J. Palieps' first career was as a professional engineer, but upon retirement his interests turned to the humanities and, in particular, to the question of the origin of Latvian folk poetry, the 'Dainas'. He received a BA in Cultural Anthropology from Concordia University followed byan MSc in Ethnolinguistics from the Universit� de Montr�al. As a result of his studies, he published a monograph 'The Latvian Dainas and the Vedic Hymns' in the Latvian language in 2004. It contained a comparative analysis of these two mytho-poetic corpuses, the Indo-European penetration into 'Old Europe', and the determination of the origin of the Latvian language and the mytho-poetic Dainas. The monograph… has received positive comments by the members of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, and Dr. habil philol. V. Hausmanis notes: ``Palieps has accomplished an important work by studying the Latvian Dainas in context with the Vedas and I.E. culture. The research covers a wide range of problems, and J. Palieps overall knowledge is remarkable``. With the publication of this book, he hopes to familiarize foreign scientists with the mytho-poetic Dainas, as well as facilitate further research in Baltic and Vedic linguistic and cultural developments in general.