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EVIL
273

Aeshma

The demon of wrath. This evil genius of wrath and fury, who conies down from the Gathic period, works in opposition to Sraosha. He is full of sin,[1] and is the wielder of a bloody mace.[2] Ahura Mazda created Sraosha to counteract his fiendish mischief.[3] The faithful invoke Sraosha to protect them from his assaults.[4] Sraosha hurls his mace at this demon's skull, and the fiend takes to flight before Mithra.[5] Intoxicating drinks incite men to embrace Aeshma, but the recital of the holy spells helps to dispel him.[6]

Buiti

The tempter of Zarathushtra. The nineteenth chapter of the Vendidad contains an account of the temptation of Zarathushtra by the Evil Spirit. Angra Mainyu decreed in his infernal council amid the bickerings of the demons with one another that Buiti, who is death unseen, should go to the world and lure Zarathushtra from his constancy. The righteous one chants the sacred Ahuna Vairya formula and dispels the demon, who rushes away to report his inability to overpower the holy prophet.[7] Buidhi is the name of a demon found in Vd. 11. 9, 12, which may be a variant reading of Buiti.

Apaosha

The demon of drought. The Yasht dedicated to Tishtrya gives a picturesque account of the battle waged between the angel of rain and the demon of drought. Tishtrya assumes three different forms for ten nights each. For the first ten nights he takes the form of a youth of fifteen years of age, for the second ten nights he moves along in the shape of a golden-horned bull, and the last ten nights in the shape of a beautiful white horse, with golden ears and a golden caparison, seeking libations and offerings, so that he may bestow upon his supplicants oxen, children, and horses.[8] When he proceeds to his work of pour-

  1. Yt. 10. 97.
  2. Ys. 10. 8; Yt. 11. 15.
  3. Yt. 11. 15.
  4. Ys. 57. 25.
  5. Ys. 57. 10; Yt. 10. 97.
  6. Ys. 10. 8; Yt. 17. 5; Vd. 11. 9.
  7. Vd. 19. 1-3.
  8. Yt. 8. 13-19.