It has been asserted that, where the system of exogamy prevails, a man is allowed to marry his sister either on the father’s or on the mother’s side, according as descent is reckoned in the female or in the male line.[1717] But it will be shown directly that, besides the rules relating to exogamy, there are commonly others prohibiting intermarriage of near relations belonging to different tribes or clans. Yet the marriage of half-brother and half-sister is not rare. Among the Ostyaks, for instance, union with a half-sister bearing another family name is in great repute;[1718] and the South Slavonian Mohammedans allow marriages between half-brothers and half-sisters who have different mothers, though seducing a sister is regarded in their songs as a crime punishable with death, or rather as something which cannot occur.[1719] From the Book of Genesis we know that Abraham married his half-sister, and looked upon the union as lawful, because she had not the same mother.[1720] Among the Phœnicians at Tyre, down to the time of Achilles Tatius, a man might marry his father’s daughter: and the same thing appears at Mecca.[1721] Marriage with half-sisters on the father’s side, not on the mother’s, was also allowed among the Assyrians[1722] and the Athenians.[1723] In Guatemala and Yucatan, on the other hand, no relationship on the mother’s side was a bar to marriage: hence a man could marry his sister, provided she was by another father.[1724] Among certain peoples the relationships of uncle and niece, and of aunt and nephew, are the remotest degrees of consanguinity which are a hindrance to intermarriage. This is the case, for instance, with some of the Dyak tribes;[1725] and among the Copper Indians, according to Franklin, there is no prohibition of the intermarriage of cousins, but a man is forbidden to marry his niece.[1726] On the whole, we may say that marriage within these degrees of relationship is even more commonly prohibited than intermarriage of cousins, and that, probably in most cases, the prohibitions refer to persons so related either on the father’s or mother’s side.[1727] Yet there are many instances to the contrary.[1728] The Ossetes consider a marriage with a mother’s sister quite a proper thing, though a marriage with a father’s sister would be punished as highly incestuous.[1729] Among the Reddies of the South of India, a man marries his sister’s daughter, but a nephew must not marry his aunt;[1730] and, among the Brazilian Tupis, an uncle had even a right to his niece’s hand.[1731] By the Prussian law, marriage between uncle and niece is permitted; whilst, in France, such marriages may be sanctioned by the Government, in Italy by the King.[1732]