SPECIAL WORDS FOR SEX AND RELATIONSHIP 219 



, descendants ; Latin nepos, descendant, grand- 

 child, nephew; Gothic nipjis, nipjo, cousin ; A.S. nefa, 

 grandchild, nephew; O.H.G. nefo, glossed nepos, cog- 

 natus, sobrinus, i.e. any collateral womb -relation, or, 

 indeed, any blood-relative; 1 O.H.G. nift, glossed neptis 

 and privigna, niece and stepdaughter ; M. Dutch neef, 

 grandchild, cousin, nephew ; M.H.G. neve, relative, 

 cousin, neveschaft, cousinship, niftdtn, granddaughter, 

 niece ; M.L.G. neve, grandchild, nephew, or niece, 

 nichte, nichteke, granddaughter, niece ; Old Norse nefi, 

 offspring, grandchild, nephew, nepi, a brother, nift, a 

 sister, and also a bride. Now all these diverse mean- 

 ings, even to the last brother, sister, bride are intel- 

 ligible on the basis that the venose? were originally the 

 offspring of the kin-group offspring 2 to some, nephews 

 or nieces to others, cousins, brothers, sisters, and ulti- 

 mately spouses among themselves. The children of the 

 gamahhida, they will ultimately form a gamahhida 

 among themselves. They are the impuberes, while the 

 others are the conjuges ; they are the young and the 

 others the old, the eltern; they are the enkeln, O.H.G. 



1 In an old mediaeval vernacular Christmas church ritual, the Virgin Mary 

 terms Joseph lieber neve mein, and Joseph the Virgin liebe mueme mein. In the 

 LatnbacherPassionsspiel John also addresses Maria as liebe mutter vnd mume. 



2 That the offspring is the sister's son is also evidenced by old Irish niae, 

 son of a sister, i.e. not of a brother. As I have pointed out, the ancient 

 gods created in man's image marry like their makers, and when we have 

 passed the stage of no known fathers, of the mother-son dual deities, we reach 

 that of brother-sister marriage Freyr and Freya, Nib'rdr and his sister, Zeus 

 and Hera, Cronos and "Rhea, Jupiter and Juno, Janus and Camisa, Osiris and 

 Isis, and many others in the mythologies of much less civilised peoples. Nor 

 does brother-sister marriage occur in mythology only. Besides its frequency in 

 Ancient Egypt and Modern Madagascar, we may cite its occurrence in the Celtic 

 hero-legends, e.g. Caibre Muse and Duben, Conchobar and Dechtere, Medb, 

 Ethne, Clothru, and their three brothers, the latter appearing to be a kin group- 

 marriage. 



