intellectual, or (4) general social relations, or of any, or of all of these combined; and it was suggested that it is such an assimilation, and not unity of race, that unity of language rightly typifies."

"The sum of the whole was, that it is not safe to infer from affinity between the language of two nations more than this, that there was a time when there existed between them civil, religious, or some sort of social relations. Language was the product and token of a nation's political, moral, or intellectual, but not of its physical constitution. It would not reveal a people's genealogy, but its mental and social history.

"Should it ever be proved that all languages were derived from one original, the sole valid inference would be, that at some time one sovereign race had imposed upon all the rest its own political or social institutions, while the great question of the number of races would remain just where it stood."

8

NOTE D*.-Page 287.

"Strabo tells us that the tribes of the Persians, Medes, Bactrians, and Sogdians, spoke nearly the same language. We can have no difficulty in supposing that this similarity of speech which existed in Strabo's age, existed also in earlier times. The old Iranian dialects, of which the monuments have been still preserved to us, justify this assumption. Of these there are four, (1) the speech of the earlier Achæmenidæ, (2) that of the later Achæmenidæ, (3) the dialect of the Gathas, (4) the old Bactrian, the ordinary language of the Avesta. The last two dialects might perhaps also be embraced under the designation of Avestic. The first two of these dialects belong to western, the last two to eastern, Iran."-Spiegel, in Kuhn and Schleicher's Beiträge zur Vergl. Sprachf. ii. 6. I must refer to the original paper for further details regarding these dialects. I will only quote one or two remarks. In his account of the old Persian or earlier Achæmenidan dialect, Spiegel observes (p. 7), that, "we find in it all the classes of the Sanskrit alphabet represented, excepting the cerebrals, which have a purely local origin." (See above, p. 440,

[It is scarcely necessary to say that this has no connexion with the Indian Gathā dialect, described above, pp. 115, ff. — J.M.]

note.) At p. 13, he remarks: "We have pointed out in the entire grammar of the old Persian so much that is identical with the Sanskrit, that it may now be time to notice the differences which stamp it as a distinct language from the old Indian. Not a few such peculiarities are to be found in all the departments of grammar. In a phonetic aspect, there is this important deviation that the old Persian has the letter %, which is unknown to the Sanskrit, and that it, like the Greek, changes the Indians into h."-(See above, pp. 313, and 315).

NOTE E.-Page 296.

Rigveda ix. 113, 7-11. Yatra jyotir ajasram yasmin loke svar hitam | Tasmin mām dhehi pavamāna amṛite loke akshite | Yatra rājā Vaivasvato yatrāvarodhanam divaḥ | Yatrāmür yahvatir āpas tatra mām amṛitam kṛidhi | Yatrānukāmam charanam trināke tridive divaḥ | Lokaḥ yatra jyotishmantas tatra mām, etc. | Yatra kāmāḥ nikāmāścha yatra bradhnasya vishṭapam | Svadhā cha yatra triptiścha tatra mām, etc. | Yatrānandāścha modāścha mudaḥ pramuda āsate | Kāmasya yatrāptāḥ kāmās tatra mām, etc. | "Place me, O purified (Soma), in that undecaying unchanging region, where perpetual light and glory abide. Make me immortal in the world where king Vaivasvata (Yama) reigns, where the sanctuary of the sky is, and those great waters are. Make me immortal in the third heaven, where action is at pleasure, where the shining regions exist. Make me immortal in the world where all enjoyments abide, in the realm of the sun, where celestial food and satisfaction are found. Make me immortal in the world where there are manifold pleasures and joys, and where the objects of desire are attained." Benfey, Gloss. to Samaveda, under the word nikāma, renders svadhā and triptiḥ by "nectar and ambrosia." See the fifth vol. of this work, pp. 284, ff.

NOTE F.-Page 297.

I shall here translate or abstract the most important parts of Dr. Windischmann's Dissertation, "On the Soma-worship of the Arians." Dr. Windischmann begins with the following remarks: "If we advert to the striking contrast which exists between the doctrine of Zarathustra and the Brahmanical system, and to the fact that the former

must be looked on as the work of a reformer seeking to preserve the old nature-worship from the mythological transformations with which it was threatened, it must appear as a matter of the greater importance to throw light upon those points in which the two religions agree. For as regards those conceptions which existed before the two systems had developed their opposing principles, we may reasonably assume that they were possessed in common long before the separation of the Arian race into the Indian and Iranian branches, that they formed part of the (already existing, and distinguishable) religions of the Zendavesta and the Veda, and that they had been inherited from the most primitive tradition. Such traditions are, indeed, comparatively few; but the concurrence of those which have been preserved, is so much the more striking; as, for example, Lassen (Ind. Ant. i. 517) has shown in regard to the Iranian legend of king Yima, son of Vivanghat, who corresponds to the Indian Yama, son of Vivasvat. Yima, however, is regarded by the Medo-Persians as the first king, lawgiver, and founder of the Iranian worship, while Yama is looked on by the Brahmans as lord of Hades (R.V. i. 35, 6), and judge of the dead, and it is his brother Manu who plays the same part as Yima.” [See, however, p. 296, above.] "But by far the most remarkable analogy is that which exists between the Haoma of the Zendavesta and the Soma of the most ancient Brahmanical books, an analogy which is not confined to some few features of the legend, but extends to the entire Soma-worship of the early Arian race.

Both come

"Haoma and Soma are names etymologically identical. from the root su, in Zend hu, which signifies, 'to beget,' and also, but especially in the Vedic dialect, to 'drop,' or 'to press out juice.' In later Indian mythology Soma means the moon and its deity: but in the Zendavesta and the Vedas it signifies a celebrated plant, and its juice. This is the asclepias acida, or sarcostema viminalis, the expressed juice of which produces a peculiarly astringent, narcotic, and intoxicating effect. The plant, plucked up by the roots, is collected by moonlight on the mountains; stripped of its leaves; carried on a car drawn by two goats to the place of sacrifice (where a spot covered with grass and twigs is prepared); crushed between stones by the

9

9 Compare Stevenson's Translation of the Samaveda, p. iv. This work is repeatedly referred to in the sequel.

priests; and is then thrown, stalks as well as juice (sprinkled with water) into a sieve, whence, after the whole has been further pressed by the hand of the Brahmans, the juice trickles into a vessel (called drona) which is placed beneath. The fluid is then mixed with clarified butter, wheaten and other flour, and brought into a state of fermentation; it is then offered thrice a day, and partaken of by the Brahmans. The Samaveda is almost entirely made up of songs to accompany this ceremony; and the Rigveda, too, contains numerous passages which have reference to it. It was unquestionably the greatest and the holiest offering of the ancient Indian worship. The sound of the trickling juice is regarded as a sacred hymn. The gods drink the offered beverage; they long for it (as it does for them); they are nourished by it, and thrown into a joyous intoxication: this is the case with Indra (who performs his great deeds under its influence), with the Aśvins, the Maruts, and Agni. The beverage is divine, it purifies, it inspires greater joy than alcohol, it intoxicates Sakra, it is a water of life, protects and nourishes, gives health and immortality, prepares the way to heaven, destroys enemies, etc. The Samaveda distinguishes two kinds of Soma, the green and the yellow: but it is its golden colour which is for the most part celebrated.

"If we compare all this with what the Persians say of the Haoma plant, we find the most surprising agreement. Haoma is the first of the trees, planted by Ahura Mazda in the fountain of life. He who drinks of its juice never dies. According to the Bundehesh, the Gogard or Gokeren tree bears the Haoma, which gives health and generative power, and imparts life at the resurrection. The Haoma plant does not decay, bears no fruit, resembles the vine, is knotty, and has leaves like jessamine; it is yellow and white. Its juice is prepared and offered with sacred rites, and is called Parahaoma. Thus in Yaśna, iii. 5, it is said haomencha para-haomencha ayēśē, ‘I reverence the Haoma and the Para-haoma.'

"The fact that the Magians offered up a plant was known to Plutarch, 10 but what this plant was is not certain. The plant

10 The paragraph in which this information is found (of which Windischmann cites only a few words) is as follows:

Plutarch de Isid. et Osir. 46. Νομίζουσι γὰρ οἱ μὲν θεοὺς εἶναι δύο καθάπερ ἀντιτέχνους, τὸν μὲν ἀγαθῶν, τὸν δὲ φαύλων δημιουργόν· οἱ δὲ τὸν μὲν ἀμείνονα θεὸν, τὸν δὲ ἕτερον δαίμονα, καλοῦσιν· ὥσπερ Ζωρόαστρις ὁ μάγος, ὃν πεντακισχιλίοις ἔτεσι τῶν

seems to have changed with the locality; and the soma-plant of the Indians does not appear to be the same as the haoma of the Persians; at least the latter affirm that their sacrificial plant does not grow in India. Ahura Mazda causes the white haoma to grow among the numerous kinds of trees. A constant appellation of the haoma

is the gold-coloured (zairigaonō), just as in the Veda.

"But these are not the only points of resemblance between the Soma worship of the Indians and Persians. There is one other very important particular in which they both agree. In the Vedas, Soma is not merely a sacred sacrificial beverage, but also a god. This is proved by numerous passages of the Veda (Stevenson, p. 98); and in particular by the splendid hymn to Soma, Rigveda, i. 91. Precisely in the same manner, Haoma is, in the Zendavesta, not a plant only, but also a powerful deity; and in both works the conceptions of the god and the sacred juice blend wonderfully with each other. The most important passages regarding this personified Haoma are to be found in the 9th and 10th sections of the Yaśna, which are explained by striking analogies in the hymn of the Veda just referred to. The Τρωϊκῶν γεγονέναι πρεσβύτερον ἱστοροῦσιν. Οὗτος οὖν ἐκάλει τὸν μὲν Ωρομάζην, τὸν δὲ ̓Αρειμάνιον· καὶ προσαπεφαίνετο τὸν μὲν ἐοικέναι φωτὶ μάλιστα τῶν αἰσθητῶν, τὸν δε ἔμπαλιν σκότῳ καὶ ἀγνοίᾳ· μέσον δὲ ἀμφοῖν τὸν Μίθρην εἶναι· διὸ καὶ Μίθρην Πέρσαι τὸν μεσίτην ὀνομάζουσιν· ἐδίδαξε μὲν τῷ εὐκταῖα θύειν καὶ χαριστήρια, τῷ δὲ ἀποτρόπαια καὶ σκυθρωπά. Πόαν γάρ τινα κόπτοντες ὅμωμι καλουμένην ἐν ὅλμῳ, τὸν Αδην ἀνακαλοῦνται καὶ τὸν σκότον· εἶτα μίξαντες αἵματι λύκου σφαγέντος, εἰς τόπον ἀνήλιοι ἐκφέρουσι καὶ ῥίπτουσι. Καὶ γὰρ τῶν φυτῶν νομίζουσι τὰ μὲν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ θειν, τὰ δὲ τοῦ κακοῦ δαίμονος εἶναι· καὶ τῶν ζώων, ὥσπερ κύνας καὶ ὄρνιθας καὶ χερσαίους ἐχίνους, τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ· τοῦ δὲ φαύλου τοὺς ἐνύδρους εἶναι, διὸ καὶ τὸν κτείναντα πλείστους εὐδαιμονίζουσι.

"For some think that there are two gods, as it were opposed in their functions, the one the framer of good objects, the other of bad. Some call the more excellent being God, and the other Demon; as Zoroaster, the Magian, who is related to have lived 5000 years before the Trojan war. He called the one Ūromazes, the other Arimanius, and declared that the former resembled light most of all sensible things, and the latter darkness and ignorance. He also said that Mithras was intermediate between them. This is the reason why the Persians call Mithras the mediator. He taught them to sacrifice votive and thank-offerings to the one (Ūromazes), and to the other gloomy oblations to avert his wrath. For after pounding a certain herb called omōmi in a mortar, they invoke Pluto and darkness; and when they have mixed it with the blood of a slaughtered wolf, they carry it to a sunless spot and cast it away. For they also regard certain plants as belonging to the good deity, and others to the evil demon; and some animals, as dogs, and birds, and hedgehogs, to the former (and others as) sea-urchins, to the latter; and they felicitate those who have killed the greatest number of these last."