We are told that they built canals, subterranean
water-works, dams, and walls of astounding strength and most excellent
construction. And their religion and worship originally consisted in a
mystic service of those natural powers--the sun, wind, water, and air
(our Surya, Maruts, Varuna, and Vayu), whose influence is visible in the
growth of the fruits of the earth; moreover, some of their tribes were
ruled by priests, while others stood under the patriarchal rule of the
head of the clan or family. All this reminds one of the nomads, the
Brahmanic Aryas of old under the sway of their Rishis, to whom were
subject every distinct family or clan. While the Pelasgians were
acquainted with the art of writing, and had thus "a vast element of
culture in their possession before the dawn of history," we are told (by
the same philologists) that our ancestors knew of no writing until the
dawn of Christianity!
Thus the Pelasgianic language, that "most barbarous language" spoken by
this mysterious people, what was it but Aryan; or rather, which of the
Aryan languages could it have been? Certainly it must have been a
language with the same and even stronger Sanskrit roots in it than the
Greek.
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