another important section of Pahlavi literature, but immediately
connected with the daily ordinary life. It goes without saying that
whoever read them in the original, their interest did not lie in their
theoretical character, but that they were rendered into Arabic and
modern Persian languages with a view to the same practical end. Hence
however monotonous they are,[1] whatever wearisome character these books
possess, they are of great interest for the purpose of comparison with
similar productions of Musalman literature and for the purpose of
establishing their influence in the unfolding of ethical ideas of the
Musalman east, which are far from being clearly made manifest. This side
of the question deserves, in my opinion, in these days ampler attention
and research.

[Footnote 1: See Noeldeke "_Persische Studien_" II, S.B.W.A, 1892, 29,
Noeldeke remarks, with reference to this class of literature, "that the
investigation of this fatiguing business demands an unusual amount of
patience", see for instance, the comparison instituted between ethical
norm in the Parsi and in the Musalman Literature by Darmesteter in
_Revue Critique_, 21, 1-8.]

2. The second book in the Fihrist is attributed to a _Mobedan-mobed_
that is, head of the Parsi clergy, who in Arabic texts is sometimes
called simply Al-Mobedan and whose name was not understood by Flugel[1].
The same word is met with in a mutilated form in another place in the
Fihrist[2]. (119-20).

[Footnote 1: Fugel took it for a dual, and consequently divided the name
into two.]

[Footnote 2: The book next following is called _Kitab kay Lorasp_ and