[Footnote 275: De Bello Gall. vi. 14; "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature," p. 506.] [Footnote 276: See De Coulanges, "The Ancient City," Book I. II. "We find this worship of the dead among the Hellenes, among the Latins, among the Sabines, among the Etruscans; we also find it among the Aryas of India. Mention is made of it in the hymns of the Rig-Veda. It is spoken of in the Laws of Manu as the most ancient worship among men.... Before men had any notion of Indra or of Zeus, they adored the dead; they feared them, and addressed them prayers. It seems that the religious sentiment began in this way. It was perhaps while looking upon the dead that man first conceived the idea of the supernatural, and to have a hope beyond what he saw. Death was the first mystery, and it placed man on the track of other mysteries. It raised his thoughts from the visible to the invisible, from the transitory to the eternal, from the human to the divine." The sacred fire represented the ancestors, and therefore was revered and kept carefully from profanation by the presence of a stranger.--A. W.] [Footnote 277: "Principles of Sociology," p. 313.] [Footnote 278: "The Hindu Law of Inheritance is based upon the Hindu religion, and we must be cautious that in administering Hindu law we do not, by acting upon our notions derived from English law, inadvertently wound or offend the religious feelings of those who may be affected by our decisions."--Bengal Law Reports, 103.] [Footnote 279: "Earth-wandering demons, they their charge began, The ministers of good and guards of man; Veiled with a mantle of aërial light, O'er Earth's wide space they wing their hovering flight."] [Footnote 280: Cicero, "De Leg." II. 9, 22, "Deorum manium jura sancta sunto; nos leto datos divos habento."] [Footnote 281: See Atharva-Veda XVIII. 2, 49.] [Footnote 282: Rig-Veda X. 14, 1-2. He is called Vaivasvata, the solar (X. 58, 1), and even the son of Vivasvat (X. 14, 5). In a later phase of religious thought Yama is conceived as the first man (Atharva-Veda XVIII. 3, 13, as compared with Rig-Veda X. 14, 1).] [Footnote 283: Rig-Veda X. 14.] [Footnote 284: In the Avesta many of these things are done by Ahura-Mazda with the help of the Fravashis.] [Footnote 285: See _S_atapatha Brâhma_n_a I. 9, 3, 10; VI. 5, 4, 8.] [Footnote 286: Rig-Veda VIII. 48, 3: "We drank Soma, we became immortal, we went to the light, we found the gods;" VIII. 48, 12.] [Footnote 287: Rig-Veda IX. 97, 39.] [Footnote 288: L. c. X. 14, 6.] [Footnote 289: L. c. X. 16, 10.] [Footnote 290: A translation considerably differing from my own is given by Sarvâdhikâri in his "Tagore Lectures for 1880," p. 34.] [Footnote 291: Cf. Max Müller, Rig-Veda, transl. vol. i. p. 24.]