thrita. according to hamza he was the inventor of medicine. the tavids (formulas of exorcism) against sickness are inscribed with his name, and we find in the avesta itself the fravashi of thraêtaona invoked ‘against itch, hot fever, humours, cold fever, vavareshi; against the plagues created by the serpent.’ we learn from this passage that disease was understood as coming from the serpent; in other words, that it was considered a sort of poisoning, and this is the reason why the killer of the serpent was invoked to act against it. thus thrita thraêtaona had a double right to the title of the first of the healers, both as a priest of haoma and as the conqueror of the serpent.”

ormuzd (ahura mazda) said that thrita “asked for a source of remedies—he obtained it from khshathia-vaivya”—to withstand the diseases and infection which angra-mainyu had created by his witchcraft. as ahriman had created ten thousand diseases, so ormuzd gave mankind the same number of healing plants. this idea is firmly fixed in the minds of every one of us to this day: for every disease there must of necessity somewhere be a remedy, and that usually with the common people is supposed to be a plant. the soma is the king of the healing plants in india and that also came down from heaven. “whilst coming down from heaven the plants said, ‘he will never suffer any wound the mortal whom we touch.’”323

ormuzd, having given man the healing plants, said:143 “to thee, o sickness, i say, avaunt! to thee, o death, i say, avaunt! to thee, o pain, i say, avaunt! to thee, o fever, i say, avaunt! to thee, o disease, i say, avaunt!”324

in the vend?dad (fargard vii. a)325 it is demanded, “if a worshipper of mazda want to practise the art of healing, on whom shall he first prove his skill? on worshippers of mazda or on worshippers of the daêvas?”

ahura mazda answered: “on worshippers of the daêvas shall he first prove himself, rather than on worshippers of mazda. if he treat with the knife a worshipper of the daêvas, and he die; if he treat with the knife a second worshipper of the daêvas, and he die; if he treat with the knife for the third time a worshipper of the daêvas, and he die, he is unfit to practise the art of healing for ever and ever. let him therefore never attend any worshipper of mazda; let him never treat with the knife any worshipper of mazda, nor wound him with the knife. if he shall ever attend any worshipper of mazda; if he shall ever treat with the knife any worshipper of mazda, and wound him with the knife, he shall pay for it the same penalty as is paid for wilful murder. if he treat with the knife a worshipper of the daêvas, and he recover; if he treat with the knife a second worshipper of the daêvas, and he recover; if for the third time he treat with the knife a worshipper of the daêvas, and he recover, then he is fit to practise the art of healing for ever and ever. he may henceforth at his will attend worshippers of mazda; he may at his will treat with the knife worshippers of mazda, and heal them with the knife.”

naturally, the rising surgeons would seek their clinical material amongst the heretics.

we learn from the zend-avesta that the doctrine of zoroaster teaches that not only real death makes one unclean, but partial death also. the demon claims as his property everything which goes out of the body of man, and that because it is dead. the breath which leaves the mouth is unclean, so that fire, which is sacred, must not be blown with it. nail parings and cuttings of the hair are unclean, and unless protected by spells are likely to become the weapons of the demons. whatever altered the body in its nature was demon’s work. on this principle the menstruation of women causes their uncleanness. the menses are sent by ahriman; the woman is possessed by a demon while they last; she has to be kept apart; she cannot even receive food from hand to hand; she may not eat much lest she feed the demon. so utterly unclean is a woman who has borne a dead child that she is not allowed to drink water unless in danger of death. logic compelled that a sick man should be treated as one possessed. sickness was sent by ahriman,144 and is to be cured by washings and spells. the most powerful therefore of all medical treatment is magic. it was always more highly esteemed by the faithful than treatment by drugs and the lancet.326 hair and nails, which having been cut off have at once become the property of ahriman, may be withdrawn from his power by prayer, and by being deposited in the earth in consecrated circles, which, being drawn round them, intrench them against the fiend.327

in the zend-avesta it is laid down that a woman who has been just delivered of a child is unclean. when delivered of a dead child, she must drink g?mêz. says darmesteter:328 “so utterly unclean is she, that she is not even allowed to drink water, unless she is in danger of death; and even then, as the sacred element has been defiled, she is liable to the penalty of a perh?tanu. it appears from modern customs that the treatment is the same when the child is born alive; the reason of which is that, in any case, during the first three days after delivery she is in danger of death. a great fire is lighted to keep away the fiends, who use then their utmost efforts to kill her and her child. she is unclean only because the death-fiend is in her.”

the saddar 16 says: “when there is a pregnant woman in a house, one must take care that there be fire continually in it; when the child is brought forth, one must burn a candle, or, better still, a fire, for three days and three nights, to render the dêvs and drugs unable to harm the child; for there is great danger during those three days and nights after the birth of the child.”

a table of physician’s fees is given in the vend?dad. the healer is to attend a priest and get him well for his blessing; the master of a house is to pay the value of a cheap ox for the same service; but the lord of a province is to pay the value of a chariot and four. the wife of the master of a house pays the value of a she-ass for her healing, but the wife of the lord of a province pays the value of a she-camel.

it declared that, “if several healers offered themselves together, o spitama zarathustra! namely, one who heals with the knife, one who heals with herbs, and one who heals with the holy word (i.e. by spells), it is this one who will best drive away sickness from the faithful.”