152 KINDRED GROUP-MARRIAGE 



words for kin which seem to mark a prehistoric kin- 

 dred group -marriage. The next to be considered is 

 the very valuable fossil gat. I suspect this to be the 

 same primitive as appears in Greek %a& Thus ^av^dvw 

 contains initially the notion of holding. ^a^So? is 

 gaping, wide open ; ^arew is to open the mouth wide, 

 and so to crave ; probably also /eaSo?, a jar or vessel, is 

 from the same source. There are two Teutonic forms 

 to be considered. 



(i.) Gat. This means an opening, a hole. O.H.Gr. 

 katero is glossed valva, ostium; O.N. gad is a hole. 

 We have also A.S. geat, English gate, and O.S. gat. 

 In M.H.Gr. des berges gat is a hill-cave, der lewen gat 

 the lion's den, and Eeinke de Vos has his gat or burrow. 

 In M.L.Gr. gat or weidegat stands for anus, and in 

 Norwegian Landsmaal gat is a small hollow, and gate, 

 gato, or gatu stand for button-hole. Gat is also used 

 in L.G. for a snake's hole. From these words it is 

 clear that gat has the primitive sense of small hole, 

 and is then used for den or lair. 1 



(ii.) Gadem. This denotes a shed, house, or room 

 an extension of the den or lair notion. In O.H.Gr. 

 cadum is glossed domus, tabernaculum, septum, con- 

 clave, i.e. house, tent, hedged inclosure, closet a com- 

 bination, in fact, of gemach and hag. In A.S. and 

 0. S. the word does not occur ; it is Swabian and 

 Tyrolese, but it stretches as far as the Allemani did 



1 Considering the ready interchange of k and g in O.H.G., I am inclined 

 to think O.H.G. chezil, kezil, Gothic katilo, O.F. ketil, A.S. catel, English 

 kettle, are directly from gat with the diminutive, and not from Latin catillus. 

 In this respect we must note Icelandic kati, a small vessel or boat, where the 

 double sense of the words vessel and boat (e.g. as in butter-boat} repeats itself. 



