Taboo is one of the customs which show in the clearest way the power of public opinion in primitive societies. This custom, common in Australia, Melanesia, and especially in Polynesia, may be briefly defined as an interdiction, by the authority of the council of old men, chiefs, priests, etc., to in any way use a certain object or living thing. Thus, young Australians are forbidden to eat the flesh of the emu before reaching the age when they undergo “initiation” (see p. [241]); taboo in this case has a utilitarian purpose, as also in Polynesia, where chickens, bananas, and yams are tabooed when there is a scarcity. Sometimes taboo is only to be observed by women or children, etc. Whoever infringes this law runs the risk of punishment by death.
Another example of judicial and social custom is the vendetta. At the beginnings of socialisation, in groups organised in clans, every offensive act had to be personally “avenged” by the victim. The vengeance assumes then the form of a judicial combat (prototype of European duel). In the case of murder, it is the near relatives who take upon themselves the duty of avenging it, but as the search for the true culprit is sometimes difficult, the whole clan is held responsible for the act committed by one of its members, and it becomes lawful to kill any one belonging to this clan to avenge the murder. The law of retaliation also implies that the misdeed should be avenged in nearly the same form in which it was committed. Gradually, however, vengeance passes into the hands of the representatives of society (judges, magistrates), and the penal code is established.
Ordeals represent one of the most widespread methods of judicial procedure of non-civilised peoples. Most frequently the carrying out of these trials is entrusted to magicians believed to have the faculty of discovering the guilty person. Needless to say that the presents offered by interested parties had a considerable influence on the decision of these umpires.[296]
The taking of an oath is the last remnant of this mode of procedure; it is a moral test which, among many peoples, is associated with the obligation of swallowing certain special beverages (the rust of a sword in wine in Malaysia, blood among the Chinese, etc.).
Secret Societies—Extra-legal Judges.—In every social organisation which is imperfect or powerless to give satisfaction to the just claims of its members, secret societies are formed which undertake the redressing of wrongs and the re-establishment of justice. Such, for example, are the societies of the “Duk-Duk” of New Britain, usually formed of a confidant of the chief of the tribe, and of young men who have entered the “club” on payment of a somewhat large sum. Each Duk-Duk is on occasion a justiciary; clad in his particular dress and wearing a horrible mask, he runs howling through the village, and all those who are not in the secret run away terrified. He goes to the hut of the native against whom a complaint had been lodged or who is suspected of a crime, and inflicts punishment which may vary from a simple fine to death. No one dare resist him, for sooner or later a violent end would be the fate of him who had raised his hand against the Duk-Duk. The members of this secret society, who recognise each other by certain signs, meet together in places to which the profane are forbidden to approach under pain of death. They give themselves up in these places to songs, dances, and copious feasting, in which human flesh often forms the chief dish. They are also sorcerers and healers.[297]
Similar societies exist among the Yoruba Negroes of Guinea, and the traces of like institutions are found in Europe, as, for example, the famous “Oat-field procedure” (Haberfeld treiben), an ancient custom which is kept up in the region of upper Bavaria situated between the Inn and the Isar. It is a sort of trial by a secret tribunal of misdemeanours which are not reached by the ordinary penal law. The court of Munich had in 1896 to deal with one of these procedures, which have now become very rare.[298]
Rules of Politeness.—Departments of social life which depend on mutual sympathy or the feeling of solidarity are not numerous. We must include in this category associations formed for the chase or for agricultural work like harvest, assistance in the reconstruction of a house destroyed by fire, etc. This kind of labour in common is chiefly known in societies in which the commune is the basis of social life, among Southern Slavs and Russians. The custom of “exchanging blood,” or drinking in the same cup, widely spread among these Slavs, as among the Malays, the Indonesians, and the Negroes, is also one of the expressions of sincere mutual sympathy, while rules of politeness are the manifestations, frequently hypocritical, of feelings of sociability. They vary infinitely. Thus salutations present a great diversity, but the origin of them all is the desire to show inferiority to the person saluted, and to express sympathy and devotion. The expression of inferiority is a posture which puts you lower than the person saluted. This posture varies from prostration to the ground (Negroes, Cambodians) to simple inclination of the head (Europeans), passing through a series of intermediate forms: touching the ground with the forehead (Chinese), simple genuflexion, and the “curtsey” of our mothers. As to manifestations of sympathy, they are almost always expressed by an embrace or kiss. In the case of the most humble submission, the kiss is given to the soil trodden by the feet of the person saluted, while in that of friendship between equals it is bestowed on the cheek or lips; intermediate forms are not wanting here either, and the various habits of kissing the foot, the garments, the hand, etc., are universally known. To these two principal manifestations of politeness several others may be added. A person meeting a friend or even a casual acquaintance uncovers the whole or a part of the body, the breast (certain Negroes), the arm or head (Europeans); each rubs the other with oil or with earth, nose is brought into contact with nose, and each “sniffs” the other’s health (Lapps, Eskimo, Malays, Polynesians);[299] each shakes the other’s hands, places the hand on the forehead (Hindus) or on the breast (Mussulmans), or draws out the tongue while scratching at the same time the ear (Thibetans, etc.).[300]
FIG. 73.—Chipped flint dagger
of the Californian Indians, with
otter-skin wrapping for grip.
(From O. Mason.)