10 G. G. Hubbard—Geographic Progress of Civilization. 
Persia and later into India, in each country driving the native 
races before them and occupying the most favored parts of the 
land. 
- The geographic features of Persia and India are dissimilar, 
affording an opportunity to notice the effect produced on the 
same race by differences in the physical geography of the two 
countries. Persia formerly included Afghanistan and Beloochis- 
tan, and was called the Iranian plateau. It is environed with 
mountains, so that one-half the drainage is inland. Mountain 
chains cross it in every direction; it is dry and hot in summer, 
cold in winter, with great salt deserts and rich fertile valleys of | 
limited extent; it is the land of the rose and the nightingale. 
The Persians are naturally brave, warlike, independent and 
unconquered, but under a despotic government a part of the 
people have lost much of their independence and have become 
great traders. This despotism is, however, principally confined 
to the cities and towns, for the larger proportion of the popula- 
tion are nomads, subject only to their chiefs, and remain free 
and independent. The area of the Iranian plateau is about two- 
thirds that of India; the population of the one is 138,000,000; of 
the other, 287,000,000. 
The vedas, hymns which the Aryans sang three thousand 
years ago on the banks of the Indus in northern India, give us 
our earliest knowledge of India. They show that when they 
were written the Aryans were a people of robust rudeness and 
manly freedom, in character entirely unlike the Hindus of to- 
day, more like the nomad Persians. 
The Aryans found one of the richest countries in the world, 
generally well watered and easily cultivated : in the north, a tem-. 
perate and healthful climate, the region of the Himalayas and 
their foot-hills ; in northern-central India, the warm, rich valleys 
of the Indus and Ganges. . Further southward low mountains 
cross the country from east to west, and from these mountains 
rich plains with an equatorial climate extend to southern India 
and Ceylon. The Aryans conquered India, driving the aborig- 
ines into the mountains and jungles and the Dravidians into the 
southern parts of India, where they retain their habits and cus- 
toms. Though the same race conquered and settled Persia and 
India, it would be difficult to find two nations now more unlike: 
the Persians restless, strong, brave and independent; the Hindus 
small in stature, weak in body, highly imaginative, with little 
a 
