Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/16

IN the history of primitive marriage there are few subjects which exceed in gravity and interest the much-discussed question of the existence of next-of-kin marriages in ancient Irân—in other words, of marriages between blood-relations of a near or remote degree among the early Zoroastrians. Although the attention of Parsi students of Zoroastrianism has often been drawn to this delicate question by the labours of esteemed European Oriental scholars, still it is strange to find how few of us have endeavoured to throw any light upon it, merely contenting ourselves with a bare denial of the existence of