homage, will in their turn make him happy. He says naïvely, "Give
sacrifice to the gods for their profit, and they will requite you.
Just as men traffic by the discussion of prices, let us exchange
force and vigor, O Indra. Give to me and I will give to you; bring to
me and I will bring to you."

=Ancestor Worship.=--At the same time the Hindoo adores his ancestors
who have become gods, and perhaps this cult is the oldest of all. It
is the basis of the family. The father who has transmitted the "fire
of life" to his children makes offering every day at his hearth-fire,
which must never be extinguished, the sacrifice to gods and ancestors,
and utters the prayers. Here it is seen that among Hindoos, as among
other Aryans, the father is at once a priest and a sovereign.


THE BRAHMANIC SOCIETY

=The Hindoos on the Ganges.=--The Hindoos passing beyond the region of
the Indus, between the fourteenth and tenth century B.C. conquered all
the immense plains of the Ganges. Once settled in this fertile
country, under a burning climate, in the midst of a people of slaves,
they gradually changed customs and religion. And so the Brahmanic
society was established. Many works in Sanscrit are preserved from
this time, which, with the Vedas, form the sacred literature of the
Hindoos. The principal are the great epic poems, the Mahabarata, which
has more than 200,000 verses; the Ramayana with 50,000, and the laws
of Manou, the sacred code of India.

=Caste.=--In this new society there were no longer, as in the time of
the Vedas, poets who chanted hymns to the gods. The men who know the