related by marriage as well as by blood. A welcome greeted the
birth of children, as of those who brought joy to the home; and
the love that should be felt between brother and sister was
shown in the names given to them: _bhratar_ (or brother) being
he who sustains or helps; _svasar_ (or sister) she who pleases
or consoles. The daughter of each household was called _duhitar,_
from _duh_, a root which in Sanskrit means to milk, by which we
know that the girls in those days were the milking-maids.
Father comes from a root, _pa_, which means to protect or
support; mother, _matar_, has the meaning of maker."[1]

Now we may sum up what we know of this ancient people and
their ways; and we find in them much that is to be found in
their descendants--the love of parents and children, the
closeness of family ties, the protection of life and property,
the maintenance of law and order, and, as we shall see
presently, a great reverence for _God_. Also, they were well
versed in the arts of life--they built houses, formed villages
or towns, made roads, cultivated the soil, raised great herds
of cattle and other animals; they made boats and land-carriages,
worked in metals for use and ornament, carried on trade with
each other, knew how to count, and were able to divide their
time so as to reckon by months and days as well as by seasons.
Besides all this, they had something more and of still higher
value, for the fragments of their ancient poems or hymns
preserved in the Hindu and Persian sacred books show that they
thought much of the spirit of man as well as of his bodily
life; that they looked upon sin as an evil to be punished or
forgiven by the Gods, that they believed in a life after the
death of the body, and that they had a strong feeling for