108 The Religion of the Veda

lines along which move the mythologies of the Indo~ European peoples of historical times. The main sub- stance, though by no means the entire substance, of the mythologies and religions of these peoplesmthis is as true today as it was in the days of Bcnfcy, Kuhn and Mullermis the nature myth. If we ‘count liraln I'nanical theosOphy and Buddhism as the two great yields of the study of Hinduism, we may safely add Comparative Mythology as the third great field of re- ligious history that has been opened out by the sttuly of India. Had we but fuller records of ancient Indo— Eumpean history and literature, these fuller records would reveal more common myths and religious ideas. The added facts would fill in the necessarily sketchy picture, but it would still be the same picture.

We are by the limits of our plan restricted here to those religious ideas which concern the early religion of India, and even of these we shall select only the more important. We begin with the remoter of the two periods, the Ind0~European period.

The universal Indo-Eumpean word for “ god ” was deities, gone over into archaic Latin as defies: (dear), Celtic dew: in the Gallic prepcr name Dewagaata, Old Scandinavian titres, “ gods," Lithuanian deeds, and Sanskrit deem. The irreproachable etymology which connects this word. with the verb die, dye,