e its dispersion. The original
stock has received the name Aryan. This designation occurs in Manu (II.
22), who says: "As far as the eastern and western oceans, between the two
mountains, lies the land which the wise have named Ar-ya-vesta, or
_inhabited by honorable men_." The people of Iran receive this same
appellation in the Zend Avesta, with the same meaning of _honorable_.
Herodotus testifies that the Medes were formerly called [Greek: Arioi]
(Herod. VII. 61). Strabo mentions that, in the time of Alexander, the
whole region about the Indus was called _Ariana_. In modern times, the
word _Iran_ for Persia and _Erin_ for Ireland are possible reminiscences
of the original family appellation.

The Ayrans, long before the age of the Vedas or the Zend Avesta, were
living as a pastoral people on the great plains east of the Caspian Sea.
What their condition was at that epoch is deduced by the following method:
If it is found that the name of any fact is the same in two or more of the
seven tribal languages of this stock, it is evident that the name was
given to it before they separated. For there is no reason to suppose that
two nations living wide apart would have independently selected the same
word for the same object. For example, since we find that _house_ is in
Sanskrit _Damn_ and _Dam_; in Zend, _Demana_; in Greek, [Greek: Domos]; in
Latin, _Domus_; in Irish, _Dahm_; in Slavonic, _Domu_,--from which root
comes also our English word _Domestic_,--we may be pretty sure that the
original Aryans lived in houses. When we learn that _boat_ was in Sanskrit
_Nau_ or _nauka_; in Persian, _Naw, nawah;_ in Greek, [Greek: Naus]; in
Latin, _Navis_; in old Irish, _Noi_ or _nai_; in old German, _Nawa_ or
_nawi_; and in Polish _Nawa_, we cannot doubt that they knew something of
what we call in English _Nau_tical affairs, or Navigation. But as the
words designating masts, sails, yards, &c. differ wholly from each other
in all these linguistic families, it is reasonable to infer that the
Aryans, before their dispersion, went only in boats, with oars, on the
rivers of their land, the Oxus and Jaxartes, and did not sail anywhere on
the sea.

Pursuing this method, we see that we can ask almost any question
concerning the condition of the Aryans, and obtain an answer by means of
Comparative Philology.

Were they a pastoral people? The very word _pastoral_ gives us the answer.
For _Pa_ in Sanskrit means to watch, to guard, as men guard