Page:History of India Vol 1.djvu/37

 It argues some advance in civilization that the use of gold and of silver was undoubtedly known to the early Aryans, and, with the simplicity of early races, they called gold by the name "yellow" and silver by the name "white." A third metal (ayas) was also known, but it is doubtful whether it was iron.

It is perhaps impossible to conjecture the sort of government which obtained in those olden days. Patriarchs of tribes and leaders of men undoubtedly obtained ascendency, and the simple subjects looked up to them and called them the protectors or nourishers of men, or the chiefs (pati, vispati, rāja) in war as well as in peace. The natural feelings of civilized man distinguished between right and wrong, and custom and a vague perception of what was good for the nation had the force of law. And lastly, the primitive religion of the Aryans was largely suggested by that which was beautiful and striking in the phenomena of nature.

Adventurous bands of Aryans left their primitive home from time to time in quest of food or pasture, of kingdoms or plunder. The exact order in which the different nations left has not been ascertained and may never be ascertained. All that is even approximately certain from the historian's standpoint is that a branch of the Aryans, designated as Indo-Iranians, appeared at an unknown epoch in the land of Asia, but it is not yet known whether they were immigrants or indigenous to the soil. They travelled southward together, but became separated by religious, social, or tribal conditions, before they reached India. Only the Hindus,