Fire

worshipers (the Tin-pai-te of Chinese records) still dwell at Balti, south of Khotén, adjoining Tibet. These are still herdsmen, living in caves, and in felt tents, raising no crops, but tending flocks like the Vedik Aryans, They never mix with the Turanians (Royal Asiatic Society Journal, January 1891, p. 6). The Dards again, east of Afghanistan, are believed to be another Aryan remnant. [The Aryans came to be regarded as identical with the old longheaded stock of Europe—as found in the Cannstatt and Engis caves. But such skulls do not show us either the complexion or the language of any race——Ep.] In 1887 the theory of Penka (1883-1886) was advocated by Dr Sayce and others before the British A ociation, and it was argued that the Aryans (as shown by words common to all Aryan speech) first dwelt in a forest-clad land, near to seas, and with a severe winter; knowing the seal, beaver, wolf, fox, hare, elk, and other deer; the eel, lobster, and salmon; and among trees, the fir, beech, birch, oak, and hazel; and moreover that, while fair races easily become dark, the dark do not become light—witne Esquimaux, Lapps, Samoyeds, and others. [These arguments were le forceable than thought. The oldest Aryans may have been as fair as the Aryanised Finns, but may, not the le , have lived in the cold regions N. of the Caspian. The habitat of the fauna and flora was a umed to be peculiar to the Baltic shores; and no notice was taken of the scientific work of Wallace as to the distribution of species. There are seals in the Black Sea and in the Caspian; elks in Caucasus, and salmon in the Volga; there are firs in Pontus, and beeches in Asia Minor, and even in Syria; the birch grows far east in Northern Asia, and the oak is very widespread.—Ep. | We fall back on our old text that “none can know their genesis.” Profe or Max Miiller on the Homes of the Aryans (1888) di ipates ‘many such arguments, and still places the Aryan home “somewhere in Asia.” He shows a centre north of the Kaspian whence radiated {as Dr Otto Schrader also supposes) the six great Aryan stocks of Europe—Slav, Greek, Italian, Keltik, Teutonik, and Skandinavian; while to the S.E. the Aryans, proceeding to Baktria, separated into Tranians and Aryas proper at a much later period. But we see no reason for being “herewith content”; for purely linguistik arguments, unduly pre ed, tend to hinder progre in the study of ethnography, and in comparisons of religious customs. From prehistorik times central west Asia has contained not only Turanians, but also Airanians, or “riverine” peoples (see Rey, S. Koell, Royal Asiatic Socy. Journal, April 1882). The Mazdean author of the Zend scripture called Vendidad (i, 1-3), perhaps before 500 28,c., speaks of the Aryana-Vego, or “ Aryan home,” as on the “good river Daitya,” which is traditionally the Araxes, flowing from near Mt. Ararat eastwards to the Kaspian (see Daityas). This indicates a descent through the Caucasus, after the great schism between Iranians and Aryas, probably at least 4000 years ago. That the race originally came from further north is clear; for the Vendidad says that this Aryan home had ten months of winter and only two of summer; and that a summer day was as long as two summer nights, and a winter night as long as two winter days. ‘These facts would not apply further south than 49°50! north latitude, which brings us immediately north of the Kaspian Sea, [If the tradition that the Daitya River is the Araxes be reliable, these Aryans would be Medes, who were known—bearing Aryan names— in this region to the A yrians before 800 Bc, The chapter quoted of the Vendidid (or “law against fiends”) mentions, among the earliest lands reached from the Aryan home, ten countries, the first of which is Sogdiana, the second Merv, the third Baktria, the sixth probably Herat, the ninth Hyrkania, and the tenth probably Rhages in Media. This represents the Persians as coming round the east side of the Caspian, and then turning west.—Ep.] 187