They were a pastoral people--that is, their chief work was to
look after their herds of cattle and to till the earth. Of this
we find proof in the words and roots remaining of their language.
From the same source, also, we know that they lived in dwellings
built with wood and stone; that these dwellings were grouped
together in villages; that they were fenced in against enemies,
and that enclosures were formed to keep the cattle from straying,
and that roads of some kind were made from one village to
another. These things show that the Aryans had some claim to the
name they took, and that in comparison with their forefathers,
or with the savage or wandering tribes they knew, they had a
right to call themselves respectable, excellent, honourable,
masters, heroes--for all these are given as probable meanings
of their name. Their progress was shown in another way. The
rudest and earliest tribes of men used weapons of flint, roughly
shaped into axes and spear-heads, or other cutting implements,
with which they defended themselves in conflict, or killed the
beasts of chase, or dug up the roots on which they lived. The
Aryans were far in advance of this condition. They did not, it
is believed, know the use of iron, but they knew and used gold,
silver, and copper; they made weapons and other implements of
bronze; they had ploughs to till the ground, and axes, and
probably saws, for the purpose of cutting and shaping timber.
Of pottery and weaving they knew something: the western tribes
certainly used hemp and flax as materials for weaving, and when
the stuff was woven the women made it into garments by the use
of the needle. Thus we get a certain division of trades or
occupations. There were the tiller of the soil, the herdsman,
the smith who forged the tools and weapons of bronze, the joiner