[26] Mackenzie, Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. 148.
[27] Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, p. 159.
[28] Krause, Die Tlinkit-Indianer, p. 167. Holmberg, ‘Ethnographische Skizzen über die Völker des russischen Amerika,’ in Acta Soc. Scient. Fennicæ, iv. 322. Petroff, Report on Alaska, p. 170. Dall, Alaska, p. 416.
[29] Veniaminof, quoted by Petroff, op. cit. pp. 155, 152.
[30] Egede, Description of Greenland, p. 124. See also Dalager, Grønlandske Relationer, p. 69.
[31] Cranz, History of Greenland, 160.
[32] Nansen, First Crossing of Greenland, ii. 335. Idem, Eskimo Life, p. 158. Rink, Danish Greenland, p. 224. Hall, Arctic Researches, pp. 567, 571. Richardson, Arctic Searching Expedition, 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 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).
[33] Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 162.
[34] Parry, op. cit. p. 521.
Among the Chukchi it is held criminal to thieve “in the family and race to which a person belongs”;[35] and incorrigible thieves are sometimes banished from the village.[36] 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.[37] The three principal precepts of the Ainu are to honour old age, not to steal, not to lie;[38] theft is also uncommon among them, and is severely punished.[39] Among the Kirghiz “whoever commits a robbery on any of the nation must make restitution to nine times the value.”[40] 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.[41] The Jakuts,[42] Ostyaks,[43] Mordvins[44] Samoyedes,[45] and Lapps,[46] are praised for their honesty, at least among their own people; and so are the Butias,[47] Kukis,[48] Santals,[49] the hill people in the Central Provinces of India,[50] and the Chittagong Hill tribes.[51] 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 charge.[52] “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.”[53] Harkness says of the Todás:—“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.”[54] Among the Chukmas “theft is unknown.”[55] Among the Karens habitual thieves are sold into slavery.[56] 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.[57] 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.”[58] 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.[59] 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.[60] The Andaman Islanders call theft a yūbda, or sin.[61] Among those Veddahs who live in their natural state, theft and robbery are not known at all.[62] They think it perfectly inconceivable that any person should ever take that which does not belong to him,[63] and death only would, in their opinion, be the punishment for such an offence.[64]