[53] 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).
[54] See Farrer, Military Manners and Customs, p. 162 sq.
[55] Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 318.
[56] See Farrer, Militarv Manners and Customs, p. 161.
[57] Fraser, Aborigines of New South Wales, p. 41.
[58] Dorsey, ‘Omaha Sociology,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. iii. 368.
The Samoans considered it cowardly to kill a woman;[59] and even in Fiji the “enlightened party” objected to the killing of women, urging that it is “just as cowardly to kill a woman as a baby.”[60] The Abipones, in their wars, “generally spared the unwarlike, and carried away innocent boys and girls unhurt.”[61] An old Spanish writer tells us of the Guanches of Gran Canaria that, “in their wars, they held it as base and mean to molest or injure the women and children of the enemy, considering them as weak and helpless, therefore improper objects of their resentment”;[62] and similar views prevail among the Berbers (Shluḥ) of Southern Morocco, as also among the Algerian Kabyles[63] and the Touareg.[64] Though the Masai and Wa-kikuyu “are eternally at war to the knife with each other, there is a compact between them not to molest the womenfolk of either party.”[65] “The Masai,” says Mr. Hinde, “never interfere with women in their raids, and the women cheer loudly and encourage their relatives during the fight.”[66] Among the Latukas, though women are employed as spies and thus become exceedingly dangerous in war, there is nevertheless a general understanding that no woman shall be killed.[67] The Basutos maintain that respect should be paid during war to women, children, and travellers, as also that those who surrender should be spared and open to ransom; and, though these rules are not invariably respected, the public voice always disapproves of their violation.[68]
[59] Turner, Nineteen Years in Polynesia, p. 304.
[60] Seemann, Viti, p. 180.
[61] Dobrizhoffer, op. cit. ii. 141.