Their
doom was sealed when a new and more energetic race appeared
upon the horizon. We call this race the Indo-European race,
because it conquered not only Europe but also made itself the
ruling class in the country which is now known as British India.
These Indo-Europeans were white men like the Semites
but they spoke a different language which is regarded as the
common ancestor of all European tongues with the exception
of Hungarian and Finnish and the Basque dialects of Northern
Spain.
When we first hear of them, they had been living along the
shores of the Caspian Sea for many centuries. But one day
they had packed their tents and they had wandered forth in
search of a new home. Some of them had moved into the
mountains of Central Asia and for many centuries they had
lived among the peaks which surround the plateau of Iran and
that is why we call them Aryans. Others had followed the
setting sun and they had taken possession of the plains of
Europe as I shall tell you when I give you the story of Greece
and Rome.
For the moment we must follow the Aryans. Under the
leadership of Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) who was their great
teacher many of them had left their mountain homes to follow
the swiftly flowing Indus river on its way to the sea.
Others had preferred to stay among the hills of western
Asia and there they had founded the half-independent communities
of the Medes and the Persians, two peoples whose
names we have copied from the old Greek history-books.
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