=The Aryan People.=—­These peoples then called themselves Aryans and lived to the north-west of India, either in the mountains of Pamir, or in the steppes of Turkestan or Russia; from this centre they dispersed in all directions.  The majority of the people—­Greeks, Latins, Germans, Slavs—­forgot their origin; but the sacred books of the Hindoos and the Persians preserve the tradition.  Effort has been made[22] to reconstruct the life of our Aryan ancestors in their mountain home before the dispersion.  It was a race of shepherds; they did not till the soil, but subsisted from their herds of cattle and sheep, though they already had houses and even villages.

It was a fighting race; they knew the lance, the javelin, and shield.  Government was patriarchal; a man had but one wife; as head of the family he was for his wife, his children, and his servants at once priest, judge, and king.  In all the countries settled by the Aryans they have followed this type of life—­patriarchal, martial, and pastoral.

PRIMITIVE RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS

=The Aryans on the Indus.=—­About 2,000 years before our era some Aryan tribes traversed the passes of the Hindu-Kush and swarmed into India.  They found the fertile plains of the Indus inhabited by a people of dark skin, with flat heads, industrious and wealthy; they called these aborigines Dasyous (the enemy).  They made war on them for centuries and ended by exterminating or subjecting them; they then gradually took possession of all the Indus valley (the region of the five rivers).[23] They then called themselves Hindoos.

=The Vedas.=—­These people were accustomed in their ceremonies to chant hymns (vedas) in honor of their gods.  These chants constituted a vast compilation which has been preserved to the present time.  They were collected, perhaps, about the fourteenth century B.C. when the Aryans had not yet passed the Indus.  The hymns present to us the oldest religion of the Hindoos.

=The Gods.=—­The Hindoo calls his gods devas (the resplendent).  Everything that shines is a divinity—­the heavens, the dawn, the clouds, the stars—­but especially the sun (Indra) and fire (Agni).

=Indra.=—­The sun, Indra, the mighty one, “king of the world and master of creatures,” bright and warm, traverses the heavens on a car drawn by azure steeds; he it is who hurls the thunderbolt, sends the rain, and banishes the clouds.  India is a country of violent tempests; the Hindoo struck with this phenomenon explained it in his own fashion.  He conceived the black cloud as an envelope in which were contained the waters of heaven; these beneficent waters he called the gleaming cows of Indra.  When the storm is gathering, an evil genius, Vritra, a three-headed serpent, has driven away the cows and enclosed them in the black cavern whence their bellowings are heard (the far-away rumblings of thunder).  Indra applies himself to the task of finding them; he strikes the cavern with his club, the strokes of which are heard (the thunderbolt), and the forked tongue of the serpent (the lightning) darts forth.  At last the serpent is vanquished, the cave is opened, the waters released fall on the earth, Indra the victor appears in glory.