Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/351

 ASPECTS OF THE ARYAN QUESTION 337

There are no names of common origin for the metals or for objects constructed of metal. Hence it may be concluded that the differentiation was already complete before these peoples learned the use of the principal metals. Agriculture was rudi- mentary, and wheat was unknown. Barley, however, appears to have been cultivated ; indeed, the men of the Magdalenian period knew this cereal and have left us graphic representations of it. The principal domestic animals were dogs, sheep, and cattle, these last raised in great herds and constituting the only form of wealth. This manner of life did not allow for the existence of any dense population, but only of semi-sedentary tribes which might under certain circumstances undertake dis- tant migrations. The soil, richer in herbage than that of Tartary, Arabia, or the Cafir country, did not necessitate the continual movements and changes of habitation characteristic of the Mongolian, Arab, and Zulu tribes ; but, on the other hand, it did not retain the population, as does land appropriated and improved, when any strong reason impelled them to seek new homes beyond the adjacent regions.

Max Miiller and Pictet have given a description of the life of the ancient Aryans, which is sufficiently accurate if one dis- cards the romance of the myths, and if one restricts the sub- ject to the Aryans in the proper sense, those of Ariana and of Media, the ancestors of the Persians, the Medes, and the Hindus. This branch of the Aryan family, having migrated by the way of Thrace or by the Russian steppes, Crimea and the Caucasus, had for a long time dwelt in conditions most suited for a pastoral life. Prehistoric archaeology shows us, on the other hand, a greater tendency in central Europe toward agriculture. The primitive Aryan civilization, therefore, was not entirely uni- form, but included various stages in the passage from a regime of the chase to that of settled agricultural life.

DOMINANT RACE AMONG THE PRIMITIVE ARYAN PEOPLES.

We take up now a subject of more direct interest, and one which does not appear to have been as yet anywhere satisfactorily treated. It will, therefore, be necessary to enter more into