The study of the early Aryan languages tells us what progress had been
made by this race, before the time arrived for starting south and west,
to possess the Western world. Whatever words are alike in these Aryan
tongues must be the names of implements, or institutions, or ideas, used
or conceived before the first wave of migration made its way. We thus
learn that, at that far distant time, the Aryans had houses, plowed the
earth, and ground their corn in mills. The family life was
settled--basis as it is of all society and law--and had risen far above
the savage state. The Aryans had sheep, cattle, horses, dogs, goats, and
bees; drank a beverage made of honey; could work in copper, silver,
gold; fought with the sword and bow; and had the beginnings of kingly
rule which subsequently became the central element of the state.