Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/34

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IN OLD IRÂN.
19

which should deter us from trusting implicitly to their guidance?

It is admitted that no two nations have ever succeeded in thoroughly understanding the manners and customs of each other. If this is so in our own day, when the means of information are numerous and ready to hand, what can we expect in those remote ages when the sources of information were very few and very uncertain. Again, it is necessary to be on our guard against putting absolute faith in any particular Greek writer.—Regarding Xanthus, Dr. Windischmann, in his German essay on classical testimony relating to Zoroaster, published in his posthumous work Zoroastrische Studien, states (p. 268):—"As to the authenticity of the works of Xanthus (B. C. 529), a later writer, Artemon of Cassandra, advanced some doubts, and believed that they were substituted five centuries after by one Dionysius Skytobrachion (f. about B. C. 120), a native of Alexandria." This view is supported, as the writer says, by his tutor, Prof. Welcher. Also it is the opinion

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