The children of two brothers or of two sisters are considered real brothers and sisters and they are not allowed to marry each other. The ban against the marriage of these cousins probably owes its origin to the fact that such children were often really half brothers and half sisters. Upon the death of his wife a man generally married her sister; similarly, if a woman had lost her husband, she was taken in marriage by her brother-in-law. For that reason the names for stepfather and father’s brother, on the one hand, and for stepmother and mother’s sister are identical in most of the dialects spoken on the Mosquito Coast. On the other hand, the children of brother and sister are not considered blood relatives, and a union between such cousins is the common, and originally perhaps the only, marriage allowed. Unions of this kind are still encouraged to this day, for it is felt that family ties are strengthened thereby.²

²Conzemiusn/an/an/an/an/an/a, , 146.