And when we compare certain words in different Aryan languages, we often
find them alike in form and meaning. Thus, take the word _father_. This
word occurs with but little change of form in several of the Aryan
tongues. [Footnote: Sanscrit, _pitri_; Persian, _padar_; Greek, _pater_;
Latin, _pater_; German, _vater_.] From this we infer that the remote
ancestors of the now widely separated Aryan peoples once lived together
and had a common speech.

Our knowledge of the prehistoric culture of the Aryans, gained through the
sciences of comparative philology and mythology, may be summed up as
follows: They personified and worshipped the various forces and parts of
the physical universe, such as the Sun, the Dawn, Fire, the Winds, the
Clouds. The all-embracing sky they worshipped as the Heaven-Father
(_Dyaus-Pitar_, whence Jupiter). They were herdsmen and at least
occasional farmers. They introduced the sheep, as well as the horse, into
Europe: the Turanian people whom they displaced had neither of these
domestic animals. In social life they had advanced to that stage where the
family is the unit of society. The father was the priest and absolute lord
of his house. The families were united to form village-communities ruled
by a chief, or patriarch, who was assisted by a council of elders.

IMPORTANCE OF ARYAN STUDIES.--This picture of life in the early Aryan
home, the elements of which are gathered in so novel a way, is of the very
greatest historical value and interest. In these customs and beliefs of
the early Aryans, we discover the germs of many of the institutions of the
classical Greeks and Romans, and of the nations of modern Europe. Thus, in
the council of elders around the village patriarch, political historians
trace the beginnings of the senates of Greece and Rome and the national
parliaments of later times.