OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 31 



descriptive phrases, tends to the inference that the original system was purely 

 descriptive. 



There are twenty-two specific terms in this language given in the table for blood 

 kindred, and nineteen for marriage relatives. These, by augmentation to express 

 decrees of the same relationship, and by inflection for gender, yield forty-four 

 additional, making together eighty-three special terms for the recognized relation- 

 ships. 



2. Modern Greek. The schedule in the table was taken from the glossary, before 

 cited, of Prof. Sophocles. 1 It was compiled by him according to the Roman 

 method. In the later period of the Empire the two systems, in their legal form, 

 doubtless became identical. It does not, therefore, require special notice. One 

 of its interesting features is the contraction of the nomenclature which it exhibits 

 in the direction of original terms. 



II. Eomaic Nations. 1. Italian. 2. French. 3. Spanish. 4. Portuguese. 



1. Italian. The Italian system is not fully extended in the table. It presents 

 the popular rather than the legal form, the latter of which was doubtless based 

 upon the Roman. The collateral lines are maintained distinct from each other 

 and divergent from the lineal line, with the exception of the first collateral, in 

 which respect the Italian form agrees with the Holland Dutch, Belgian, Anglo- 

 Saxon, and early English. The nephew and grandson are designated by the same 

 term, nipote ; in other words, my nephew and grandson stand to me in the same 

 relationship. This classification merges the first collateral line in the lineal, and 

 in so far agrees with the Turanian form. 



The readiest manner of showing the characteristic features of the system of the 

 Aryan nations will be to give illustrations of the method of designating kindred in 

 one of the branches of each of the first three collateral lines. This will make it 

 apparent, first, that the connection of consanguine! is traced through common 

 ancestors; secondly, that the collateral lines are maintained distinct from each 

 other, and divergent from the lineal line, with some exceptions ; thirdly, how far 

 the system is descriptive, and how far the descriptive form has been modified by 

 the introduction of special terms ; and, lastly, whether the systems of these nations 

 are radically the same. The illustrations will be from the first collateral line, male 

 branch, and the male branch of the second and third collateral lines on the father's 

 side. For a more particular knowledge of the details of the system of each nation 

 reference is made to the table. 



In the Italian the first collateral line gives the following series, brother, 

 nephero, and great-nephew, and thus downward with a series of nephews. This 

 is a deviation from the Roman form. The second collateral runs uncle, cousin, and 

 cousin's son, which is also a deviation from the Roman. 



2. French. The French method is also unlike the Roman. My brother's 

 descendants are designated as a series of nephews, one beyond the other, e. g., 

 neveu, petit-neveu, and arriere-peiii-neveu. The second collateral line likewise 

 employed a different method, e. g., oncle, cousin, cousin-sous-germain. In the first 



1 Article BaO/jLi 



