his own household. The chieftain
acts as father and priest to the tribe; but at the greater festivals he
chooses some one specially learned in holy offerings to conduct the
sacrifice in the name of the people. The king himself seems to have been
elected; and his title of Vis-pat, literally "Lord of the Settlers,"
survives in the old Persian Vis-paiti, and as the Lithuanian Wiez-patis
in east-central Europe at this day. Women enjoyed a high position; and
some of the most beautiful hymns were composed by ladies and queens.
Marriage was held sacred. Husband and wife were both "rulers of the
house" (_dampati_); and drew near to the gods together in prayer. The
burning of widows on their husbands' funeral pile was unknown; and the
verses in the Veda which the Brahmans afterwards distorted into a
sanction for the practice, have the very opposite meaning. "Rise,
woman," says the Vedic text to the mourner; "come to the world of life.
Come to us, Thou hast fulfilled thy duties as a wife to thy husband."

The Aryan tribes in the Veda have blacksmiths, coppersmiths, and
goldsmiths among them, besides carpenters, barbers, and other artisans.
They fight from chariots, and freely use the horse, although not yet the
elephant, in war. They have settled down as husbandmen, till their
fields with the plough, and live in villages or towns. But they also
cling to their old wandering life, with their herds and "cattle-pens."
Cattle, indeed, still form their chief wealth--the coin in which payment
of fines is made--reminding us of the Latin word for money, _pecunia_,
from _pecus_, a herd. One of the Vedic words for war literally means "a
desire for cows." Unlike the modern Hindus, the Aryans of the Veda ate
beef; used a fermented liquor or beer, made from the _soma_ plant; and
offered the same strong meat and drink to their gods. Thus the stout
Aryans spread eastward through Northern India, pushed on from behind by
later arrivals of their own stock, and driving before them, or reducing
to bondage, the earlier "black-skinned" races. They marched in whole
communities from one river valley to another; each house-father a
warrior, husbandman, and priest; with his wife, and his little ones, and
his cattle.

These free-hearted tribes had a great trust in themselves and their
gods. Like other conquering races, they believed that both themselves
and their deities were altogether superior to the people of the land,
and to their poor, rude objects o