GENERAL WORDS FOR SEX AND KINSHIP 141 



The extension of the term mage beyond the fruit of 

 a single womb is evidenced in the following passages 

 from early German law-books : 



Dit is de irste sibbe tale, di man to magen rekenet, bruder 

 kindere unde suster kindere. Sachsenspiegel. 



" This is the first grade of kinship which is reckoned 

 as mage, namely, brothers' children and sisters' chil- 

 dren." 



Vnd heizent die chint geswistrige' vnt hebent die ersten sippe 

 zal die man zemagen rechent. Schwabenspiegel. 



" And the children are termed geswistrige, and have 

 the first grade of kinship which is reckoned as mage." 



The second of these terms the mage, brethren, and 

 the first identifies brothers' and sisters' children as mage 

 or brethren. The two conceptions would practically be 

 the same if the word mage originated in a kin-group 

 with very little or no individualising of fathers or 

 mothers. Thus in the Heimdallar Galdr, a charm in 



A girl, who is a native of the village, was married to a peasant from another village, 

 but after the wedding a number of the young men of Borsad tried to prevent her 

 from departing to her new home. The bride managed to escape, but, on seeing this, 

 the young men set fire to the cottage of her parents, and the flames quickly spread to 

 other cottages. A murderous fight then began between these young ruffians and the 

 bride's friends, with the result that eight peasants were killed, and about twenty of 

 both sexes injured. The arrival of a detachment of gendarmes put an end to the 

 affray, and the ringleaders were marched off to prison. 



On another occasion (1886) we read : 



The village of Ladis, in the Tyrol, has for generations observed the rule that its 

 maidens must not take husbands outside their own village. Lately, however, Catherine 

 Schranz, reckoned the most beautiful girl of the whole district, accepted the proposal 

 of a suitor from a distant place. The youths of Ladis resented this as a personal 

 injury. Six of them seized her, tied her on a manure cart, and led her through the 

 village, the other youths and boys jeering and singing derisive chants. At length her 

 father rescued her, and took proceedings against her assailants, who were sentenced 

 to terms of imprisonment ranging from four weeks to two months. 



Neither gendarmes nor editors realised the value of these fossils of primitive 

 civilisation. 



