several of the nations as one of distinction, but human sacrifice was
most important of all, though in each of the Aryan lands commutations
are made for it at a very early stage. The strife of Aryan with
non-Aryan religions gave rise to many superstitions; after the
conquest the gods of the latter often became the bad gods or demons
of the former, the ministers of the defeated cult were regarded as
sorcerers or witches, the dethroned gods made many an attempt to come
back to their seats, and to revive disused practices. But a religion
based, as we have seen the Aryan to be, in the family affections is
destined to rise as civilisation advances. It will be found that the
Aryan draws a less absolute distinction than the Semite between the
human and the divine. To the Semite God is, broadly speaking, a
master, or Lord, whose word is a command, in regard to whom man is a
subject, a slave. To the Aryan the relation is a freer one. His god
is more human, and art and imagination can do more in his service.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED

E. Siecke, _Die religion d. Indogermanen_, 1897.

C. F. Keary, _Outlines of Primitive Belief among the Indo-European
Races_, 1882.

CHAPTER XV
THE TEUTONS

The Aryans in Europe.--There is more than one European people which
before it was touched by Roman civilisation had remained for an
indefinite period--a period to be measured probably rather by
millenniums than by centuries--in the state of society described in
last chapter (see above) as occurring when the Aryans dwelt among
those whom they had conquered. In various lands alike we meet with
the combination of the patriarchal household with the village, the
combination of agricultural with pastoral life, to which the Aryans
early settled down among non-Aryan populations. This type of society,
which is the basis of feudalism, is recognised alike in India and in
Germany. It stretches far back into the past, and may even be
recognised in some quarters at the present day.

As with civilisation so with religion. The early faith of the Slavs,
the Celts, and the Teutons is now generally regarded as best
representing that of the Aryans. It was a religion in which rite and
belief were indefinite and variable compared with those of the later
Aryan faiths of India and of Southern Europe, there being neither a
regular priesthood nor the use of writing to impart fixity to
religious forms. The river, the fountain, and the aged oak, each had
its leg