Chapter XIV: (pp. 177-192)

Recurring to the affinity of Ireland with ancient Persia (Iran), the history of the latter country is traced from its settlement by the _Aryans_. According to tradition preserved in the collection of sacred books known as the _Zendavesta_, the original seat of that people was the _Eriene-Veedjo_, a district situated in the north-western highlands of Asia, of great fertility, and enjoying a singularly mild climate, having seven months of summer and five of winter. Then “the death-dealing Ahriman smote it with the plague of cold, so that it came to have ten months of winter and only two of summer”; and was in consequence deserted by its inhabitants, who gradually overspread the low-lying countries, as far south as the Indus, including _Fars_, as Persia was then termed. They were a vigorous and energetic race these Aryans, who soon became dominant in their new quarters, substituting the name of their own country (_Iran_, or the _sacred land_, formed from the ancient Zend _Eriene_) for that of Fars, and founding a dynasty, or rather succession of dynasties, which superseded the government formerly in existence. The mixture of races led to a certain diversity of language, and thus originated the Zend and _Pahlavi_ or Sanskrit dialects, which bear a remarkable affinity to Irish (cf. _Palaver_). There was further a diversity of religions, the old religion of _Hushang_, a predecessor of Zoroaster, being professed by many long after fire-worship became the dominant faith of Persia.