Editing Haoma (section)

===Darmesteter===
[[James Darmesteter]], in his 1875 thesis on the mythology of the Avesta, speculating on the [[Parsi people|Parsi]] belief that Ephedra twigs do not decay, wrote:<blockquote>...&nbsp;it comprises the power of life of all the vegetable kingdom ... both the Ved[as] and the Avesta call it the 'king of healing herbs' ... the zarathustri scriptures say that homa is of two kinds, the white haoma and the painless tree. Could it be that soma is the [[tree of life]]? the giver of immortality?</blockquote>

The Indian-Zoroastrian belief mentioned above also manifests itself in the present-day Zoroastrian practice of administering a few drops of ''parahaoma'' to the new-born or dying (see [[Ab-Zohr]]). The belief also appears to be very old, and be cross-cultural. As Falk, recalling [[Marc Aurel Stein|Aurel Stein]]'s discovery of Ephedra plants interred at 1st-century CE [[Tarim Basin]] burial sites, notes: "an imperishable plant, representing or symbolizing the continuity of life, is most appropriate to burial rites".{{Citation needed|date=May 2023}}