Brahmanic or even as Aryan law. It was
probably the custom of the Southern half-Hinduized
environment.]

[Footnote 36: American Indians are also Dravidian, because
both have totems![* unknown symbol]]

[Footnote 37: For the Akkadist theory may be consulted
Lacouperie in the _Babylonian and Oriental Record_, i. 1,
25, 58; iii. 62 ff.; v. 44, 97; vi. 1 ff.; Hewitt, in
reviewing Risley's _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_, JRAS.
1893, p. 238 ff. See also Sayce's _Hibbert Lectures_. On the
Deluge and Tree of Life, compare the _Babylonian and
Oriental Record_, iv. 15 and 217.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XIX.

INDIA AND THE WEST.

If in Hinduism, and even in Brahmanism, there are certain traits
which, with some verisimilitude, may be referred to the immediate
environment of these religions, how stands it in respect of that wider
circle of influence which is represented by the peoples of the West?
With Egypt and Phoenicia, India had intercourse at an early date, but
this appears to have been restricted to mercantile exchange; for India
till very late was affected neither by the literature nor by the
religion of Egyptians or Syrians.[1] Of a more direct sort seem to
have been the relations between India and Babylon, and the former may
owe to the latter her later astronomy, but no definitive proof exists
(or even any great historical probability) that Babylon gave India
even legendary additions to her native wealth of myths.[2] From the
Iranians the Hindus parted too early to receive from Zoroastrianism
any influence. On the contrary, in our opinion the religion of
Zoroaster budded from a branch taken from Indic soil. Even where
Persian influence may, with propriety, be suspected, in the later
Indic worship of the sun, India took no new religion from Persia; but
it is very possible that her own antique and preserved heliolatry was
aided, and acquired new strength from more modern contact with the
sun-worshippers of the West. Of Iranian influence in early times,
along the line of Hindu religious development, there is scarcely a
trace, although in 509 B.C. Darius's general conquered the land about
the Indus.[3] But the most zealous advocate of Persia's prestige can
find little to support his claims in pre-Buddhistic Brahmanic
literature, though such claims have been made, not only in respect of
the position of secondary divinities, but even