DESCRIPTIONS OF NATURE BY THE ARIAN RACES. 403 



drought to tropical rain ; of the appearance of the first cloud 

 on the deep azure of the pure sky, when the long-desired 

 Etesian winds are first heard to rustle amid the featheiy foliage 

 of the lofty palms. 



The present would appear a fitting place to enter somewhat 

 further into the domain of Indian delineations of nature. 

 " If we suppose," writes Lassen, in his admirable work on 

 Indian antiquity,* " that a part of the Arian race emigrated 

 to India from their native region in the north-western por- 

 tion of the continent, they would have found themselves sur- 

 rounded by a wholly unknown and marvellously luxuriant 

 vegetation. The mildness of the climate, the fruitfulness of 

 the soil, and its rich and spontaneous products, must have 

 imparted a brighter colouring to the new life opened before 

 them. Owing to the originally noble characteristics of the 

 Arian race, and the possession of superior mental endowments, 

 in which lay the germ of all the nobleness and greatness to 

 which the Indians have attained, the aspect of external nature 

 gave rise in the minds of these nations to a deep meditation on 

 the forces of nature, which has proved the means of inducing 

 that contemplative tendency, which we find so intimately 

 interwoven in the most ancient poetry of the Indians. The 

 all-powerful impression, thus produced on the minds of the 

 people, is most clearly manifested in the fundamental dogma 

 of their belief the recognition of the divine in nature. The 

 freedom from care, and the ease of supporting existence in such 

 a climate, were also conducive to the same contemplative ten- 

 dency. Who could devote themselves with less hindrance 

 to a profound meditation of earthly life, of the condition of 

 man after death, and of the divine essence, than the anchorites, 

 dwelling amid forests,f the Brahmins of India, whose ancient 



* Lassen, Ind. Alterihumslcunde, bd. i. s. 412-415. 



+ ^Respecting the Indian forest-hermits, Vanaprestiae (Sylvicolee) and 

 Sramani (a name which has been altered into Sarmani and German!), 

 see Lassen, " de nominibus quibus veteribus appellantur Indorum phi- 

 losophi," in the Rhein. Museum fur Philologie, 1833, s. 178-180. 

 Wilhelm Grimm, recognises something of Indian colouring in the de- 

 scription of the magic forest, by a priest named Lambrecht, in the Song 

 of Alexander, composed more than 1200 years ago, in immediate imi- 

 tation of a French original. The hero comes to a wonderful wood, where 

 maidens, adorned with supernatural charms, spring from large flowers. 

 He remains so long with them, that -both flowers and maidens fade away. 



