Persians-the _Vedas_ and the _Zend Avesta_--in which remains of
their language are found, and by means of which, therefore, we
get to know something about their dwelling-place, their manners,
their customs, their religion, and their legends--the source and
origin of our Fairy Tales.

In the _Zend Avesta_--the oldest sacred book of the Persians--or
in such fragments of it as are left, there are sixteen countries
spoken of as having been given by Ormuzd, the Good Deity, for
the Aryans to live in; and these countries are described as a
land of delight, which was turned, by Ahriman, the Evil Deity,
into a land of death and cold; partly, it is said, by a great
flood, which is described as being like Noah's flood recorded in
the Book of Genesis. This land, as nearly as we can make it out,
seems to have been the high, central district of Asia, to the
north and west of the great chain of mountains of the Hindu
Koush, which form the frontier barrier of the present country of
the Afghans. It stretched, probably, from the sources of the
river Oxus to the shores of the Caspian Sea; and when the Aryans
moved from their home, it is thought that the easterly portion
of the tribes were those who marched southwards into India and
Persia, and that those who were nearest the Caspian Sea marched
westwards into Europe. It is not supposed that they were all one
united people, but rather a number of tribes, having a common
origin--though what was this original stock is quite beyond any
knowledge we have, or even beyond our powers of conjecture. But,
though the Aryan peoples were divided into tribes, and were
spread over a tract of country nearly as large as half Europe,
we may properly describe them generally, for so far as our
knowledge goes, all the tribes had the same character.