GENERAL WORDS FOR SEX AND KINSHIP 145 



shows us that our old Teuton ancestors considered 

 such communistic, cosexual life as both moral and 

 advantageous. It was, indeed, a necessary stage of 

 evolution, it led to the foundation of a wider conception 

 of kin, to the tribe, and ultimately to the state. 1 



(6) The next word to which I would draw the 

 reader's attention is associated with a rather different 

 phase of kin -group life. I refer to the term mahal or mdl. 

 One of the earliest meanings which we find attached is 

 that of the periodic meeting, or judicial assembly of the 

 markgenossenschaft. This took place at the mahal- 

 stat, the mahalbrunnen or the mahalberg, on the 

 mahaltag. At such places, where the mahal was held, 

 there was usually a mahalstein or altar, and were we 

 now occupied with folklore and not philology it would 

 be easy to bring evidence of human sacrifices to a 

 goddess of fertility at the mahalstein. The corre- 

 sponding verb mahaljan denotes a speaking together ; 

 the mahal being the basis of a folk-assembly. Thus 

 far everything might seem straightforward with regard 

 to this word the old tribal parliament, the mark- 

 genossenschaft, meeting by sacred well or on sacred 

 hill. But we find attached to the word a totally 

 different set of meanings. Mahal is also a marriage : 

 mahaltag is glossed dies sponsionis, mahaljan, mdlen,. 

 is to take to wife, and mdlscaz is the bridal treasure, 

 the brautschatz ; mahelJcdsen is to fondle. In Ger- 

 man vermahlung, vermdhlen and gemahl, gemahlin 



1 Kinship is the basis of all civilisation, but the origin of the herd or horde, 

 whether of animals or man, required a wider sexual relationship than monogamic 

 marriage. The herd once established as a variation, its fitness for the extra-group 

 struggle enabled it to be independent of its primitive sexual basis. 



VOL. II L 



