218 KINDRED GROUP-MARRIAGE 



in M. Dutch vdde were used for father's sister, 

 aunt, and are probably obtained by the loss of an 

 r from faftre, fetre, or fetere. At the same time, 

 Gothic faps, master, used chiefly in compounds, as 

 in bruthfaps, bridegroom, must be taken into con- 

 sideration. Fedethom appears used in M.L.G. for 

 the offspring of father's sister, as fedriethom for that 

 of father's brother. As to the history and develop- 

 ment in use of these words, I can find nothing of real 

 value. 



(8) Having considered aunts and uncles, we may 

 now pass to nephews and nieces. If these had no 

 definite and clearly conceived existence during the 

 period of kindred group-marriage, we should expect 

 to find, as in the case of uncles and aunts, considerable 

 confusion in the nomenclature, which would not be 

 explicable had the patriarchal family been the earliest 

 type and formed the basis of the Aryan terminology 

 for relationship. 



The primitive form of the root is here suggested 

 by the Sanskrit ndpdt, descendant, son, grandchild. 

 The signification is apparently the one who is not (no) 

 a spouse or master (pdtis) ; perhaps, remembering the 

 sense of the root pa, it might also be rendered the 

 impubes. It will be seen at once that there is in this 

 no trace of the modern nephew idea. We have exactly 

 what we should expect in a group with two broad 

 divisions, the young, not yet spouses, and the adults with 

 a communal marriage. We find also Sanskrit nafsu, 

 offspring, grandchildren, naptjam, family ; Old Per- 

 sian napdt, grandchild ; Greek avetyw, cousin, nephew, 



