INFLUENCES OF ENVIRONMENT 165 



have filled the minds of the people with images of the 

 grand and the terrible which they have striven to repro- 

 duce in the dogmas of their theology, in the character 

 of their gods, and even in the forms of their temples. 49 

 The ancient literature of India shows evidence of the 

 most remarkable ascendancy of the imagination. 50 Most 

 of their works on grammar, on law, on medicine, on 

 geography, on mathematics, and on metaphysics are in 

 the form of poetry. There is an excessive reverence for 

 antiquity. In ancient times their wise and great men 

 were supposed to have lived to an extraordinary age. 

 One eminent man ''lived in a pure and virtuous age, and 

 his days were indeed long in the land, since when he was 

 made king he was a million years old; he then reigned 

 six million three hundred thousand years; having done 

 which, he resigned his empire, and lingered on for one 

 hundred thousand years more." 51 Speaking of the 

 growth of American Indian mythologies with their many 

 strange inconsistencies and superstitions, Professor Boas 

 says, "There can be no doubt that the impression made 

 by the grandeur of nature upon the mind of primitive 

 man is the ultimate cause from which these myths spring, 

 but nevertheless the form in which we find these tradi- 

 tions is largely influenced by the borrowing." 52 



Thus, it appears that the physical environment includ- 

 ing its climatic relations has been a significant factor in 

 social evolution. On the one hand, a population is driven 

 from its accustomed abode by the force of some gradual 

 climatic pulsation, and the movement of the people is 



49 See figure 59. 



s Buckle, op. cit., ch. ii. 



51 Ibid. 



52 "The Growth of Indian Mythologies," Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, vol. ix, 

 p. 9. 



