rck, The History of Human Marriage, London, 1891.

[10] Espinas, Des Societes Animales, 1877.

[11] Espinas, l. c., quoted by Giraud-Teulon, Origines du mariage et de
la famille, 1884, p. 518-20.

[12] Author's note.

In the spring of 1882, Marx expressed himself in the
strongest terms on the total misrepresentation of primeval times by
Wagner's Nibelungen text: "Who ever heard of a brother embracing his
sister as a bride?" To these lascivious Wagnerian gods who in truly
modern style are rendering their love quarrels more spicy by a little
incest, Marx replies: "In primeval times the sister was the wife and
that was moral." (To the fourth edition.) A French friend and admirer of
Wagner does not consent to this foot note, and remarks that even in the
Oegisdrecka, the more ancient Edda on which Wagner built, Loki denounces
Freya: "Before the gods you embraced your own brother." This, he says,
proves that marriage between brother and sister was interdicted even
then. But the Oegisdrecka is the expression of a time when the belief in
the old myths was totally shaken; it is a truly Lucian satire on the
gods. If Loki as Mephisto denounces Freya in this manner, then it is
rather a point against Wagner. Loki also says, a few verses further on,
to Niordhr: "With your sister you generated (such) a son" ("vidh systur
thinni gatzu slikan mog"). Niordhr is not an Asa, but a Vana, and says
in the Ynglinga Saga that marriages between brothers and sisters are
sanctioned in Vanaland, which is not the case among the Asas. This would
indicate that the Vanas are older gods than the Asas. At any rate
Niordhr lived on equal terms with the Asas, and the Oegisdrecka is thus
rather a proof that at the time of the origin of the Norwegian mythology
the marriage of brother and sister was not yet repulsive, at least not
to the gods. In trying to excuse Wagner it might be better to quote
Goethe instead of the Edda. This poet commits a similar error in his
ballad of the god and the bajadere in regard to the religious surrender
of women and approaches modern prostitution far too closely.

[13] There is no longer any doubt that the traces of unrestricted sexual
intercourse, which Bachofen alleges to have found--called "incestuous
generation" by him--are traceable to group marriage. If Bachofen
considers those Punaluan marriages "lawless," a man of that period would
look upon most of our present marriages between near and remote cousins
on the fath