Artic Home of the Aryans by Lokamanya Bal ... - Mandhata Global

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doubt whether the teachings of evolution may not force us to trace
them still further towards the North: in any case, the mythological
indications to which your attention has been called, point, if I am not
mistaken, to some spot within the Arctic Circle, such, for example, as
the region where Norse legend placed the Land of Immortality,
somewhere in the north of Finland and the neighborhood of the White
Sea. There would, perhaps, be no difficulty in the way of supposing
them to have thence in due time descended into Scandinavia,
settling, among other places, at Upsala, which has all the appearance
of being a most ancient site, lying as it does on a plain dotted with
innumerable burial mounds of unknown antiquity. This, you will bear
in mind, has to do only with the origin of the early Aryans, and not
with that of the human race generally; but it would be no fatal
objection to the view here suggested, if it should be urged that the
mythology of nations beside the Aryans, such as that of the
Paphlagonians, in case of their not being Aryan, point likewise to the
north; for it is not contended that the Aryans may be the only people
of northern origin. Indeed, I may add that a theory was, not long ago,
propounded by a distinguished French savant, to the effect that the
entire human race originated on the shores of the Polar Sea at a time
when the rest of the northern hemisphere was too hot to be inhabited
by man. M. de Saporta, for that is the learned writer’s name, explains
himself in clear and forcible terms; but how far his hypothesis may
satisfy the other students of this fascinating subject I cannot say. It
may, however, be observed in passing that it need not disconcert
even the most orthodox of men, for it supposes all the races of
mankind traceable to a single non-simian origin, and the Bible leaves
it an open question where exactly and when the Garden of Eden
flourished.”*
I have very little to add to the views expressed in the above
passages; in fact Prof. Rhys has left us little to be done so far as
Celtic and Teutonic myths are concerned. The way
* Rhys’ Hibbert Lectures, pp. 636-7.