The Arctic Home in the Vedas c15.36.2

c15.36.2

Out of the two remaining physical phenomena, the decay of sun’s power in winter would have answered the purpose, had there been no legends or myths which indicated the cessation of the vicissitude of day and night for some time. I have pointed out before how Prof. Max-Muller, who has followed the same method of interpretation tion in his discussion of the achievements of the Ashvins, has failed to grasp the real meaning of the Ashvins' legends by disregarding the statements which distinctly speak of the proteges of the Ashvins as dwelling or labouring in darkness. Prof. Rhys is more cautious in this respect, and is anxious to account for all the incidents in the legends if they could possibly be accounted for on any theory. The result is that he has been gradually led, or we might even say forced, to adopt the theory of the ancient Arctic home of the Aryan people inasmuch as all the different incidents in the legends under consideration can be accounted for only by this theory. In short, Prof. Rhys has done for the Celtic and Teutonic myths what we have endeavoured to do in this book in regard to the Vedic and Avestic traditions. This has considerably lightened our labour in regard to the examination of Celtic and Teutonic myths from our point of view, and our thanks are due to Prof. Rhys for the same.