O P T H E H U M A N F A M I L Y. 65 



In the second collateral line the same peculiarity reappears. I call my father's 

 brother, nagy hatijam, nagy = grand, literally, " my grand elder brother," and my 

 father's sister, nagy nenem, " my grand elder sister." My mother's brother and 

 sister are designated by the same phrases ; and therefore, which branch was intended 

 must be indicated, when necessary, by additional words. In what way the child- 

 ren and descendants of these several uncles and aunts are described, does not 

 appear. 



No explanation is given in the schedule of the manner of indicating the series 

 of relatives in the third, and more remote collateral lines, except that they are 

 described. 



The novel method found in the Magyar system for expressing the relationships 

 of uncle and nephew, aunt and niece, has not before appeared, and does not appear 

 again in the system of any nation represented in the Tables. The nearest approach 

 to it occurs in the system of the Minnitaree and Upsaroka Indian nations of the 

 Upper Missouri, among whom uncle and nephew stand in the relation of elder and 

 younger brother. This form, however, is exceptional, and confined to these cases 

 in the Indian family. Such deviations as these from the common form are 

 important, since they are apt to reappear in other branches of the same stock, and 

 thus become threads of evidence upon the question of their ethnic connection, and 

 also with reference to the order of their separation from each other, or from the 

 parent stem. When such a method of indicating particular relationships comes 

 into permanent use to the displacement of a previous method, the oftshoots of the 

 particular nation in which it originated, are certain to take it with them, and to 

 perpetuate it as an integral part of their system of consanguinity. A feature of 

 the same kind has been noticed in the Slavonic, and still others Avill appear in the 

 systems of other families. The most unexpected suggestions of genetic connection 

 present themselves through such deviations from uniformity, when it reappears in 

 the systems of other nations. 



In Magyar, the marriage relationships are not fully discriminated by special 

 terms. There are terms for husband and wife, father-in-law and mother-in-law, 

 son-in-law and daughter-in-law, and one term for sister-in-law. All others are 

 described. 



Notwithstanding the absence of full details of the Magyar system of relation- 

 ship, enough appears to show that it is not classificatory in the Turanian sense, 

 but chiefly descriptive. The generalizations which it contains are : first, that of 

 brothers and sisters into elder and younger ; secondly, that of the brothers of the 

 father and of the mother into one class, as grand elder brotliers ; thirdly, that of 

 the sisters of the father and of the mother into one class, as grand elder sisters ; and 

 fourthly, that of the children of the brothers and sisters of Ego into two classes, 

 as his little younger brothers and little younger sisters. The last three, while they 

 exhibit a novel method of description, failed to develop in the concrete form the 

 relationships of uncle and aunt, or nephew and niece. It gives to the system a 

 certain amount of classification ; but it is iia accordance with the principles of the 

 descriptive form. 



9 February, 1809. 



