[128] Mittermaier, op. cit. p. 128 sqq.
[129] Clay, The Prison Chaplain, p. 357.
[130] Bentham, Rationale of Punishment, p. 191.
CHAPTER XXI
THE DUEL
WHEN the system of revenge was replaced by the system of punishment, the offended party generally lost the right of killing the offender. But there are noteworthy exceptions to this rule. In a previous chapter we have seen that, among various peoples, in cases involving unusually great provocation, an avenger who slays his adversary is either entirely excused by custom or law, or becomes subject to a comparatively lenient punishment.[1] A few words still remain to be said about the most persistent survival of the custom of exacting vengeance with eventual destruction of life, the modern duel. But in connection with this survival it seems appropriate to discuss the practice of duelling in general, in its capacity of a recognised social institution.
[1] Supra, [p. 290 sqq.]
Duelling, or the fighting in single combat on previous challenge, is sometimes resorted to as a means of bringing to an end hostilities between different groups of people. Among the aborigines of New South Wales “the war often ends in a single combat between chosen champions.”[2] In Western Victoria quarrels between tribes are sometimes settled by duels between the chiefs, and the result is accepted as final. “At other times disputes are decided by combat between equal numbers of warriors, painted with red clay and dressed in war costume; but real fighting seldom takes place, unless the women rouse the anger of the men and urge them to come to blows. Even then it rarely results in a general fight, but comes to single combats between warriors of each side; who step into the arena, taunt one another, exchange blows with the liangle, and wrestle together. The first wound ends the combat.”[3] Among the Thlinkets feuds between clans or families were commonly settled by duels between chosen champions, one from each side.[4] Ancient writers tell us that among the Greeks, Romans, and Teutons, combats were likewise agreed upon to take place between a definite number of warriors, for the sake of ending a war.[5] According to Tacitus, the Germans had the custom of deciding the event of battle by a duel fought between some captive of the enemy and a representative of the home army.[6] In all these cases, as it seems, the duel originates in a desire for a speedy peace.
[2] Fraser, Aborigines of New South Wales, p. 40.
[3] Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 77.