Preface 



mental traits contribute to show that their 

 blood still prevails in their old habitats, whence 

 they were never totally expelled, where, on the 

 contrary, they remained, to gradually mingle 

 more or less completely with their conquerors, 

 or the people they conquered. For often, 

 as in the raids of the Huns, it was the ruder 

 race that overcame the more advanced. Their 

 presence is attested by place-names, and by 

 names of gods and heroes, as well as by other 

 words in living tongues which cannot be sat- 

 isfactorily explained by "Aryan" roots. In 

 some cases that presence is attested by gram- 

 matical peculiarities belonging to the non- 

 Aryan tongues. 



Gubernatis says with great truth : "It is by 

 no means true that the ancient systems of my- 

 thology have ceased to exist ; they have only 

 been diffused and transformed." And he 

 quotes, from SpiegeFs edition of Rasavahini 



of India, a passage which directly affirms the 



xiv 



