traditions along with them. So, to find out who these people
were, we have to go back to the sacred books of the Hindus and
the Persians, and to pick out whatever facts may be found there,
and thus to build up the memorial of the Aryan race, just as
Professor Owen built up the great New Zealand bird.

It would take too long, and would be much too dry, to show how
this process has been completed step by step, and bit by bit.
That belongs to a study called comparative philology, and to
another called comparative mythology--that is, the studies of
words and of myths, or legends--which some of those who read
these pages may pursue with interest in after years. All that
need be done now is to bring together such accounts of the Aryan
people, our forefathers, as may be gathered from the writings of
the learned men who have made this a subject of inquiry, and
especially from the works of German and French writers, and more
particularly from those of Mr. Max Muller, an eminent German,
who lives amongst us in England, who writes in English, and who
has done more, perhaps, than anybody else, to tell us what we
know about this matter.

As to when the Aryans lived we know nothing, but that it was
thousands of years ago, long before history began. As to the
kind of people they were we know nothing in a direct way. They
have left no traces of themselves in buildings, or weapons, or
enduring records of any kind. There are no ruins of their
temples or tombs, no pottery--which often helps to throw light
upon ancient peoples-no carvings upon rocks or stones. It is
only by the remains of their language that we can trace them;
and we do this through the sacred books of the Hindus and