In the Hawaian Islands there existed a confused kinship by classes, analogous to that of the familial clan among the Redskins, but much more gross. Group-marriage of brothers and sisters prevailed, but generally the brothers did not marry their own sisters. As for the names expressing the degrees of kinship, they were names of classes. The Hawaians had no words to express “father” or “mother.” They used the word “_mkûa_,” which signifies “parents.” To say “father,” they added the word “_kana_,” which signifies “male”: _Mkûa kana_, male parent. To say “mother,” they used the combination, _Mkûa ouahina_, female parent. There was no expression for “son” or “daughter.” They used the word _keiki_, child, or little one, to which they added _kana_ or _ouahina_, as before, according as the child was male or female. The language had no terms for “brother” or “sister.”[962] The word employed to express “wives” is collective; it applies to the wife’s sister as well as to the wife proper, and signifies literally “female”; in the same way, for “husband” they used the word _kana_ (male), and applied it also to the husband’s brother and sister’s husband. All the sisters of a woman were called “the wives of the husband of that woman,” even when they were not actually so.[963] The Hawaians had no expressions for “grandfather” or “grandmother.” Their word _kapuna_ signifies an ancestor of any degree beyond the father and mother (_mkûa_). Neither had they any special denomination for “grandson” or “grand-daughter.” As brothers and sisters did not generally intermarry, the women called the husband or husbands of their sisters, not “husbands,” but “intimate companions” (_punalua_).[964] It was possible for either the paternal or maternal family to evolve from this confused system of kinship, based at first apparently on the promiscuity of brothers and sisters; but it was the latter which at first arose, and in the time of Cook the rank and dignity of the chiefs were transmitted in the female line.[965] A singular custom noticed by Cook in the Society Isles may perhaps be interpreted in the sense of maternal filiation. They spoke of the transmission of the title and dignity of the chiefs to their first-born, and that even at the moment of birth. As soon as the wife of a chief had given birth to a son, the father was reckoned as deposed, and became a simple regent; he owed homage to his son, and might not remain in his presence without uncovering to the waist.[966] At Tonga maternal filiation was well established; rank was transmitted by the women, who sometimes even reigned,[967] and the father was not counted as the parent of his child.[968]