672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE ARYANS IN SCIENCE AND HISTORY. 



By HOKATIO HALE. 



FROM the Bay of Bengal westward, through northern India, 

 Afghanistan, Beloochistan, Persia, Armenia, Asia Minor, 

 and on through Europe to its farthest bounds — and thence, in 

 modern times, crossing the Atlantic and spreading over both 

 Americas — one great linguistic family occupies a vaster space, 

 peopled by a larger number of famous and powerful nations, than 

 belong to any other ethnic kindred. But this pre-eminence of 

 the Indo-European stock has not always existed. There was a 

 period in the early history of the civilized world when the Hamito- 

 Semitic family was more widely diffused than any other ; and at 

 a later time, when the Arabian empire stretched from India to 

 Spain, this preponderance seemed to be restored. Even in our 

 day the Chinese language and literature are probably spoken and 

 read by a larger population than is claimed by any other race. 

 But there can be no question that during the last two centuries 

 the communities speaking languages of the first-named family, or 

 at least some among them, have been the dominant nations of the 

 globe. 



In the brief term of less than a century which has elapsed 

 since the connections and limits of this great family have been 

 ascertained, various designations have been applied to it — Indo- 

 European, Indo-Germanic, Indo-Celtic, Aryan. The latter name, 

 being the least cumbrous, is gradually gaining acceptance, even 

 among those who dissent from the inference which its use might 

 seem to imply. The term " Aryan " properly belongs to the east- 

 ernmost group of these languages, comprising the tongues of 

 ancient Persia and northern India. But scholars like Penka, 

 Poesche, Sayce, Taylor, and others, who contest the Asiatic origin 

 of the Aryan race, are still willing to accept its Asiatic name. 



"When it was first discovered that most European nations spoke 

 languages of the Aryan (or Indo-Persian) stock, the conclusion 

 was at once drawn that these European Aryans must look for 

 their ancestral home in the East. As no one doubted that all the 

 nations of this stock had sprung from one source, it was natural 

 to inquire in what place the primitive Aryan tribe had its original 

 seat. It was natural also to adopt the view that this seat was to 

 be found somewhere in that portion of central Asia to which the 

 traditions embodied, however vaguely, in the earliest known com- 

 positions of Aryan origin, the Vedas and the Zend-Avesta, seemed 

 to point. This region, which comprehends ancient Persia and 

 Bactria, has, from the earliest times of which we have any knowl- 



