but they discountenanced the growing custom of worshipping relics which was finding favour with other Boodhist sects. Thus gradually the primitive Aryan conception of a ruling power developed into a huge system of dogmatism, monachism, and ritual in the countries south and east of the Indus, as far even as the confines of the country of the great Mongol race, whose religion is as yet but little known to us, although it bears strong marks of having been originally derived from the same source as that from which came the Vedic system. Having glanced somewhat cursorily at the religious development of the Eastern Aryan peoples, we will now turn to the Western Aryans, and observe the manner in which the old Vedic myth was perpetuated in Western Europe, leaving the Central Aryans, or that branch which remained in and around Persia and Western Afghanistan, for subsequent consideration; for, in this central district, the Mongol Akkadians and the Semites intermingled so frequently with the Aryans that a very intricate mythological system gradually came into operation in some districts, bearing resemblance to the Vedic, the Semitic, and the Mongolian mythologies. The Western branch of the great Aryan family, after penetrating into Southern Europe, became the progenitors of the ancient Pelasgi, the earliest known inhabitants of Greece, and through them transmitted the original Aryan myth to their successors, the Hellenes. Homer, in his “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” written at latest B.C. 900, well describes the religion of the Acheans, who inhabited Hellas for centuries prior to B.C. 1000, and long before the supremacy of the Dorians; and, in this description, as well as in that of Hesiod’s “Theogony,” written immediately afterwards, there is exhibited a remarkable similarity to the old Vedic system, the very name of the supreme deity being clearly derived from an Aryan source, and that root being the identical expression used to designate the Vedic Dawn God. From Dyaus Pitar, the Day Father or Dawn God of the Aryans, the Greeks derived their Zeus Pater, from whence we get Dios, Theos, the Latin _Deus Pater_, _Dies Pater_ and Jupiter, and the French _Dieu_. Zeus was supreme god, high above all others, having unlimited power, and living up in the vault of heaven, surrounded by the inferior and subordinate deities, who together formed his Olympian court. Instead of being nature powers, these gods were endowed with freedom of action, subject to pain and pleasure, and depended for their sustenance upon food. The supremacy of King Zeus was firmly established; he presided over councils of the gods to deliberate great matters, and was not bound or fettered by any recognised restraint. With Athena and Apollo, he formed a supreme triad, himself being the head, Athena the reason or wisdom of the Divine Father, and Apollo the mouth, revealer of his counsel, and loving son, who is always of one will with his father.