SPECIAL WORDS FOR SEX AND RELATIONSHIP 227 



curious Albanian vova-epia, while it is consistent with the 

 great part which the sexual life of the woman plays in 

 early folklore. 1 



Another term for daughter-in-law undoubtedly shows 

 the patriarchal exogamous system. This is Sanskrit 

 vadujd. The root vedhd and Lithuanian vedu signified 

 bring, lead away, and ultimately marry. Thus Sanskrit 

 vadujd (and vadhu) is also beast of burden, so that the 

 notion of leading appears to be that of the bound or 

 captive kind. Sanskrit vadhu is young woman, bride, 

 young wife, daughter-in-law, and in Zend vadhemnd is 

 bridegroom. Welsh ar-wedd is glossed gerere, and 

 dyweddio is marry. Very suggestive is Lithuanian 

 wadoti, to redeem a pledge. Welsh gwaudd and 

 Cornish guhit stand for daughter-in-law, and so does 

 Lithuanian wedekle. Besides these, Whitley Stokes 

 notices Welsh gwaddol and Greek eSvov for a gift to 

 the wife or to her relatives, 2 probably originally a price 

 for the rape. The forcible character of the ' leading ' 

 involved is evidenced by the cognates which are rendered 

 ducere and dux, e.g. Old Slavonic voditi and vozdi. 



We thus see two chief sources of the idea daughter- 

 in-law the one, in the great majority of Aryan tongues, 

 arising from the idea merely of a young marriageable 

 woman, and probably known in the endogamous period ; 



1 It is possible that a similar notion occurs in O.H.G. huora, O.N. hdra, 

 English whore, which Grimm connects with the root har in the sense of flow. 

 The origin of the word would thus be no more evil than that of luxe, with which 

 indeed it is closely connected by a series of folk-proverbs, such as Jung eine 

 hure, alt eine hexe. The word originally would signify any young woman, 

 the freedom in matters of sex attached to the word arising from the traditions 

 of the old group sex-freedom. Fick would connect hure, not as Grimm with 

 the notion in har, flow (and Sanskrit gara = Gothic hdrs, adulterer), but with 

 Tea, desire, yearn after. See p. 179). 



2 Compare the primitive sense of pledge in Anglo-Saxon wedldc, English 

 wedlock. 



