lO Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. X^'^ '> 



The terms for "niece" and for "daughter-in-law" seem to 

 be identical. There is another word for "younger sister" or 

 perhaps "sister," — nata'se. 



The total number of Arapaho kinship terms is thus twenty- 

 three. Four of these — "father-in-law," "mother-in-law," 

 "son-in-law," and "daughter-in-law" — are clearly related to 

 four others, — "uncle," "aunt," "nephew," and "niece." 

 Several others appear to have common elements : -abi" occurs 

 in the words for "elder sister," "niece," and "sister-in-law 

 of a man." 



In this series of terms the distinction between elder and 

 younger is confined to the brother and sister relationships. 

 The terms for the consanguinities of a man and for those of 

 a woman are alike, except in the case of brother-in-law and 

 sister-in-law. Here the category according to which terms 

 are differentiated is not so much absolute sex as identity or 

 contrariety of sex. Thus, a man calls his sister-in-law 

 neigabie, and she calls him the same; brothers-in-law call 

 each other naya° ; sisters-in-law, natou. 



Cousins, even of remote degrees of kinship, are called 

 "brothers and sisters." Among the Gros Ventres, the father's 

 brother is called "father;" the mother's sister, "mother;" so 

 that the terms for "uncle" and "aunt" are used only for 

 mother's brother and father's sister. The same is true of 

 "nephew" and "niece;" a man calls his brother's children 

 "son and daughter," but his sister's children "nephew and 

 niece;" conversely with a woman. Even a cousin's or a 

 second cousin's children are called "son and daughter" in- 

 stead of "nephew and niece," if the cousin is of the same 

 sex as the speaker. The same may be true among the 

 Arapaho. 



The restrictions as to intercourse between certain relations, 

 which are so widespread in North America, exist also among 

 the Arapaho. A man and his mother-in-law may not look at 

 or speak to each other. If, however, he gives her a horse, he 

 may speak to her and see her. The same restrictions exist 

 between father and daughter-in-law as between mother and 

 son-in-law, say the Arapaho (though perhaps they are less 



