Dec, 1915 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 95 



account of the people and the times we have one book, more im- 

 portant than all the rest, the epic poem, the Mahabharata, which 

 is eight times as long as the combined works of Homer. Like 

 the Iliad it deals with kings, princesses, nobles, warriors. But, 

 the life it describes is like the rose apple, sweet. Men were brave 

 and women virtuous. Contemplation turned toward God and the 

 beauties of nature. Those were simple times, simple people, 

 simple thoughts. 



For thousands of years Occidental civilization knew nothing of 

 their existence. Less than 150 years ago a vast literature was 

 discovered and brought to Europe. It included the Avesta of 

 Zoroaster in the Zend tongue of which a small tribe of Parsees 

 are still devotees, and a mass in the tongue now known as San- 

 scrit. Most of this had been lost since the Saracen conquests in 

 the seventh century, A. D. Millions of men still retain a knowl- 

 edge of the Sanscrit, being descended from that people. But 

 they kept it as long as possible from irreverent European eyes. 

 Later discoveries have brought the volume of Sanscrit literature 

 to a size greater than all existing classic Greek and have pre- 

 sented a vocabulary greater than that of the Latin language. 

 There are many dialects of Sanscrit, from the earliest, which is 

 the religious tongue, to latest, which is the daily speech of a 

 common people. By common consent the Rig Vedas are con- 

 sidered the earliest — a great collection of hymns to the Deities. 

 No generally acceptable date has ever been suggested for these. 

 One guess is as late as 1350 B. C. It is probable that the low 

 Sanscrit was a living language after the Christian era. Almost 

 all scholars concur in thinking the Rig Vedas among the oldest, 

 most primitive, remains of human literature. Are they, then, 

 earlier or later than the Avesta, for which a date of about 6,400 

 B. C. is positively suggested? That it is late is indicated by the 

 Sanscrit knowledge of the honey bee, which the Zend people 

 did not know. The place of origin is unmistakable. It was 

 where the parrots chattered from the tree tops and the elephants 

 were both wild herds and domesticated as beasts of burden. 



A translation of the Sanscrit words describing insects is a 

 task so far very imperfectly performed and one of great diffi- 

 culty, for the references are wholly incidental. A translator with 



