OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 461 



My fatlier's sister is my mother, her children are my brothers and sisters, and their 

 children arc my sons and daughters. 



On the mother's side, my mother's brother is my father, his chikh-en arc my 

 brothers and sisters, and the children of the latter are my grandchildren. In like 

 manner my mother's sister is my mother, her children are my brothers and sisters, 

 and their children are my grandchildren. This is the extent to which the several 

 branches of this line are carried. 



The husbands and wives of these several collateral sons and dangliters are my 

 sons-in-law and my daughters-in-law, and the husbands and wives of these several 

 collateral brothers and sisters are my brothers-in-law and my sisters-in-law. 



The identity of this system with the Hawaiian admits of no doubt. It is not 

 surprising that this peculiar classification of consanguinei wore the appearance of 

 an abuse of terms. The " confusion of relationships," as Rev. Mr. Bishop ex- 

 pressed it, Avas still more strongly insisted upon by Rev. Mr. Bingham. In his first 

 letter to the author, dated at Apiang, in 1859, he observes: "The terms for father, 

 mother, brother, and sister, and for other relationships, are used so loosely we can 

 never know, without further inquiry, whether the real father, or the father's brother 

 is meant, the mother or the mother's sister, the brother or the cousin, the grand- 

 father or the godfather." In his subsequent letter, dated in August, 1860, which 

 accompanied the schedule, he remarks : " You think I will find that the terms to 

 which you refer are not used loosely, but in the most precise, regular, and uniform 

 manner. * * * They are so loosely used that in common conversation I am often 

 much puzzled to know who is referred to, until I have put specific questions. A 

 man comes to me and says e mote tamau, my father is dead. Perhaps I have just 

 seen his father alive and well, and I say, ' No, not dead V He replies, ' I mean my 

 father's brother,' or ' my mother's brother.' " These quotations are introduced to 

 verify their work, and to show how distinctly the prominent features of this system 

 ot relationship met their attention at every point, and that it is both a real and a 

 living form. 



These schedules complete the series from the Pacific Islands. Each one is 

 sufficient to bring to our notice a system distinct and original in its character, 

 however limited their united testimony may be with reference to the extent of its 

 distribution. Notwithstanding the extreme simplicity of its plan it produces a 

 definite and coherent system, capable of answering the ordinary purposes of life. 

 That it descended to each of these nations, with the streams of the blood, from a 

 common source, and has been perpetuated by them through all the centuries of 

 their separation from each other, would seem to be a necessary inference from the 

 continued agreement of their radical characteristics. If the forms which now pre- 

 vail amongst the members of the widely scattered Malayan family could be 

 brought together for comparison, it would undoubtedly lead to singular and mte- 

 resting results. The system is radically different from the Aryan, Semitic, and 

 Uralia^n • and, although classificatory, it is widely divergent from the Turanian. 

 It is sufficientlv sui generis to be capable of self-perpetuation, in this precise con- 

 dition through indefinite periods of time, and after crossing, unaffected, the barrier 

 which separates one stock language from another, and even one family of languages 



