[4] 



return of dawn, and of the saddening effect produced upon the mind 

 by the ever-recurring twilight which ushered in the dark and dreary 

 night. We meet with incantations expressive of the wildest excitement 

 at the welcome appearance of the dawn-god, Dyaus, which heralded the 

 approach of the sun-god, Agni, who is led up to the summit of his 

 ascension, or bosom of Varuna, by the conquering god of battle, Indra, 

 the defeater of the evil powers of darkness; and we find the most 

 pathetical appeals both to Agni and Indra to remain longer over the 

 earth, and co-operate with Soma in replenishing nature, instead of 

 sinking into the twilight, or shades of evening, to be slain by Vritra, 

 " the coverer," and tormented in the darkness of night by Ahi, the 

 dragon, and other cruel monsters. This is precisely the drama we 

 should expect to find depicted in the earliest writings of man ; is the 

 root of all future religious ideas ; and is still to be found pervading 

 almost every modern religious faith. It is a beautiful representation of 

 the earliest yearnings and fears of our forefathers ; and, though the 

 picture is now and then almost effaced by numerous subsequent addi- 

 tions of mythological lore, yet the original conception remains indelibly 

 depicted in the religions of the present day, furnishing us with the key 

 to the study of comparative mythology. 



It will be necessary, in order to compare, with any degree of accuracy, 

 the mythological systems which subsequently developed from this primi- 

 tive conception of a ruling power, to glance at the mode of distribution 

 of the various branches of the earliest human family ; and in doing so 

 we must ever keep in mind the more than probable fact that that portion 

 of the earth's surface which is now covered by the Indian Ocean once 

 formed a large equatorial continent, uniting the east coast of Africa 

 with Arabia, India, Ceylon, and the Malay Peninsula. Instead of the 

 rivers Tigris and Euphrates emptying their waters into the Persian Gulf, 

 and the Indus into the Arabian Sea, it is highly probable that these 

 rivers united to form one large estuary, which emptied itself into the 

 ocean on the south of the now submerged continent of Lemuria. It is 

 equally probable that the large rivers, Ganges and Brahmapootra, like- 

 wise found an outlet south of a line drawn from Point de Gall to Singa- 

 pore. On this submerged continent, and on the shores of these long- 

 lost streams, it is supposed man evolved from the anthropoid apes, in 

 the early Pleiocene, or perhaps even in the later Meiocene, geological 

 period of the world's history. The transition stage in the pedigree of 

 man between the Anthropoidse and true men that is to say, between 

 man-like Catarrhine apes and beings possessing a larger proportion of 

 the characteristics of the human than of the ape species is known to 

 Anthropologists by the name of Alali, or ape-like men. These wild 

 and ill-formed savages wandered about in bands along the banks of 



