So ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



from Persia, Ceylon, India, Burma and Thibet were cited 

 in proof of the survival of elements of the embalming 

 process or ritual, even when the Brahmanical and Buddhist 

 burial practices had been adopted. 



From the foregoing account there can be no doubt 

 that the people of India did at one time practice mummi- 

 fication, at any rate in the case of their chiefs. They 

 also acquired a knowledge of the arts and crafts, as the 

 result of the influence exerted by the rich stream of 

 culture which brought the attainments of the great 

 western civilizations to India before the Ayran immigra- 

 tion. The bringers of this new culture mingled their 

 blood with the aboriginal pre-Dravidian population and 

 the result was the Dravidians. It is not at all im- 

 probable that the resultant Dravidian civilization had 

 reached a higher plane than that of the Aryas, who 

 entered the country after them. 



In Oldham's interesting and suggestive brochure 

 (51, pp. 53 — 55), which, in spite of Crooke's drastic 

 criticism, seems to me to be a valuable contribution to a 

 knowledge of the questions under discussion, the follow- 

 ing passages occur : — 



" The Asuras, Dasyus, or Nagas, with whom the 

 Aryas came into contact, on approaching the borders of 

 India, were no savage aboriginal tribes, but a civilized 

 people who had cities and castles. Some of these are 

 said in the Veda to have been built of stone. 



11 It would seem, indeed, as if the Asuras had reached 

 a higher degree of civilization than their Aryan rivals. 

 Some of their cities were places of considerable im- 

 portance. And, in addition to this, wealth and luxury, 

 the use of magic, superior architectural skill, and ability 

 to restore the dead to life, were ascribed to the Asuras by 

 Brahmanical writers." 



