'C. S. and B. Z. Seligman, The Kababilsh, a Sudan Arab Tribe, Harvard African Studies, II., 1918, 123. B. Z. Seligman, "Studies in Semitic Kinship," Bull. School of Oriental Studies, London Institution, III., pt. I, 1923, 51-68, 263-279.
distinct culture layers. An archaic system resting on the family may have been complicated by a bifurcate merging system, stress ing the seniority idea. In other words, a palae-Asiatic layer may have had Yakut-like accretions.' In the southern half of the continent bifurcate merging sys tems prevail. The Hottentot nomenclature approximates the Iro quois pattern, though the occasional classification of the mother's brother's son with the maternal uncle marks a deviation in the Omaha direction. For the Bushmen, data are inadequate, though reported suggestions of a "classificatory system" indicate another sample of the Iroquois form. With modifications of a minor char acter this holds for most of the Bantu. There is little to support Morgan's interpretation that the terminology is "Malayan." His guess that the stem for mother's brother was a recently evolved substitute for the father term is refuted by its occurrence in much the same form among the Thonga and Wayao, while the concept is attested for as far north as Uganda and the Congo. The very fact cited by Morgan that a single word denotes the paternal aunt and the father proves the stress on bifurcation, even to the detriment of sex distinctions. The generation factor doubtless asserts itself in the classification of all cousins with siblings, but this is far from universal in Bantu speech. The Wayao, e.g., distinguish cross-cousins from parallel cousins by a distinctive designation. Moreover, the very essence of the generation principle is ignored by a number of tribes. The Thonga, like the Hottentot, may call the mother's brother's son malume, like the maternal uncle, while the daughter of the mother's brother is a "mother," and sometimes the grandchild and the sister's child fail to be distinguished.
Again, the wife's parent and the wife's elder sibling fall into the same Thonga category, and sometimes the grandfather term embraces the maternal uncle. Finally, the Wayao have a reciprocal term for parent-in-law and child-in-law. There is thus no warrant for putting the Bantu with the Polynesians : their system is basi cally of the bifurcate merging type, modified locally by various causes, sometimes along Omaha lines.' The Hamitic and Hamitoid tribes are generally credited with "descriptive" systems. In fact, the descriptive technique may be employed to an unusual degree, so that the 'Afar of the East Horn call a brother "mother's son." This, however, does not preclude a classificatory meaning for the descriptive designation, much less for other parts of the same nomenclature. Galla abba, for ex ample, may be applied not only to the father but as an honorific appellation to any old man. The Somali system is definitely bi furcate collateral. Among the Masai the paucity of genuine kin ship terms is no less remarkable than certain correlated usages. While father's and mother's siblings are distinguished from the parents by descriptive phrases, this discrimination extends only to reference, while in address the father's brother is a father. Most kinsmen, however, are not called by terms of consanguinity or affinity but according to the livestock they have received from the speaker : if' he has presented a man with a bull (ainoni), the bene ficiary is called b-ainoni, etc. Generations often fail to be sepa rated: koko embraces aunt and grandmother, and with a suffix the word is applied to a woman's grandson. Similarly, a reciprocal stem embraces grandfather and a man's grandson.' Among the Sudanese negroes a great diversity obtains. The Timne terminology is lineal, the words for aunt and uncle being generic and distinct from the parent terms, while cousins in a lump Jochelson, "The Koryak," Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., X., 2905-08, 759 ; id. "The Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus," ibid., XIII., 191o, 68. W. Borogas, The Chukchee, ibid., XI., 19o7, 538.