e time much that is later
than the Rig Veda, and consists of old and new together in a manner
entirely conformable to the state of every other Hindu work of early
times. After this epoch there is found in the liturgical period, into
which extend the later portions of the Rig Veda (noticeably parts of
the first, fourth, eighth, and tenth books), a religion which, in
spiritual tone, in metaphysical speculation, and even in the
interpretation of some of the natural divinities, differs not more
from the bulk of the Rig Veda than does the social status of the time
from that of the earlier text. Religion has become, in so far as the
gods are concerned, a ritual. But, except in the building up of a
Father-god, theology is at bottom not much altered, and the
eschatological conceptions remain about as they were, despite a
preliminary sign of the doctrine of metempsychosis. In the Atharva
Veda, for the first time, hell is known by its later name (xii. 4.
36), and perhaps its tortures; but the idea of future punishment
appears plainly first in the Brahmanic period. Both the doctrine of
re-birth and that of hell appear in the earliest S[=u]tras, and
consequently the assumption that these dogmas come from Buddhism does
not appear to be well founded; for it is to be presumed whatever
religious belief is established in legal literature will have preceded
that literature by a considerable period, certainly by a greater
length of time than that which divides the first Brahmanic law from
Buddhism.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Compare the accounts of Lafitau; of the native
Iroquois, baptized as Morgan; and the works of Schoolcraft
and Parkman.]

[Footnote 2: _Jesuits in North America_, Introduction, p.
lxi.]

[Footnote 3: "Like other Indians, the Hurons were desperate
gamblers, staking their all,--ornaments, clothing, canoes,
pipes, weapons, and wives," _loc. cit._ p. xxxvi. Compare
Palfrey, of Massachusetts Indians. The same is true of all
savages.]

[Footnote 4: _Ib._ p. lxvii.]

[Footnote 5: Compare _Cat. Br_. VI. 1. 1, 12; VII. 5. 1, 2
_sq_., for the Hindu tortoise in its first form. The
totem-form of the tortoise is well known in America.
(Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 85.)]

[Footnote 6: Charlevoix ap. Parkman.]

[Footnote 7: Parkman, _loc. cit_. p. LXXII; Brinton, _Myths
of t