Father--père (French), pitar (Sanscrit), pater (Greek and Latin). It
is the same word pronounced in various ways. From this (and other such
examples) it has been concluded that all--Hindoos, Persians, Greeks,
Latins, Celts, Germans, Slavs--once spoke the same language, and
consequently were one people.

=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