resemblance between all this and the Muhammadan legend of Muhammad's Miraj.

In the Zardusht-Namah, a work which was probably composed in the thirteenth century of the Christian era, there is related a legend that Zoroaster himself, centuries earlier than Arta Viraf, ascended up to heaven, and afterwards obtained permission to visit hell also. There we are told he saw Ahriman, who closely corresponds with the Iblis of the Qur'an.

Nor are such legends confined to the Persian portion of the Aryan world. In Sanskrit also we have similar tales, among which may be mentioned the Indralokagamanam, or "Journey to the World of Indra," the god of the atmosphere. There we are told that the hero Arjuna made a journey through the heavens, where he saw Indra's heavenly palace, named Vaivanti, which stands in the garden called Nandanam. The Hindu books tell us that ever-flowing streams water the fresh, green plants that grow in that beautiful place, and in its midst there stands a tree called Pakshajati, bearing a fruit styled Amrita or Immortality, the αμβροσια of Greek poets, of which whoever eats never dies. Beautiful flowers of varied hues adorn that tree; and whoever rests under its shade is granted the fulfilment of whatever desire he may conceive in his heart.

The Zoroastrians have also an account of the existence of a marvellous tree, called Hvapa in the

Avesta and Humaya in Pahlavi, the meaning in each case being "possessed of good water," "well watered." In the Vendidad it is described in these words:— "In ¹ purity do the waters flow from the sea of Puitika into the sea of Vourukasha, to the tree Hvapa: there grow all plants and of all kinds." Hvapa and Pakshajati are identical with the Tuba' or tree of "goodness" of the Muhammadan paradise, which is too well known to need description here.

It must, however, be noted that very similar legends are found in certain Christian apocryphal works also, especially in the "Visio Pauli" and the "Testament of Abraham," to the latter of which we have already had to refer more than once. In the "Visio Pauli" we are told that Paul ascended to the heavens and beheld the four rivers of Paradise and Abraham also viewed the wonders of the heavens in his legendary "Testament," each returning to earth to relate what he had seen, just as Arta Viraf and Muhammad are said to have done. Of Abraham it is said: "And ² the archangel Michael descended and took Abraham up upon a cherubic chariot, and he raised him aloft into the ether of the sky, and brought him and sixty angels upon the cloud and Abraham was travelling over the whole inhabited earth upon a conveyance."

This "cherubic chariot" assumes another form