The Orion, or Researches into the Antiquity of the Vedas c10.27

c10.27

which has been thus rendered by Mr. Mills in his translation of the Zend Avesta, Part III., in the Sacred Books of the East Series (P. 238):—"Forth has Mazda borne to thee, the star-bespangled girdle, the spirit-made, the ancient one, the Mazda-Yanian Faith." Dr. Haug takes *paurvanim* in the original to mean "leading the *paurvas*," which latter he believes to be the Persian name for the Pleiades, which is variously written *parù*, *parvah*, *parvîn* and *parvîz*.† This keen-sighted suggestion of Dr. Haug has been pronounced by Mr. Mills as "doubtful, and refuted by Vistasp Yasht 29, where Darmesteter renders a word probably akin as 'the many.'" But excepting this difference of opinion all agree in holding this Yasht to be an ancient one, "a reproduction of an Aryan original,"* and that the verse above given contains a description of the belt of Orion. Orion is Haoma, the Soma of the Indians which is its presiding deity in the Vedic works, and the above verse states that God has given a natural star-studded girdle to Haoma. This girdle is, therefore, no other than the belt of Orion. The verse in the Haoma Yasht, however suggests more than it denotes. Both Haug and Mills have used the word 'girdle' in the translation. But whether we use 'girdle' or 'belt,' it hardly conveys the idea of the original *awyaonghanem*. It is a striking instance of how in translations we sometimes lose the force of the original. *Aiwyaonghana* is a Zend word for the *kusti*, or the sacred thread of the Parsis, which they wear round their waist. The 'girdle' or the 'belt' of Orion is thus said to be his *kusti*, and though we may have no more traces of the 'belt' or the 'club' of Orion in the Parsi scriptures, the above verse at once directs our attention to the place where we may expect to find the traces of Orion's belt in the Indian works. I have before pointed out that Orion or Mrigashiras is called Prajapati in the Vedic works, otherwise called Yajna. A belt or girdle or a piece of cloth round the waist of Orion or Yajna will therefore be naturally named after him as *yajnopavita*, the *upavita*, or the cloth of Yajna. The term, however, now denotes the sacred thread of the Brahmans, and it may naturally be asked whether it owes its character, if not the origin, to the belt of Orion. I think it does on the following grounds.