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is lifted entirely above doubt. I have endeavored to give a conservative estimate of the varying interpretations, as free from fanciful exaggeration of the probabilities as it is from unwholesome scepticism.

We may now turn to the second great sphere of Indo-Iranian mythology. It deals with the first men and sacrificers, and the soma-liquor, the most distinguished sacrifice to the gods.

One of the duties of primitive man as he grows into the irksome habit of looking for the reason of things is to find a reason for himself. He does not take himself for granted, but assumes that he originated from something or other. This is as a rule not as easy as it is in the myth of Deucalion. All that he had to do was to throw stones, the bones of Mother Earth, behind him, and, behold, there were men. The abstract benevolent Divinity turning himself into a creative Father God is not always at hand; he does not on the whole represent a very primitive form of thought, certainly not in India. An important and widespread conception, partly religious in character, is Totemism. This is founded on the belief that the human race, or, more frequently, that given clans and families derive their descent from animals: totemic names like "Bear" and "Wolf" carry traces of this sort of belief into our time. This particular question is a splendid