theft with the greatest disdain, although the lash of public indignation was the only penalty attached to it. The Potawatomis considered it one of the most atrocious crimes.2 Among the Chippewas Keating found a few individuals who were addicted to thieving, but these were held in disrepute.3 Richardson praises the Chippewyans for their honesty, no precautions for the safety of his and his companions' property being required during their stay among them. Mackenzie was struck by the remarkable honesty of the Beaver Indians; "in the whole tribe there were only two women and a man who had been known to have swerved from that virtue, and they were considered as objects of disregard and reprobation." 5 Among the Ahts "larceny of a fellow-tribesman's property is rarely heard of, and the aggravation of taking it from the house or person is almost unknown"; nay, "anything left under an Indian's charge, in reliance on his good faith, is perfectly safe." The Thlinkets generally respect the property of their fellow-tribesmen; but although they admit that theft is wrong they do not regard it as a very serious offence, which disgraces the perpetrator, and if a thief is caught he is only required to return the stolen article or to pay its value. Among the Aleuts"theft was not only a crime but a disgrace"; for the first offence of this kind corporal punishment was inflicted, for the fourth the penalty was death. According to Egede, the Greenlanders had as great an abhorrence of stealing among themselves as any nation upon earth; according to Cranz, they considered such an act "excessively disgraceful." 10 Similar views still prevail among them, as also among other Eskimo tribes." A Greenlander never touches driftwood which another

iv. 322. Petroff, Report on Alaska, p. 170. Dall, Alaska, p. 416.

8 Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, op. cit. pp. 155, 152.

9 Egede, Description of Greenland, p. 124. See also Dalager, Grønlandske Relationer, p. 69.

10 Cranz, History of Greenland, i. 160.

11 Nansen, First Crossing of Greenland, . 335. Idem, Eskimo Life, p. 158. Rink, Danish Greenland, p. 224. Hall, Arctic Researches, pp. 567, 571. Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedi tion, i. 352. Parry, Second Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage, p. 522; Lyon, Private Journal, p. 347 (Eskimo of Igloolik). Seemann, Voyage of "Herald," ii. 65 (Western

has placed above high-water mark, though it would often be easy to appropriate it without fear of detection. Parry states that, during his stay at Igloolik and Winter Island, a great many instances occurred in which the Eskimo scrupulously returned articles that did not belong to them, even though detection of a theft, or at least of the offender, would have been next to impossible.2

Among the Chukchi it is held criminal to thieve "in the family and race to which a person belongs"; and incorrigible thieves are sometimes banished from the village. In Kamchatka, if anybody was found to be a thief he was beaten by the person from whom he had stolen, without being allowed to make resistance, and no one would ever after be friends with him." The three principal precepts of the Ainu are to honour old age, not to steal, not to lie; theft is also uncommon among them, and is severely punished. Among the Kirghiz "whoever commits a robbery on any of the nation must make restitution to nine times the value." s Among the Tunguses a thief is punished by a certain number of strokes; he is besides obliged to restore the things stolen, and remains covered with ignominy all the rest of his life." The Jakuts, 10 Ostyaks,11 Mordvins,12 Samoyedes,13 and Lapps,14 are praised for their honesty, at least among their own people; and so are the Butias, 15 Kukis, 16 Santals,17 the hill people in the Central Provinces of India,18 and the Chittagong Hill tribes. 19 The Kurubars of the Dekhan are of such known honesty, that on all occasions they are entrusted with the custody of produce by the farmers, who know that they would rather starve than take one grain of what was given them in Eskimo). Nelson, Eskimo about Bering Strait,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xviii. 293. Among the Point Barrow Eskimo, however, men who were said to be thieves did not appear to lose any social consideration" (Murdoch, Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,' in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. ix. 41).

Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 162. 2 Parry, op. cit. p. 521.

Georgi, op. cit. iii. 183.

4 Dall, op. cit. p. 382.

5 Steller, Beschreibung von Kamtschatka, p. 356. See also supra, i. 311 sq.

6 von Siebold, Die Aino auf der Insel Yesso, p. 25.

7 Ibid. pp. 11, 34 sq. See also supra, i. 312.

8 Georgi, op. cit. ii. 262.

9 Ibid. iii. 83 sq. Cf. ibid. iii. 78.

10 Ibid. ii. 397. Sauer, Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia, p. 122. 11 Castrén, Nordiska resor och forsk ningar, i. 319.

12 Georgi, op. cit. i. 113. 13 Ibid. iii. 13. von Struve, in Das Ausland, 1880, p. 796.

Jessen, Afhandling om de Norske Finners og Lappers Hedenske Religion, p. 72. Castrén, op. cit. i. 118 sq.

15 Fraser, Tour through the Himālā Mountains, p. 335.

16 Lewin, Wild Races of SouthEastern India, p. 256. Cf. Butler, Travels in Assam, p. 94.

17 Man, Sonthalia, p. 20.

18 Hislop, Papers relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, p. 1.

19 Lewin, Wild Races of SouthEastern India, p. 341.

charge.1 "Honest as a Pahari," is a proverbial expression. In fact, among these mountaineers theft is almost unknown, and the men "carry treasures, which to them would be priceless, for days and days, along wild mountain tracks, whence at any moment they might diverge, and never be traced. Even money is safely entrusted to them, and is invariably delivered into the right hands." 2 Harkness says of the Todas :-“I never saw a people, civilised or uncivilised, who seemed to have a more religious respect for the rights of meum et tuum. This feeling is taught to their children from the tenderest age."3 Among the Chukmas "theft is unknown." 4 Among the Karens habitual thieves are sold into slavery. Among the Shans theft of valuable property is punishable with death, though it may be expiated by a money payment; but in cases of culprits who cannot pay, or whose relatives cannot pay, death is looked upon as a fitting punishment even for petty thefts. At Zimmé, "if a theft is proved, three times the value of the article is decreed to the owner; and if not paid, the offender, after suffering imprisonment in irons, is made over with his family, to be dealt with as in cases of debt." 7 Among the hill tribes of North Aracan a person who commits theft is bound to return the property or its value and pay a fine not exceeding Rs. 30.8 Among the Kandhs, on the other hand, the restitution of the property abstracted or the substitution of an equivalent is alone required by ancient usage; but this leniency extends to the first offence only, a repetition of it being followed by expulsion from the community. The Andaman Islanders call theft a yūbda, or sin.10 Among those Veddahs who live in their natural state, theft and robbery are not known at all." They think it perfectly inconceivable that any person should ever take that which does not belong to him,12 and death only would, in their opinion, be the punishment for such an offence.13

xxvi. 21.

7 Colquhoun, Amongst the Shans, p. 131.

x

241.

St. John, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. ii.

Macpherson, Memorials of Service in India, p. 82.

10 Man, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 112. 1 Sarasin, Ergebnisse naturwissenschaftlicher Forschungen auf Ceylon, iii. 548. Deschamps, Carnet d'un voyageur, p. 385. Nevill, 'Vaeddas of Ceylon,' in Taprobanian, i. 192.

12 Hartshorne, 'Weddas,' in Indian Antiquary, viii. 320.

13 Sarasin, op. cit. iii. 549.

1

In the Malay Archipelago native custom punishes theft with a fine, most frequently equivalent to twice the value of the stolen article, or with slavery, mutilation,3 or even death; and in many islands it was lawful to kill a thief caught in the act.5 Among the Malays of Perak," Dyaks,7 Kyans, Bataks," and the natives of Ambon and Uliase,10 theft is said to be unknown or almost so, at least within their own communities.

8

Many of the South Sea Islanders have been described as honest among themselves, and some of them as honest even towards Europeans.11 In the opinion of Captain Cook the light-coloured Polynesians have thievish propensities, but the dark-coloured not. In the Tonga Islands theft was considered

1 Wilken, 'Het strafrecht bij de volken van het maleische ras,' in Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 1883, Land- en volkenkunde, p. 109 sq. Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago, iii. 117. Marsden, History of Sumatra, pp. 221 (Rejangs), 389 (Bataks). von Brenner, Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras, p. 213 (Bataks). Junghuhn, Die Battaländer auf Sumatra, ii. 145 (Bataks), 308 (natives of Passumah in Central Sumatra), 317 (Timorese), 339 (natives of Bali and Lombok). Modigliani, op. cit. p. 496; von Rosenberg, Der malayische Archipel, p. 166 (Niase). Worcester, Philippine Islands, p. 108 (Tagbanuas of Palawan).

2 Wilken, loc. cit. p. 108 sq. Junghuhn, op. cit. ii. 145 sq. (Bataks). Raffles, History of Java, ii. p. ccxxxv. (people of Bali). Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, p. 320 (people of Timor-laut). Rosenberg, op. cit. p. 166 (Niase).

von

3 St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, ii. 297 (natives of the kingdom of Borneo, formerly). Low, Sarawak, p. 133. Marsden, op. cit. p. 404 (Achinese of Sumatra). Hickson, A Naturalist in North Celebes, p. 198 (Sangirese). Crawfurd, op. cit. iii. 107, 115. Crawfurd thinks (ibid. iii. 107) that the punishment of mutilation was introduced by Muhammedanism.

4 Crawfurd, op. cit. iii. 115 (Javanese). Kükenthal, Ergebnisse einer zoologischen Forschungsreise in den Molukken und Borneo, i. 188 (Alfura of Halmahera), Marsden, op. cit. p. 471 (Poggi Islanders). Among the Bataks (von

Brenner, op. cit. p. 212) and Achinese of Sumatra (Marsden, op. cit. p. 404) robbery is punished with death.

Wilken, loc. cit. p. 88 sqq. von Rosenberg, op. cit. p. 166; Modigliani, op. cit. p. 496 (Niase).

6 McNair, Perak and the Malays, p.

204.

7 Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, p. 235. Bock, Head-Hunters of Borneo, p. 209. Selenka, Sonnige Wellen, p. 19. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, i. 81, 82,

92.

8 Low, op. cit. p. 336.

9 Marsden, op. cit. p. 389. Junghuhn, op. cit. ii. 148.

10 Martin, Reisen in den Molukken, p. 63.

11 Earl, Papuans, pp. 49, 80, 105. Seemann, Viti, p. 46 sq.; Anderson, Travel in Fiji, p. 130. Hale, U. S. Exploring Expedition. Vol. VI. Ethnography and Philology, p. 73 (Micronesians). Melville, Typee, pp. 294 (Marquesas Islanders), 295 n. I (various Polynesians). Williams, Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands, p. 530 (Samoans). Von Kotzebue, Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea, iii. 164 (people of Radack), 255 (Sandwich Islanders). Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 125 (Sandwich Islanders). Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, ii. 105; Meade, Ride through the disturbed Districts of New Zealand, p. 162 sq.; Thomson, Story of New Zealand, i. 86; Colenso, Maori Races, p. 43. Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, p. 9.

12 Seemann, Viti, p. 47.

an act of meanness rather than a crime,1 whereas in many other islands it was regarded as a very grave offence.2 Sometimes the delinquent was subject to private retaliation, sometimes to a fine, or blows, or the loss of a finger, or the penalty of death.7

Among the natives of Herbert River, Northern Queensland, there is considerable respect for the right of property, and they do not steal from one another to any great extent. . . . If they hunt they will not take another person's game, all the members of the same tribe having apparently full confidence in each other." When a theft does occur, "the thief is challenged by his victim to a duel with wooden swords and shields; and the matter is settled sometimes privately, the relatives of both parties serving as witnesses, sometimes publicly at the borboby, where two hundred to three hundred meet from various tribes to decide all their disputes. The victor in the duel wins in the dispute." 9 So also among the Dieyerie tribe, "should any native steal from another, and the offender be known, he is challenged to fight by the person he has robbed, and this settles the matter." 10 Of the Bangerang tribe of Victoria we are told that, amongst themselves, they were scrupulously honest; 11 and, speaking of West Australian natives, Mr. Chauncy expresses his belief that "the members of a tribe never pilfer from each other.” 12 In their relations to Europeans, again, Australian blacks have been sometimes accused of thievishness, 13 sometimes praised for their

1 Mariner, Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 162. In Ponapé (Christian, Caroline Islands, p. 72) and among the Maoris (Meade, op. cit. p. 162) thieves are said to be despised.

Earl, op. cit. p. 80 (Papuans of Dorey). Ellis, Tour through Hawaii, P 429; &c.

* Turner, Samoa, pp. 278 (natives of Humphrey's Island), 343 (New Caledonians). Lisiansky, op. cit. p. 80 sq. (Nukahivans). Williams, Missionary Enterprises, p. 127 (natives of Rarotonga). Ellis, Polynesian Researches, IV. 420 (Sandwich Islanders).

Earl, op. cit. p. 83 (Papuans of Dorey). Sorge, in Steinmetz, Rechtsverhältnisse von eingeborenen Völkern in Afrika und Ozeanien, p. 421 Nissan Islanders of the Bismarck Archipelago). Williams and Calvert, Fi, p. 22. Turner, Samoa, p. 281 natives of the Mitchell Group).

Cook, Journal of a Voyage round the World, p. 42 (Tahitians). Yate,

Account of New Zealand, p. 104.

6 Williams and Calvert, Fiji, p. 23.

7 Gill, Life in the Southern Isles, p. 47. Turner, Samoa, pp. 290 (natives of Hudson's Island), 295 (natives of Arorae), 297 (natives of Nikumau of the Gilbert Group), 300 (natives of Francis Island), 337 (Efatese, of the New Hebrides). Tutuila, in Jour. Polynesian Soc. i. 268 (Line Islanders). Ellis, Polynesian Researches, iv. 421 (Sandwich Islanders). Cook, Journal of a Voyage round the World, p. 41 sq. (Tahitians).

8 Lumholtz, Among Cannibals, p. 147.

Ibid. p. 126.

10 Gason, in Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 266.

11 Curr, Recollections of Squatting in Victoria, p. 298.

12 Chauncy, in Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, ii. 278. 13 Supra, ii. 2, n. I.