igion the Aryans had
in common before they developed it in different ways in their various
lands? We can no longer, following Mr. Max Mueller, look to India to
tell us what was the common Aryan religion. Indian religion, when we
first become acquainted with it, has already grown into an elaborate
priestly system, and is evidently at a much later stage of Aryan
development than the rustic cults, with which we have a good deal of
acquaintance, in various European lands. If, however, we cannot
follow the great German scholar in this, we gladly use his words on
another aspect of the subject, when he is showing the etymological
identity of the chief god of the Aryan peoples.

In his _Lectures on the Science of Language_, vol. ii. p. 468, he
tells us that "Zeus, the most sacred name in Greek mythology, is the
same word as Dyaus in Sanscrit, Jovis or Ju in Jupiter in Latin, Tiw
in Anglo-Saxon, preserved in Tiwsdaeg, Tuesday, the day of the Eddic
god Tyr; Zio in old High-German.

"This word was framed," he says, "once and once only; it was not
borrowed by the Greeks from the Hindus, nor by the Romans and Germans
from the Greeks. It must have existed before the ancestors of those
primeval races became separate in language and religion; before they
left their common pastures to migrate to the right hand and to the
left.... Here, then, in this venerable word, we may look for some of
the earliest religious thoughts of our race."[5]

[Footnote 5: See also Mr. Mueller's _Hibbert Lectures_, and his
_Biographies of Words_.]

In this instance etymology admittedly points out one of the principal
features of the common Aryan religions. But if we hope that etymology
will reveal to us many further instances of the same kind, and
introduce us to the whole Pantheon of the Aryans, we shall be
disappointed. There are one or two more cases of etymological
agreement between the gods of India and those of Europe,[6] but the
agreement is in some of these cases no more than etymological. The
Tiw or Tyr of the Teutonic mythology does not correspond in office or
character with Zeus or Jupiter, though the names are etymologically
akin. The agreement does not extend to all the religions in question,
nor does it extend in any two religions to all their gods; most of
the gods of Europe have no parallels in India. The evidence of
etymology, therefore, tells us but little of that early religion of
which we are in search. But if we consider the views an