Zarahemla

“ When Cezoram was elected chief officer of the Nephite Commonwealth the people were in a pitiable condition. Through their apostasy from God, and disregard of the national law, they had been trampled under foot of the Lamanites, and half their lands, including their great and grand capital Zarahemla, was in the hands of these ruthless foes. ”

“ On the western bank of the river Sidon was built the city of Zarahemla. From the time of its first occupancy by the Nephites, to the date of its destruction by fire at the crucifixion, it was the capital or chief city of the nation, the centre of its commercial activities, and the seat of government. ”

“ He proclaimed that whatsoever a man did was no crime, for when a man was dead there was an end thereof.
As a missionary Korihor was, for a short time, a success. We first hear of him preaching his satanic doctrines in the land of Zarahemla, and, as he claimed to fully believe all he taught, the law could not touch him, as full religious liberty was guaranteed under the constitution and laws of the Nephite commonwealth. From Zarahemla he went to the land of Jershon, to inoculate the Ammonites with his soul-destroying vagaries. ”

“ I, the Lord, see that most of the people in Zarahemla will harden their hearts against me. I, the Lord, will save those who repent. If it were not for the righteous people in this great city, I would have already rained down fire from heaven and destroyed it. But for the sake of the righteous this city has been spared. When the times comes that you drive the righteous out, then your city will be ready for destruction. The city of Gideon is also cursed because of its wickedness and great sins. All the Nephite cities in this region are cursed for their great wickedness. ”

“ Our brethren in Minon are running from them with their flocks, wives and children toward our city! Unless we hurry back to our city, our enemies will obtain it and our families will be killed!"
Alma quickly led the Nephite army back to their own city, Zarahemla. As they were crossing the Sidon River, the Lamanites and the Amlicites, who seemed to be as numerous as the sands of the sea, came upon them. ”

“ Our readers must decide for themselves which distance per day is the most likely that a company, driving their flocks and herds before them, would advance through an unexplored wilderness, full of natural hindrances, and without roads, bridges, ferries and other helps to the traveler.
Zarahemla was situated on the Sidon, certainly a considerable distance from its head waters, as other lands and cities [Pg 309] (such as Minon and Manti) are mentioned as lying far above it. ”

“ And it came to pass that there was a voice heard among all the inhabitants of the earth, upon all the face of this land, crying: Wo, wo, wo unto this people; wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall repent; for the devil laugheth, and his angels rejoice, because of the slain of the fair sons and daughters of my people; and it is because of their iniquity and abominations that they are fallen! Behold, that great city of Zarahemla have I burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof. ”

“ Zarah turned deadly pale; her frame trembled. "Oh, Lycidas, have mercy upon me!" she gasped. "It is sin in me even to listen; it were cruelty to suffer you to hope. Our law forbids a daughter of Abraham to wed a Gentile; to return your love would be rebellion against my God, apostasy from the faith of my fathers; better to suffer—better to die!"—and with an effort releasing her icy-cold hand from the clasp of the man whom she loved, Zarah sprang hurriedly past him, and with the speed of a frightened gazelle fled up the staircase, and back into the chamber in which she had left Hadassah. ”

“ We remember that the Hebrew king exclaimed: “My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me,” and how the Apostle confessed himself “the chief of sinners.” With no such aching consciousness of weakness does the Zarathustrian bow himself before God. There is all the pride of self-righteousness in his prayer. Thus:
“I remain standing fast in the statutes of the law which Ahura-Mazda gave to Zarathustra. As long as life endures I will stand fast in good thoughts in my soul, in good words in my speech, in good deeds in my actions. ”

“ Why gaze ye not, Xarifa, with all the gazing town?
Hear, hear the trumpet how it swells, and how the people cry!
He stops at Zara's palace gate--why sit ye still--oh, why?"
"At Zara's gate stops Zara's mate; in him shall I discover
The dark-eyed youth pledged me his truth with tears, and was my lover?
I will not rise, with dreary eyes, nor lay my cushion down,
To gaze on false Andalla with all the gazing town!"
ZARA'S EAR-RINGS
"My ear-rings! my ear-rings! they've dropped into the well,
And what to say to Muça, I cannot, cannot tell." ”

“ As a matter of fact, it was she who was bored of the life she led in Limehouse—in chilly, misty Limehouse—and who had grown so very lonely since Safiyeh had come. In the dark gray eyes looking up at her she read recognition of her secret. Here was a man possessing that rare masculine attribute, intuition. Zahara knew a fear that was half delightful. Fear because she might fail in either of two ways and delight because the contest was equal. ”

“ She comes in the shape of a well-built, beautiful, tall, high-up girded maiden of noble birth. [340]
Her supplicants. Haoshyangha, Yima, Thraetaona, Haoma, Haosravah, before Zoroaster, as well as the prophet himself and King Vishtaspa, his royal patron and helper in the propagation of the new faith, are among the most illustrious of her supplicants. These worshippers severally offered her sacrifices and asked for various boons from her, which she granted in answer to their prayers. [341] The most favoured among her votaries is Zarathushtra himself; for him her loving regard is great. ”

“ Zaramilla, wife of Tinacrio, king of Micomicon, in Egypt. He was told that his daughter would succeed him, that she would be dethroned by the giant Pandafilando, but that she would find in Spain the gallant knight of La Mancha, who would redress her wrongs, and restore her to her throne.--Cervantes, Don Quixote, I. iv. 3 (1605) .
Zaraph, the angel who loved Nama. It was Nama’s desire to love intensely and to love holily, but as she fixed her love on an angel and not on God, she was doomed to abide on earth till the day of consummation ”

“ But not one moment's breathing-space is given him to start to his feet, or grasp the sword which he has carried hung round his neck. He cannot rise, he cannot resist; swords are gleaming above him; those who have thrown down the ladder seize the Greek to hurl him after it! A thought of Zarah flashes across the reeling brain of the young man, is it not his last?—no, a broad shield is suddenly thrust between Lycidas and his assailants, they shrink back from the sweep of a terrible sword; up the other ladder the strong and brave have pressed with irresistible force ”

“ We have spoken of Zarathustra’s religion as originally monotheistic; its purity, however, was not long preserved, and the cause of its corruption lay in itself. Zarathustra could not deny the existence of Evil, and to explain it was driven to concoct an extraordinary hypothesis. As in every electrified object there are two poles, a positive and a negative, so, according to the Prophet, in Ahura-Mazda, and in all rational beings, man included, are present a good and holy Will, and its shadow or negative,—a higher and a lower nature,—the Positive and the Negative Mind. ”

“ Ahura Mazda has, in one will with Asha, made them. [35] Zarathushtra prays that he and Vishtaspa may successfully proclaim them. [36] Whoso explains these sacred formulas unto the wise reaps joy. [37] Zarathushtra is the friend of one who chants them with homage; [38] and invokes Ahura Mazda to help him through Asha. [39] He rouses all those that recite them to religious life. [40] He gains the best reward who proclaims the true words of righteousness, weal, and immortality. [41] He who follows righteousness under the inspiration of the Manthras gains weal and immortality. ”

“ Thus the Zarvanites represented Ormazd and Ahriman as twin sons proceeding from the fundamental principle of all—Zrvana Akarana, or limitless time.
Ethically, too, the new doctrine stands on a higher plane, and represents, in its moral laws, a superior civilization. The devil-worshippers, at their sacrifices, slay the ox; and this the daēvas favour, for they are foes to the cattle and to cattle-breeding, and friends to those who work ill to the cow. In Zoroaster's eyes this is an abomination: for the cow is a gift of Ormazd to man, and the religion of Mazda protects the sacred animal. ”

“ He chanted the Ahuna Vairya and drove back the demons beneath the earth. [35] Haoma says that Zarathushtra drove back beneath the earth the daevas that were stalking the earth in the shape of human beings. [36] He was the first among mortals who brought the demons to nought, who first proclaimed the word that worked their destruction, and who first denounced their creation as unworthy of sacrifice and prayer. [37] Angra Mainyu, the wicked and deadly, howled in impotent rage that Zarathushtra alone succeeded in routing and smiting him where all the Yazatas failed to encompass his defeat. ”

“ Many slight circumstances then recurred to Zarah's memory to confirm her suspicions, especially the anguish which Hadassah had betrayed at the burial of Solomona, when a strange pang of envy had seemed to intensify that of bereavement. Zarah was as one bending lower and lower over that pit of which she longed, yet dreaded, to sound the depths, straining her eyes to penetrate the darkness, while trembling to think what horrors that darkness might hide.
"Is it possible that my father may yet be breathing on earth, living—the life of an apostate!" ”

“ CHAPTER XVII. DEPARTED. When Zarah, trembling and pale, after her interview with Lycidas, fled to the apartment of Hadassah, she left her water-jar behind her at the spring. The sight of her grandmother, stretched on her low couch, with her eyes closed, and her lips parched and dry, recalled to the remembrance of the poor young maiden the errand for which she had quitted her side.
"The water! the water!" exclaimed Zarah, striking her brow. "She must have it. But oh! I dare not—I dare not go back; for nothing on earth could I go through that terrible struggle again!" ”

“ Besides invoking Ardvi Sura Anahita as the Yazata of water, the waters themselves are collectively invoked to grant boons. Zarathushtra is asked to offer a libation to the waters and to ask from them riches, power, and worthy offspring, [521] a happy and a joyful abode in this world and the next, accompanied by riches and glory. [522] The faithful pray that these waters may not be for those of evil thoughts, evil words, evil deeds, and evil religion, neither for the tormentors of their friends, neighbours, relatives, and priests. ”

“ Allusions to Zarathushtra in classical literature. In absence of any authentic Iranian data regarding the age and place of Zarathushtra's birth, we eagerly turn to the testimony of the classical writers who have written up to the time of the close of the Avestan period. [44] The information, however, that we derive from them is fragmentary and mostly legendary. The cycle of legends has formed around him and he is undiscernibly remote from the writers. His name is given variously as Zaras, Zaratas, Zaratus and Zoroaster. ”

“ Zora, child of the swamp, was a heathen hoyden of twelve wayward, untrained years. Slight, straight, strong, full-blooded, she had dreamed her life away in wilful wandering through her dark and sombre kingdom until she was one with it in all its moods; mischievous, secretive, brooding; full of great and awful visions, steeped body and soul in wood-lore. Her home was out of doors, the cabin of Elspeth her port of call for talking and eating. ”

“ Zarathrustra is born to his father as a reward for offering an ancient sacrifice, the sacrifice of Haoma. He himself dresses the fire at daybreak before he comes forth to announce his new doctrine; and even while announcing it he sacrifices to the old gods Verethraghna and Ardviçura; the gods whom the heroes of the old days invoke appear to him also, the prophet of the new teaching; they demand that he shall offer sacrifice, and insist on their worship; they grant him favour and gifts. ”

“ Following these instructions, Zoram and his sons led the Nephite armies across the Sidon and marched into the south wilderness on the east side of the river. There, they came upon the enemy, scattered them and drove them further into the wilderness. They also rescued all the Nephite prisoners and restored them to their own lands. ”

“ Zarathushtra invokes Haoma and asks from him intelligence, courage, victory, health, increase, prosperity, vigour of body, and power to rule at will, and to smite the wicked that he may vanquish the evil done by the wicked men and demons. [303] The prophet further prays to him for health of the body, long duration of life, the all-shining abode of the righteous, the realization of his wishes on earth, a complete triumph over the wicked and a foreknowledge of the evil intents of the wicked. ”

“ In reality it was a perfectly natural, instinctive movement. To Zahara her own beauty was a commonplace to be displayed or concealed as circumstances might dictate. In a certain sense, which few could appreciate, this half-caste dancing girl and daughter of El Wasr was as innocent as a baby. It was one of the things which men did not understand. She thought that if Harry Grantham asked her to go away with him it would be nice to go. Suddenly she realized how deep was her loathing of this Limehouse and of the people she met there, who were all alike. ”