ment.1 The Bedouin of the Euphrates, says Mr. Blunt, "is essentially humane, and never takes life needlessly. If he has killed a man in war he rather conceals the fact than proclaims it aloud, while murder or even homicide is almost unknown among the tribes." 2 Among the Bakwiri, in Cameroon, Zöller never heard of any person having killed a member of his own community.3 Murders, says Caillié, "are rare among the Bambaras, and never committed by the Mandingoes." 4 Among the Wanika "wilful cold-blooded murders are almost unknown."5 Among the Basutos perfect safety is enjoyed "on roads where the traveller might have been robbed hundred times over without the least hope of aid, and in houses where the doors and windows have neither bolts nor bars," and cases of murder are very rare.

a

In other instances homicide is expressly said to be regarded as wrong.

The Greenlanders described by Dr. Nansen hold it atrocious to kill a fellow-creature, except in some particular cases. The Dacotahs say that it is a great crime to take their fellow's life, unless in revenge, "because all have a right to live." 8 In Tierra del Fuego homicide rarely occurs, as Mr. Bridges remarks, because of an inveterate custom according to which human life is held sacred: "le meurtrier est mis au ban de ses compatriotes; isolé de tous, il est fatalement condamné à périr de faim ou à tomber un jour sous les coups d'un groupe de justiciers improvisés."9 The Andaman Islanders condemn murder as yūbda, or sin.10 The natives of Botany Bay, New

History of Sumatra p. 471 (Poggi Islanders); Steller, De Sangi-Archipel, p. 26; Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 41 (Ambon and Uliase Islanders); von Siebold, Aino auf der Insel Yesso, pp. 11, 35; Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 532 (Barea and Kunáma); Holub, Seven Years in South Africa, ii. 319 (Marutse); Maclean, Compendium of Kafir Laws and Customs, pp. 61, 143 sq.; Shooter, Kafirs of Natal, P. 137.

7 Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 162. 8 Prescott, in Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, ii. 195.

9 Hyades and Deniker, Mission scientifique du Cap Horn, vii. 374, 243. 10 Man, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 112.

South Wales, though a trivial offence in their ideas justifies the murder of a man, "highly reprobate the crime when committed without what they esteem a just cause."1 According to Mr. Curr's experience, the Australian Black undoubtedly feels that murder is wrong, and its committal brings remorse; even after the perpetration of infanticide or massacres, though both are practised without disguise, those engaged in them are subject to remorse and low spirits for some time.2

It is of particular importance in this connection to note that, in early civilisation, blood-revenge is regarded not as a private matter only, but as a duty, and that, where this custom does not prevail, the community punishes the murderer, frequently with death. We may without hesitation accept Professor Tylor's statement that "no known tribe, however low and ferocious, has ever admitted that men may kill one another indiscriminately." 3 In every society-even where human life is, generally speaking, held in low estimation-custom prohibits homicide within a certain circle of men. But the radius of the circle varies greatly.

Savages carefully distinguish between an act of homicide committed within their own community and one where the victim is a stranger. Whilst the former is under ordinary circumstances disapproved of, the latter is in most cases allowed, and often regarded as praiseworthy. It is a very common notion in savage ethics that the chief virtue of a man is to be successful in war and to slay many enemies.

Among the Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush "killing strangers might or might not be considered inexpedient, but it would 1 Barrington, History of New South P. 572 (Eskimo); Mariner, Natives of Wales, p. 19. Cf. Lumholtz, Among the Tonga Islands, ii. 162; Macdonald, Cannibals, p. 126 (natives of Northern Oceania, p. 208 (Efatese); Yate, AcQueensland). count of New Zealand, p. 145; Arbousset and Daumas, Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, p. 322 (Bechuanas); Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen SüdAfrika's, p. 322 (Hottentots).

2 Curr, The Australian Race, i. 100, 43 sq. For other instances, see Keating, Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, i. 127 (Potawatomis); Harmon, Journal of Voyages in the Interior of North America, p. 348 (Indians on the east side of the Rocky Mountains); Hall, Arctic Researches,

3

Tylor, Primitive Society,' in Contemporary Review, xxi. 714.

"3

hardly be considered a crime"; killing fellow-tribesmen, on the other hand, is looked upon in a very different light.1 The Koriaks do not regard murder as a great crime, unless it occur within their own tribe.2 The early Aleuts considered the killing of a companion a crime worthy of death, "but to kill an enemy was quite another thing." To an Aht Indian the murder of a man is no more than the killing of a dog, provided that the victim is not a member of his own tribe. According to Humboldt, the natives of Guiana "detest all who are not of their family, or their tribe; and hunt the Indians of a neighbouring tribe, who live at war with their own, as we hunt game. In the opinion of the Fuegians, "a stranger and an enemy are almost synonymous terms," hence they dare not go where they have no friends, and where they are unknown, as they would most likely be destroyed. The Australian Black nurtures an intense hatred of every male at least of his own race who is a stranger to him, and would never neglect to assassinate such a person at the earliest moment that he could do so without risk to himself.7 In Melanesia, also, a stranger as such was generally throughout the islands an enemy to be killed.8

"5

In Savage Island the slaying of a member of another tribe— that is, a potential enemy-" was a virtue rather than a crime."9 To a young Samoan it was the realisation of his highest ambition to be publicly thanked by the chiefs for killing a foe in mortal combat.10 According to Fijian beliefs, men who have not slain any enemy are, in the other world, compelled to beat dirt with their clubs the most degrading punishment the native mind can conceive—because they used their club to so little purpose; 11 and in Futuna it was deemed no less necessary to have poured out blood on the field of battle in order to hold a part in the happy future life.12 In the Western islands of Torres Straits "it was a meritorious deed to kill foreigners either in fair fight

1 Scott Robertson, Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush, p. 194.

2 Krasheninnikoff, op. cit. p. 232. Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, Report on Alaska,' in Tenth Census of the United States, p. 155.

4 Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, p. 152.

5 von Humboldt, Personal Narrative of Travels, v. 422.

6 Stirling, in South American Missionary Magazine, iv. II. Bridges, in A Voice for South America, xiii.

210.

11

7 Curr, The Australian Race, i. 64, 85 sq. Mathew, in Jour. & Proceed. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxiii. 398. 8 Codrington, Melanesians, p. 345. 9 Thomson, Savage Island, p. 104. See also ibid. p. 94. 10 Pritchard, scences, p. 57.

Polynesian Remini

11 Seemann, Viti, p. 401. Cf. Williams and Calvert, op. cit. p. 97 sq.; Erskine, Islands of the Western Pacific, p. 248.

12 Smith, in Jour. Polynesian Society, i. 39.

or by treachery, and honour and glory were attached to the bringing home of the skulls of the inhabitants of other islands slain in battle.” 1 In the Solomon Islands,2 New Guinea,3 and various parts of the Malay Archipelago, he who has collected the greatest number of human heads is honoured by his tribe as the bravest man; and some peoples do not allow a man to marry until he has cut off at least one human head.1 Among many of the North American Indians, again, he who can boast of the greatest number of scalps is the person most highly esteemed.5 Among the Seri Indians the highest virtue "is the shedding of alien blood; and their normal impulse on meeting an alien is to kill, unless deterred by fear." Among the Chukchi "it is held criminal to thieve or murder in the family or race to which a person belongs; but these crimes committed elsewhere are not only permitted, but held honourable and glorious."7 So, too, the Gallas consider it honourable. to kill an alien, though criminal to kill a countryman.

8

At the same time there are, among the lower races, various instances in which the rule, "Thou shalt not kill,' applies even to foreigners. Hospitality, as will be seen in a subsequent chapter, is a stringent duty in the savage world. Custom requires that the host should entertain and protect a stranger who comes as his guest, and by killing him the host would perpetrate an outrage hardly possible. Moreover, even in the case of intertribal relations, we must not conclude that what is allowed in war is also allowed in times of peace. The prohibition of homicide may extend beyond the tribal border, to

1 Haddon, in Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits, v. 277.

2 Romilly, Western Pacific, p. 73. Penny, Ten Years in Melanesia, p. 46. Codrington, op. cit. p. 345.

3 Romilly, Western Pacific, p. 76.

Bock, Head-Hunters of Borneo, pp. 216, 221, &c. (Dyaks). Bickmore, Travels in the East Indian Archipelago, p. 205 (Alfura of Ceram). Dalton, op. cit. p. 40 (Nagas of Upper Assam).

5 The well-known practice of scalping, though very common, was not universal among the North American Indians (see Gibbs, 'Tribes of Western Washington and Northwestern Ore

gon,' in Contributions to N. American Ethnology, i. 192; Powers, Tribes of California, p. 321).

6 McGee, 'Seri Indians,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethnol. xvii. 132.

Georgi, Russia, iii. 183.

8 Macdonald, Africana, i. 229. For other instances, see Harmon, op. cit. p. 301 (Tacullies); Burton, City of the Saints, p. 139 (Dacotahs); Macpherson, Memorials of Service in India, p. 94 (Kandhs); MacMahon, Far Cathay, p. 262 (Indo-Burmese border tribes); Macdonald, Africana, i. 194 sq. (Eastern Central Africans); Johnston, Kilima-njaro Expedition, p. 419 (Masai).

1

or

members of different tribes who for some reason other are on friendly terms with each other. We must not suppose that a tribe of savages generally either lives in a state of complete isolation, or is always at odds with its neighbours. In Australia, for instance, one tribe of natives, as a rule, entertains amicable relations with one, two, or more other tribes.2 Among the Central Australian natives, say Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, "there is no such thing as one tribe being in a constant state of enmity with another”; on the contrary, where two tribes come into contact with one another on the border land of their respective territories, friendly feelings are maintained. between the members of the two.3 Some uncivilised peoples are even said to have no wars. Ceylon never make war upon each other. to the reports of the oldest inhabitants of Umnak and Unalaska, the people' there had never been engaged in war either among themselves or with their neighbours, except once with the natives of Alaska. To the Greenlanders described by Dr. Nansen war is "incomprehensible and repulsive, a thing for which their language has no word." 6

The Veddahs of
According

That savages to some extent recognise the existence of intertribal rights in times of peace is obvious from certain customs connected with their wars. Some South Sea Islanders and North American Indians consider it necessary for a party which is about to attack another to give notice beforehand of their intention, in order that their opponents may be prepared to meet them." The cessation of hostilities is often accompanied by the conclusion of a special treaty and by ceremonies calculated to make it binding. The Tahitians, for instance, wove a wreath of

8

1 See, e.g., Scott Robertson, op. cit. p. 194 (Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush).

2 Curr, The Australian Race, i. 62 sq.

3 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 32,

4 Sarasin, op. cit. iii. 488,

5 Coxe, op. cit. p. 244.

6 Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 162.

7 Hale, U.S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI. Ethnography and Philology, p. 72 (Micronesians). Gibbs, loc. cit. p. 190 (Indians of Western Washington and North-Western Oregon).

8 See Farrer, Military Manners and Customs, p. 162 sq.