the heavens for the first ten nights of the month in the form of a young man, for the next ten nights in the form of a bull, and then for the last ten nights in the shape of a white beautiful horse.[1] In accordance with the will of Ahura Mazda and the archangels, he traverses the most distant parts of the earth,[2] and the Iranian countries long for his advent, for it is through him that the country will witness a year of plenty or of drought.[3] Men and beasts, the waters and all, look eagerly to the rising of the star Tishtrya, as he will send a flood of rain to fertilize their waste lands with water and bestow riches upon the earth, if the righteous faithfully offer him praise and worship.[4] The farmer yearns for a few drops of Tishtrya's rain to moisten his parched fields, the gardener longs for a shower to brighten the foliage. The land smiles with rich harvests as a result of his fertilizing waters.
Tishtrya complains before Ahura Mazda about the indifference of men who do not sacrifice unto him. When invoked with sacrifice, as are the other angels, he is willing to hasten to the help of the righteous, whether for a single night, or two nights, or fifty nights, or even a hundred nights.[5] Tishtrya affirms that owing to his power to further righteousness, he is worthy of sacrifice and invocation, and if people will offer him libations and Haoma in sacrifice, he will grant them heroic children, and purity unto their souls, the riches of oxen and horses.[6] He pours down water in abundance upon the earth, and brings prosperity unto the whole creation, when he receives the offering of a sacrifice and is propitiated, rejoiced, and satisfied.[7] Never, in that event, would the hostile horde invade the Aryan countries, nor would any calamity or evil of any kind befall them.[8] Yet in spite of all this, the bounteous kindness of Tishtrya grants boons to his votary whether he prays for them or not.[9]
His fight with the demon of drought. Tishtrya is opposed in his work of producing rain by his adversary Apaosha, the demon of drought, who keeps back the rain. The Tishtrya Yasht gives a picturesque account of the struggle between them.
