GENERAL WORDS FOR SEX AND KINSHIP 177 



to see in these dances a fossil of the old sex -festival 

 with its hileih or chorus. What we here deduce from 

 philological considerations is amply confirmed by folk- 

 lore. 1 The verlobung in many country districts is 

 the all -important factor in the marriage ceremony. 

 There is always a schmaus, a rede, and a tanz ; in 

 other words, all the elements of the old group mahal. 

 In old days, too, the sexual union at once followed, 

 and preceded the trauung, which in the Church sense 

 often did not take place at all, or not till long after- 

 wards. This view of verlobung, as really resulting 

 from the ancient mother-age sex-relations, receives con- 

 firmation from the old Prussian use of saMba and the 

 Polish use of s'lub for marriage. Thus verlobung, with 

 its Scandinavian cognates, meaning now betrothal, 

 must be in the first place associated with the sex-idea 

 in lubh. Of the two elements of the modern sex-union, 

 the verlobung is the mother-age fossil, and the trauung, 

 or ilbergabe der braut, the patriarchal supplement of 

 the primitive marriage form. 



With love, as derived from the sexual lubh, may be 

 compared the love-series derived from Aryan ka, kar, 

 kam, to yearn after, desire, love sexually. Sanskrit 

 Jcam is to love, kamra is charming, cakamdnd, desire, 

 yearn after, kdma, a wish ; Lettish kdrs is dainty, kdrdt, 

 to desire ; Slavonic kochati is love ; Irish cara is a 

 friend, caraim, I love ; Latin earns is dear, beloved, 

 caritia is the quality of being dear, affection (probably 

 for camrus and camritia ; possibly comis, for cosmis, 



1 As I have mentioned above, I hope on another occasion to deal at length 

 with peasant customs in their relation to the mother-age. 



VOL. II N 



