176 The GlassiJicatoTy System of 



of them as Ndavolartggu, a term which I translated in my 

 rendering of the Fijian system by our word " cousin." As 

 I gained a fuller knowledge of the system, I grew more and 

 more dissatisfied with this translation, and long since became 

 fully convinced that the system does not recognise the 

 relationship of cousin at all, but that Ndavolanggu is no more 

 than a synonym for Watinggu, my spouse. By this term 

 Ndavolanggu, a man addresses the daughters of his father's 

 sisters and those of his mother's brothers. Thus also a 

 woman addresses the sons of her father's sisters and those 

 of her mother's brothers. These males and these females are 

 said to be Veindavolani to each other, and it is only within the 

 Veindavolani that marriage is allowed. Let us examine these 

 terms and see what evidence we can extract from their 

 etymology. Nclavo means to lie down ; La is a terminal 

 particle of no particular meaning, whereof there are many 

 in the language ; Vei is a prefix which gives a reciprocal 

 force to the word with which it is combined. Thus, Vathu is to 

 strike luith the fist ; Veivathu is to box ; Ravii is to slay ; 

 Veiraravui is mutual slaughter ; Tamana is to be a father 

 to; Veitamani expresses the relationship between fatBer 

 and child. Nganena is to shun ; Veinganeni means those luho 

 shun one another, and is the word used to express the 

 relationship between brother and sister. So also, Ndavo being 

 to lie down, Veindavolani means those who lie doivn 

 together. The term Ndavolanggu then simply indicates the 

 person with whom the speaker has the right of cohabitation. 

 The important question now arises, how may we account 

 for the prevalence of these systems of kinship among tribes 

 so widely scattered ? They could not have borrowed one 

 from another, because of the distance which has separated 

 them from time immemorial. We cannot entertain for a 

 moment the theory of invention, or spontaneous growth of 

 the same system, in every nation in whose language we find 

 its terms. For, since the Turanian system has in it more 

 than twenty independent characteristics, it is in the highest 

 degree improbable that any two unconnected tribes should 

 have invented, or gradually developed, the same system ; 

 and this improbability increases with every successive tribe 

 among whom we have discovered the system, until it arrives 

 at an utter impossibility long before we come to the end of 

 our list. Moreover, not only have the main characteristics 

 of the system been found among many widely scattered 

 tribes : what is still more remarkable, the anomalous terms 



