Then spake the Brahmin, in tones of scorn: “All languages compared to Sanscrit are as the bulrush compared with the spreading banyan. Nay; even as the banyan sends forth shoots, and from those shoots, when they touch the earth, spring forth young trees, so other tongues spring from the life-giving Sanscrit. He must be void of wisdom, and ignorant as a woman, who doubts that the most ancient language is Sanscrit.”