[184] Ellis, Tour through Hawaii, p. 429 sq. Ellis, Ew̔e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 225 (Dahomans). Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa, p. 73. Post, Afrikanische Jurisprudenz, ii. 91. Laws of Æthelbirht, 4, 9 (Anglo-Saxons).
[185] Hardy, Manual of Budhism, p. 483.
Among uncivilised races intra-tribal theft is carefully distinguished from extra-tribal theft. Whilst the former is forbidden, the latter is commonly allowed, and robbery committed on a stranger is an object of praise.[186]
[186] Cf. Tylor, ‘Primitive Society,’ in Contemporary Review, xxi. 715 sq.; Anthropology, p. 413 sq.
The Tehuelches of Patagonia, “although honest enough as regards each other, will, nevertheless, not scruple to steal from any one not belonging to their party.”[187] The Abipones, who never took anything from their own countrymen, “used to rob and murder the Spaniards whilst they thought them their enemies.”[188] Among the Mbayás the law, Thou shalt not steal, “applies only to tribesmen and allies, not to strangers and enemies.”[189] The high standard of honesty which prevailed among the North American Indians did not refer to foreigners, especially white men, whom they thought it no shame to rob or cheat.[190] “A theft from an individual of another band,” says Colonel Dodge, “is no crime. A theft from one of the same band is the greatest of all crimes.”[191] Among the Californian Indians, for instance, who are proverbially honest in their own neighbourhood, “a stranger in the gates who seems to be friendless may lose the very blankets off him in the night.”[192] Among the Ahts thieving “is a common vice where the property of other tribes, or white men, is concerned.”[193] Of the Dacotahs we read that, though the men think it undignified for them to steal even from white people, “they send their wives thus unlawfully to procure what they want.”[194] Of the Greenlanders the old missionary Egede writes:—“If they can lay hands upon any thing belonging to us foreigners, they make no great scruple of conscience about it. But, as we now have lived some time in the country amongst them, and are look’d upon as true inhabitants of the land, they at last have forborne to molest us any more that way.”[195] Another early authority states, “If they can purloin or even forcibly seize the property of a foreigner, it is a feather in their cap”;[196] and, according to Dr. Nansen, it is still held by the Greenlanders “to be far less objectionable to rob Europeans than their own fellow-countrymen.”[197] Many travellers have complained of the pilfering tendencies of Eskimo tribes with whom they have come into contact.[198] Richardson believes that, in the opinion of an Eskimo, “to steal boldly and adroitly from a stranger is an act of heroism.”[199] Of the Eskimo about Behring Strait Mr. Nelson writes:—“Stealing from people of the same village or tribe is regarded as wrong…. To steal from a stranger or from people of another tribe is not considered wrong so long as it does not bring trouble on the community.”[200]
[187] Musters, op. cit. p. 195.
[188] Dobrizhoffer, op. cit. ii. 148.
[189] Tylor, in Contemporary Review, xxi. 716.
[190] Ibid. p. 716.
[191] Dodge, op. cit. p. 79.