Page:The Story of India (1897).djvu/12

viii. centre have a strain of Aryan blood and are more or less closely akin to ourselves; those of the north-east and Burmah are more like the Chinese; and those of the south belong to the Dravidian branch of the human family. The peoples of India vary in creed, language, and civilisation as they do in race. The Hindus, divided into innumerable sects and worshipping more gods than there are inhabitants3 the Mahomedans, with their one god and a prophet; the Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs and Devil-worshippers,--differ from each other not only in their faith but in their history, manners and dress. They differ, indeed, far more widely than do the inhabitants of Protestant and Roman Catholic Europe. The principal languages in use are descended from the Sanskrit (as the French, Spanish and Italian are all derived from Latin), or belong to a separate group called the Dravidian; but it is reckoned that over 300 languages and dialects are spoken in India. Then it is a mistake to suppose that the inhabitants are all on the same intellectual level, for some are mere barbarians and others are full of elaborate and curious learning. Finally, the social distinctions which mock our professions of democratic equality at home exist in a peculiarly aggravated form in India, where the high-caste Brahmin reckons his food polluted