410 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINITY 



my mother's sister is my aunt, Mausi = aunt-mother. All of these terms but the 

 last are from the aboriginal speech ; and they seem to indicate that the true uncle 

 and aunt, as in the Tamilian form, were the mother's brother, and the father's 

 sister, and that the other are but qualified forms of the previous relationships of 

 father and mother. 



A comparison of the Bengali with the Hindi form shows that they are in full 

 agreement with each other, with slight deviations, in their minute details ; and 

 that the terms of relationship are the same words dialectically changed. If the 

 Gaura speech was divided into its present dialects at the epoch of the Sanskrit 

 colonization of India, then the modifications of the original system, under Sans- 

 kritic influences, have taken the same precise direction in each dialect ; thereby 

 illustrating the uniformity of the operation of intellectual and moral causes in its 

 formation. On the other hand, if the present system antedates the formation of 

 these dialects it is a not less significant attestation of the permanency of the system 



line, the son of a man's female cousin (here his sister) is his Bhagua (nephew) ; the grandson of this 

 female cousin is also a grandson to him. 



" VII. All the grandsons of brothers are brothers to each other, and the same of all the grandsons 

 of sisters, while all the grandsons of brothers on the one hand, and of sisters on the other, are 

 cousins; and the same relationship continues to the remotest generation in each case, so long as 

 these persons stand in the same degree of nearness to the original brothers and sisters. But when 

 one is farther removed than the other, by a single degree, the rule which changes the collateral line 

 into the lineal at once applies; thus the son of one cousin becomes a nephew to the other cousin, and 

 the son of this nephew a grandson. In like manner the son of one brother becomes a son to the 

 other brother, and the son of this son a grandson." 



Among us they are also called brothers to each other, and the same with the grandsons of sisters. 

 And so also all the grandsons of brothers on the one hand, and of sisters on the other, are called 

 brothers ; and the same relationships continue to the remotest generations. 



"VIII. Consequently the descendants of brothers and sisters, or of an original pair, could not, in 

 theory, ever pass beyond the degree of cousin, that being the most remote degree of relationship 

 recognized, and the greatest divergence allowed from the lineal line. Hence the bond of consan- 

 guinity which can never, in fact, be broken by lapse of time, was not, as a fundamental idea of the 

 Indian system, suffered to be broken in principle." 



It is exactly the same among us. 



"IX. All the wives of these several brothers, without discrimination, and all the wives of these 

 several male cousins, are interchangeably sisters-in-law to the brothers and cousins of their respective 

 husbands; and all the husbands of these several sisters, without distinction, and of these several 

 female cousins, are in like manner brothers-in-law to the sisters and cousins of their respective wives. 

 All the wives of these several sons and nephews are daughters-in-law alike, to the fathers and 

 mothers, uncles and aunts of their respective husbands; and all the husbands of these several daugh- 

 ters and nieces are sons-in-law alike to the fathers and mothers, uncles and aunts of their respective 

 wives. 



" This system, which, from its complexity and unlikencss to our own, is embarrassing to us, is yet 

 perfectly natural and readily applied by the Indian, to whom any other than this is entirely 

 unknown." 



It is substantially the same among us. 



* * *,* * * * * * * * 



I believe I have answered all your inquiries. Should you need any further information, I shall be 

 happy to give it. I remain yours very truly, 



GOPENATH NUNDY. 



