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Yazatas. The archangelic host of the Amesha Spentas, and some of the angel band of Yazatas have each a Daeva as a special adversary engaged in thwarting the divine will. Plutarch states that when Oromazdes created the six archangels, Areimanios counter-created an equal number of fiends.^[1] The arrangement, however, is perfunctory, if we examine the Younger Avestan text. The personality of the majority of these demons is not sharply defined, and the account of their activities, as found in the Later Avestan texts, is very vague and meagre. Some are mentioned simply by name, without any account of their function being added; it is only through the help of the Pahlavi literature that we can get a more definite idea of their place in the infernal group. Not only are the wicked spirits spoken of as the Daevas, but also the nomadic hordes of Gilan and Mazanderan, realms designated as Mazainya in the Avesta, that constantly burst with their infidel hordes of invaders into the settlements of the faithful, menacing their properties, devastating their fields, and carrying away their flocks, are branded as Daevas.^[2] The wicked sodomite is equally a daeva, and a worshipper of daevas, as well as a paramour of daevas; he is a daeva during life, and remains a daeva after death.^[3] All moral wrongs and physical obstacles are personified and catalogued in this scheme of demonology. To every disease is assigned its own demon as having been the cause of the malady The germs of disease and death, of plague and pestilence, are spoken of metaphorically as Daevas. The Fire of Ahura Mazda serves to kill such Daevas by thousands wherever the scent of the holy flame may spread.^[4] It is said that if the sun were not to rise, and the light of day should not curb their power to do harm under the cover of darkness, the Daevas would kill all living beings.^[5] In connection with such ideas of the power of evil, it may be understood that the Avestan texts teach that the ground wherein are interred the corpses of the dead is infested with myriads of the demons, who feed and revel on the spot as a consequence, for such a place is their favourite haunt.^[6] Even the dropping of nails and hair on the ground is an act of un-

1. Is. et Os. 47.
2. Ys. 27. 1; 57. 17; Yt. 5. 22; 9. 4; 10. 97; 13. 137; Vd. 10. 14, 16; 17. 9, 10.
3. Vd. 8. 31, 32.
4. Vd. 8. 80.
5. Yt. 6. 3; Ny. 1. 13.
6. Vd. 7. 55-58.