vanished age is of great aesthetic value, and contains much that is
genuine poetry. It enables us to get an estimate of the primitive
society which produced it--the oldest book of the Aryan race.
The principal means of sustenance were cattle-keeping and the
cultivation of the soil with plough and harrow, mattock and hoe,
and watering the ground when necessary with artificial canals.
"The chief food consists," as Kaegi says, "together with bread,
of various preparations of milk, cakes of flour and butter, many
sorts of vegetables and fruits; meat cooked on the spits or in pots,
is little used, and was probably eaten only at the great feasts and
family gatherings. Drinking plays throughout a much more important
part than eating [Footnote ref 1]." The wood-worker built war-chariots
and wagons, as also more delicate carved works and artistic cups.
Metal-workers, smiths and potters continued their trade. The
women understood the plaiting of mats, weaving and sewing;
they manufactured the wool of the sheep into clothing for men
and covering for animals. The group of individuals forming a
tribe was the highest political unit; each of the different families
forming a tribe was under the sway of the father or the head of
the family. Kingship was probably hereditary and in some cases
electoral. Kingship was nowhere absolute, but limited by the
will of the people. Most developed ideas of justice, right and
law, were present in the country. Thus Kaegi says, "the hymns
strongly prove how deeply the prominent minds in the people
were persuaded that the eternal ordinances of the rulers of the
world were as inviolable in mental and moral matters as in the
realm of nature, and that every wrong act, even the unconscious,
was punished and the sin expiated."[Footnote ref 2] Thus it is only right
and proper to think that the Aryans had attained a pretty high degree