[67] Cf. Steinmetz, Studien, i. 452.
We may expect, then, to find the customs regarding blood-revenge and compensation to vary exceedingly among different peoples. Among many the rule of revenge is strictly followed, and compensation never, or rarely, accepted, at least for intentional homicide. This group includes not only tribes who are in a state of savagery, but peoples like the Beni Amer,[68] Marea,[69] Kabyles of Jurjura,[70] and Jbâla of Morocco. Burckhardt says of the Bedouins:—“The stronger and the more independent a tribe is, the more remote from cultivated provinces, and the wealthier its individuals, the less frequently are the rights of the Thar commuted into a fine. Great sheiks, all over the Desert, regard it as a shameful transaction to compromise in any degree for the blood of their relations.”[71] Among the mountains of Daghestan[72] and in parts of Albania[73] it is likewise considered disgraceful to accept compensation for the murder of a relative.
[68] Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 321 sq.
[69] Ibid. p. 242.
[70] Hanoteau and Letourneux, op. cit. iii. 61 sq.
[71] Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 178, Cf. Burton, Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, ii. 103.
[72] Kovalesky, in Revue internationale de Sociologie, ii. 87.
[73] Hahn, op. cit. i. 178.
In some instances the acceptance of compensation does not necessarily mean that the family of the slain altogether renounce their right of revenge. Among the Ahts, “though it is usual to accept large presents as expiation for murder, yet, practically, this expiation is not complete, and blood alone effectually atones for blood. An accepted present never quite cancels the obligation to punish in the breast of the offended person or tribe.”[74] Among the Somals, “after the equivalent is paid, the murderer or one of his clan, contrary to the spirit of El Islam, is generally killed by the kindred or tribe of the slain.”[75] Among the Berbers (Shluḥ) of the province of Sûs, in Southern Morocco, a person who commits homicide immediately flees to another tribe, and places himself under its protection. His relatives then pay ddit, or blood-money, to the family of the victim, but this only prevents the offended party from taking revenge on any of them, and does not entitle the murderer to return; if he appears outside the tribe to whom he has fled for refuge, he is at any time liable to be killed. Among the Ossetes, again, it was formerly “a prevalent custom for a murderer to pay a fixed price for a certain time to the family of the murdered man, say for a year, during which time the blood-revenge remained dormant.”[76]
[74] Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, p. 153.