Page:The Works of Shoshee Chunder Dutt, First Series, Vol 1.djvu/165

two parts, ancient and modern; the first of which begins with much that is fabulous, and terminates with the conquest of the kingdom by the Arabians under Omar, while the second brings up the account from the latter point to the present day. The Persians do not profess to know who the first parents of the human race were. They believe time to be divided into a succession of cycles or periods, like the Yugs of the Hindus, and allege that Mahábud was the person left at the end of the last great cycle, and was consequently the father of the present world. This Mahábud was blessed with a numerous progeny, who originally lived in the caves and clefts of rocks, but whom he taught to construct houses and towns, plant gardens, rear sheep, and make clothing out of the fleeces of their flocks, and also all the benefits of commerce and art. Mahábud had thirteen successors of the same name, during whose reigns the world enjoyed a golden age. The last of these princes, abdicating his throne, retired to a life of penitence and devotion, upon which men began to become wicked, and soon converted the earth into a theatre of rapine and murder. To restore order, a saint named Jyaffram received the divine command to assume the throne, and established the Jyanian dynasty. He was succeeded by his son, Sháh Kuleev, the line extending to Mahábool, whom it has been attempted to identify, on the one side, with Belus of Assyria, and, on the other, with Bali, or Mahá-Bali, of the Hindus. After Mahábool a new dynasty was established by his son Yessan, which terminated with a prince named Ájum, or Yessan-Ájum; when the wickedness of mankind having exceeded all bounds, an internecine war broke out which nearly depopulated the earth. The Persian accounts do not anywhere speak of the general Flood. They only assert