[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.
[277] "Principles of Sociology," p. 313.
[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.
"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."
[280] Cicero, "De Leg." II. 9, 22, "Deorum manium jura sancta sunto; nos leto datos divos habento."
[281] See Atharva-Veda XVIII. 2, 49.
[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).
[283] Rig-Veda X. 14.