162 KINDRED GROUP-MARRIAGE 



social and sexual freedom of the primitive sib. Lithu- 

 anian sebras is a comrade, and very suggestively 

 Slavonic sebru is a peasant, one of the mark group who 

 till common land. We may again connect the idea of 

 ' gather ' by referring to the Sanskrit sabhd, an as- 

 sembly, and sabbya, one trusted or fit for an assembly 

 (cited by Skeat), and I suspect Persian sapah, 

 sipah, an army, and sipdhi, English sepoy, a soldier ; 

 thus pointing to the kin as the primitive military 

 unit. 



The root of sip is somewhat obscure. Deecke would 

 connect it with si, Sanskrit siv, denoting sew, bind 

 together. It is more likely to be connected with sip, 

 to suck, so that the siblings would be the sucklings. 1 

 This is supported by the use of geseppe, gesoppe, and 

 gesuppe in Bohemia for a crowd of small children. 

 Skeat connects both sip and sup with a root su, to 

 express juice, to generate, and so with son, sus, and 

 swine. 2 Whether the suckling notion (sip, siippen, sip- 

 peln), or the procreating, generating notion (su), be at 

 the basis of sib, we find that the notion of kin sexual 

 freedom is not so strong in it as in several other terms 

 for blood relationship. Indeed in Teutonic lands the 

 blood notion gets weakened, and in Landsmaal syvja 

 seg is now equivalent to besvogre sig, to enter into 

 relationship by marriage an expression far removed 



1 Note O.N. seppi for puppy, Swedish sif for bitch, and Persian sipa for 

 dog. 



2 He will allow no relationship between sip = kin and M.H.G. sip = sieve. 

 Yet A.S. sife, sibi, and O.H.G. sib, are strangely close to the kin- words. Skeat 

 says, "A sieve is properly for dry articles." This appears to entirely overlook 

 the Danish sive, which is used especially of water, but generally of any penetra- 

 tion through fine holes. 



