Yet the degrees of kinship within which intercourse is forbidden, are
by no means everywhere the same. It is most, and almost universally,
abominated between parents and children, especially mother and
son. As an exception to this rule, v. Langsdorf states that, among
the Kaniagmuts, not only do brothers and sisters cohabit with each
other, but even parents and children.[1682] The Eastern Tinneh, or
Chippewyans, occasionally marry their mothers, sisters, or daughters,
but such alliances are not considered correct by general opinion.[1683]
In the Indian Archipelago, according to Schwaner, Wilken, and Riedel,
marriages between brothers and sisters, and parents and children,
are permitted among certain tribes;[1684] and similar unions, it is
said, took place among the ancient Persians.[1685] Again, in Nukahiva,
as we are told by Lisiansky, although near kinsfolk are forbidden to
intermarry, it sometimes happens that a father lives with his daughter,
and a brother with his sister; but on one occasion it was looked
upon as a horrible crime when a mother cohabited with her son.[1686]
Among the Kukis, as described by Rennel, marriages were generally
contracted without regard to blood-relationship; only a mother might
not wed her child.[1687] Among the Karens of Tenasserim, “matrimonial
alliances between brother and sister, or father and daughter, are not
uncommon.”[1688] Speaking of the King of the Warua, Mr. Cameron states
that in his harem are to be found his stepmothers, aunts, sisters,
nieces, cousins, as also his own daughters.[1689] Among the Wanyoro,
brothers may marry their sisters, and even fathers their daughters; but
a son does not marry his own mother, although the other widows of his
father become his property.[1690]
Unions between brothers and sisters, who are children of the same
mother as well as the same father, are likewise held in general
abhorrence. The primitive feeling against such connections is strongly
expressed in the Finnish Kullervo Myth. The unfortunate Kullervo, after
discovering that he had committed incest with his sister, wails—
“Woe is me, my life hard-fated!
I have slain my virgin-sister,
Shamed the daughter of my mother;
Woe to thee my ancient father!
Woe to thee, my gray-haired mother!
Wherefore was I born and nurtured,
Why this hapless child’s existence?”[1691]
The dishonoured sister threw herself into the river, and Kullervo fell
by his own sword.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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