EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



They were familiar with the plow, the yoke, and 

 the spade. Their harvests were reaped with a 

 sickle, and the grain was duly threshed and win- 

 nowed, and carried to mill in wagons fitted with 

 wheels and axle-trees. The blacksmith's work 

 with hammer and anvil, forge and bellows, was 

 also carried on. Sewing and spinning were fem- 

 inine occupations, and garments were woven out 

 of sheep's wool. The art of tanning was also 

 practised, and leather shoes were worn. The 

 entire career of the Aryans has been that of a 

 warlike people. In the primitive times of which 

 we are treating, their principal weapons were the 

 lance, the bow and arrow, the sword and dagger 

 and mace, with helmet and buckler for defence. 

 That the early Aryans were acquainted with 

 the sea seems unquestionable, for the name oc- 

 curs, with very little change in sound and hardly 

 any in meaning, in nearly all the Indo-European 

 languages. The Lat. mare y whence our adjec- 

 tive marine, appears in Skr. mira, Russ. moru, 

 Lith. mares, Irish muir, Welsh mor, Goth, marei, 

 O. H. G. man, Old Norse mar, Old Eng. mere. 

 In English meer is an archaic word, still used in 

 poetry in the sense of " lake," and it appears in 

 many well-known names of English lakes, as 

 Grasmere and Windermere. The original sense 

 of the word has something poetic in it, for it 

 means the barren, desolate waste, just as we 

 find it commonly described in Homer. The 

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