140 The Religion of the Veda of fire and man alike. It continues, or seems to com tinue, a sense of the relationship of Agni and man. 1
N ow the Vodn discloses, and all Hindu tradition harps upon, a father of the human race by the name of Menu, or Mnnush Pitnr, “Father Menu.” The word worm is nothing else than our own word “ men ": there is good reason to believe that this “original man ” was set up as a. kind of Adam or Noah in Indo» European times.“ For :1 while the primitive mind seems to be well content with this eponymous men: later on, n31 shall presently show, Menu is in his turn duly furnished with s. well-estnhlished father, Vivasvnnt, about whose origin people have ceased to worry.
From a. later time, yet still a. very early time, namely, the Indo—Irnninn period, comes the Vedic myth of Yams, the son of Vivnsvant. This myth is the clearest and hostwpreserved common piece of property of the two religions. As to the component ideas of this myth I see no room for doubt. Yams. means “twin.” He is the male of the obligatory twin pair that is required to people the world in real earnest. The female Ysmi‘, little as is said about her in the earlier parts of the myth, plays Eve to Yama’s
1 See Bergeigne, Lo Religion Vaidigue, vol. i., p. 5917‘.
9 Compare Tacitus, Grmmnfa, chapter 2. : “ They [the Germans] honor Tuisto, a god who has sprung from the earth, and his son Mannus, as the originators and founders of the race.”
