[84] Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys, p. 87.
[85] Merker, quoted by Kohler, in Zeitschr. f. vergl. Rechtswiss. xv. 56.
[86] Geiger, op. cit. ii. 34.
[87] Ancient Laws of Ireland, iii. p. lxxx.
[88] Keyser, op. cit. ii. pt. ii. 95. Pollock and Maitland, op. cit. i. 46 sq. Gotlands-Lagen, 13.
Thus the exaction of life for life, from being a duty incumbent on the family of the dead, becomes a mere right of which they may or may not avail themselves, as they please, and is at last publicly disapproved of or actually prohibited. Among the circumstances by which this process has been brought about there is still one which calls for special attention, namely, the pressure of some intervening authority, the elders of the tribe,[89] or the chief, inducing the avenger to lay down his weapon and to accept money for blood. I do not say that the practice of compensation has originated in such an intervention; we meet it among peoples who know nothing of courts, judges, or regular arbitrators.[90] But when we hear of chiefs making efforts to check the blood-feud by persuading the injured party to accept remuneration in money or property, it is impossible to doubt that some connection exists between the system of compensation and the judicial power of the chief. Among the Indians of Brazil, when blood is shed, either designedly or accidentally, by one of the same tribe, the chief not seldom insists upon the acceptance of compensation by the family of the deceased.[91] Of the people of Nias, amongst whom the offender may suffer death at the hands of the avenger, we read that even grave cases, when brought before the chief, are often punished by fines only.[92] Among the Dooraunees, in Western Afghanistan, “if the offended party complains to the Sirdar, or if he hears of a murder committed, he first endeavours to bring about a compromise, by offering the Khoon Behau, or of price of blood.”[93] The Teutonic nations, as Kemble observes, in the course of time made the State the arbitrator between the parties “by establishing a tariff at which injuries should be rated, and committing to the State the duty of compelling the injured person to receive, and the wrong-doer to pay, the settled amount. It thus engaged to act as a mediator between the conflicting interests, with a view to the maintenance of the general peace.”[94]
[89] Cf. Vámbéry, Das Türkenvolk, p. 305 sq. (Kirghiz); Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 500 (Barea and Kunáma).
[90] E.g., the Fuegians (Bridges, in South American Missionary Magazine, xiii. 152. Idem, in A Voice for South America, xiii. 207).
[91] von Martius, Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerika’s, i. 130. Idem, in Jour. Roy. Geographical Soc. ii. 199.
[92] Modigliani, Viaggio a Nías, p. 496.