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CONTENTS
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Thunder-myths—Greek and Aryan sun and moon myths—Star-myths—Myths, savage and civilised, of animals, accounting for their marks and habits—Examples of custom of claiming blood kinship with lower animals—Myths of various plants and trees—Myths of stones, and of metamorphosis into stones, Greek, Australian, and American—The whole natural philosophy of savages expressed in myths, and survives in folklore and classical poetry, and legends of metamorphosis.
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| CHAPTER VI. | |
| NON-ARYAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN | 163 |
Confusion of myths—Various origins of man and of things—Myths of Australia, Andaman Islands, Bushmen, Ovaherero, Namaquas, Zulus, Hurons, Iroquois, Diggers, Navajoes, Winnebagoes, Chaldeans, Thlinkeets, Pacific Islanders, Maoris, Aztecs, Peruvians—Similarity of ideas pervading all those peoples in various conditions of society and culture. |
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| CHAPTER VII. | |
| INDO-ARYAN MYTHS—SOURCES OF EVIDENCE | 214 |
Authorities—Vedas—Brahmanas—Social condition of Vedic India—Arts—Ranks—War—Vedic fetishism—Ancestor-worship—Date of Rig-Veda Hymns doubtful—Obscurity of the Hymns—Difficulty of interpreting the real character of Veda—Not primitive, but sacerdotal—The moral purity not innocence, but refinement. |
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| CHAPTER VIII. | |
| INDIAN MYTHS OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD AND OF MAN | 238 |
Comparison of Vedic and savage myths—The metaphysical Vedic account of the beginning of things—Opposite and savage fable of world made out of fragments of a man—Discussion of this hymn—Absurdities of Brahmanas—Prajapati, an Aryan Unkulunkulu or Qat—Evolutionary myths—Marriage of heaven and earth—Myths of Puranas, their savage parallels—Most savage myths are repeated in Brahmanas. |
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