Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/183

Rh voicing tradition. Gold and cattle were their chief sources of wealth, and both were closely connected with the gods and immortality. Once again the desire for "givers of life" appears to have had some influence on the movements of the people. But it is probable that the Aryans were not first to get to the Panjab and Afghanistan. They were probably anticipated by the people called Asuras, or Nagas, with whom they fought, peoples apparently above them in the level of culture, who wrought the profound modifications in their religion that we observe at the end of the Vedic period. It is with these people that the idea of the Isles of the Blest are especially associated, and not with the Aryans, for they are not mentioned in the Vedas. Patala, the capital of the Asuras, is said to have its soil of gold. In these later days there were current in India beliefs about islands with immense stores of wealth. They had mountains that are decked with jewels, and that are mines of gems and precious stones. One of them, Cakadwipa, was an earthly paradise. All the other descriptions given go to show that the writer was obsessed with the idea that these islands were noteworthy principally on account of their stores of "givers of life," of gold, gems, etc. It is not surprising to find that, when the Hindus have moved out from India, they have chosen such places in which to settle, among them being Burma, Assam, Cambodia, Sumatra, and perhaps Java. It is, moreover, significant to find that in a place such as the East Indian Archipelago, those regions which contain supplies of givers of life of any sort have been visited by strangers apparently possessed of a relatively high civilisation. This is the case in Central Celebes, Timor, Borneo, the Moluccas and the Philippines. Mr. Chinncry has lately shown also that in