222 KINDRED GROUP-MARRIAGE 



symbol of fertility, or a metaphor for sexual license. 

 Another interesting word is the Greek vew, probably for 

 o-vew, to rain, with the notion of the rain as a fertiliser. 

 Thus Bacchus was termed #779, probably as a god of 

 fertilising moisture ; while Zeu? #779 reminds us of the 

 golden shower with which he fertilised Danae. Possibly 

 the same idea of creating, fertilising moisture is retained 

 in the Sanskrit somas, 1 the mysterious drink of the 

 Vedic gods, whom it animated to great achievements. 

 To the same root also vpyv, hymen, the god of love and 

 the song of love, may probably be ultimately traced, 

 thus carrying us back in the root su of sunu to that 

 kin-gathering with its common meal, songs, and sexual 

 license which has so often reappeared. 



As we find the idea of su, beget, leading to suna, son, 

 so the same notion in pu leads us to pusus, putus, and 

 puer, a boy. Sanskrit putra is a son. If Latin puer 

 be for puter, as Grimm suggests, then again it is the 

 procreator which is emphasised. The origin of puer 

 would thus correspond to (frvrap from (f>v, and, on our 

 theory, to patar from pa. All signify the male begetter, 

 but the former in potentia, the latter two in esse. The 

 Teutonic form is buobe, bube, at first sight only the male 

 procreated, but in Alpine bua = liebhaber ; and in the 

 forms buhl, buhle, lover ; bul = arnica, meretrix ; Swiss 

 bilhli = Kirmes-mistress, dance - partner on May Day ; 

 buhlgabe = morgengabe ; buhlgesang = htteih, etc., point- 

 ing to the procreator and the sex-festival. 



Turning now to daughter the cognates are : Sanskrit 

 duhitd, Persian dokhter, Greek Ovydrrjp, Gothic dauhtar, 



1 Compare Sanskrit sdmas, water, milk, moisture ; Greek tpdw, to pour out, 

 and ^pdw, to love sexually, 2pos, love, desire. 



