THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MORAL IDEAS (continued 2)
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Westermarck, Edward
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
In the Malay Archipelago native custom punishes theft with a fine, most frequently equivalent to twice the value of the stolen article,65 or with slavery,66 mutilation,67 or even death;68 and in many islands it was lawful to kill a thief caught in the act.69 Among the Malays of Perak,70 Dyaks,71 Kyans,72 Bataks,73 and the natives of Ambon and Uliase,74 theft is said to be unknown or almost so, at least within their own communities.
Source notes
35 Georgi, op. cit. iii. 183.
36 Dall, op. cit. p. 382.
37 Steller, Beschreibung von Kamtschatka, p. 356. See also supra, i. 311 sq.
38 von Siebold, Die Aino auf der Insel Yesso, p. 25.
39Ibid. pp. 11, 34 sq. See also supra, i. 312.
40 Georgi, op. cit. ii. 262.
41Ibid. iii. 83 sq. Cf. ibid. iii. 78.
42Ibid. ii. 397. Sauer, Expedition to the Northern Parts of Russia, p. 122.
43 Castrén, Nordiska resor och forskningar, i. 319.
44 Georgi, op. cit. i. 113.
45Ibid. iii. 13. von Struve, in Das Ausland, 1880, p. 796.
46 Jessen, Afhandling om de Norske Finners og Lappers Hedenske Religion, p. 72. Castrén, op. cit. i. 118 sq.
47 Fraser, Tour through the Himālā Mountains, p. 335.
48 Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 256. Cf. Butler, Travels in Assam, p. 94.
49 Man, Sonthalia, p. 20.
50 Hislop, Papers relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces, p. 1.
51 Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 341.
52 Buchanan, quoted by Elliot, ‘Characteristics of the Population of Central and Southern India,’ in Jour. Ethn. Soc. London, N.S. i. 105.
53 Cumming, In the Himalayas, p. 356.
54 Harkness, Description of a Singular Aboriginal Race inhabiting the Neilgherry Hills, p. 17 sq.
55 Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 188.
56 Mason, ‘Dwellings, &c., of the Karens,’ in Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxxvii. pt. ii. p. 146 sq. Smeaton, Loyal Karens of Burma, p. 86.
57 Woodthorpe, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxvi. 21.
58 Colquhoun, Amongst the Shans, p. 131.
59 St. John, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. ii. 241.
60 Macpherson, Memorials of Service in India, p. 82.
61 Man, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 112.
62 Sarasin, Ergebnisse naturwissenschaftlicher Forschungen auf Ceylon, iii. 548. Deschamps, Carnet d’un voyageur, p. 385. Nevill, ‘Vaeddas of Ceylon,’ in Taprobanian, i. 192.
63 Hartshorne, ‘Weddas,’ in Indian Antiquary, viii. 320.
64 Sarasin, op. cit. iii. 549.
65 Wilken, ‘Het strafrecht bij de volken van het maleische ras,’ in Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 1883, Land- en volkenkunde, p. 109 sq. Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago, iii. 117. Marsden, History of Sumatra, pp. 221 (Rejangs), 389 (Bataks). von Brenner, Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras, p. 213 (Bataks). Junghuhn, Die Battaländer auf Sumatra, ii. 145 (Bataks), 308 (natives of Passumah in Central Sumatra), 317 (Timorese), 339 (natives of Bali and Lombok). Modigliani, op. cit. p. 496; von Rosenberg, Der malayische Archipel, p. 166 (Niase). Worcester, Philippine Islands, p. 108 (Tagbanuas of Palawan).
66 Wilken, loc. cit. p. 108 sq. Junghuhn, op. cit. ii. 145 sq. (Bataks). Raffles, History of Java, ii. p. ccxxxv. (people of Bali). Forbes, A Naturalist’s Wanderings in the Eastern Archipelago, p. 320 (people of Timor-laut). von Rosenberg, op. cit. p. 166 (Niase).
67 St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, ii. 297 (natives of the kingdom of Borneo, formerly). Low, Sarawak, p. 133. Marsden, op. cit. p. 404 (Achinese of Sumatra). Hickson, A Naturalist in North Celebes, p. 198 (Sangirese). Crawfurd, op. cit. iii. 107, 115. Crawfurd thinks (ibid. iii. 107) that the punishment of mutilation was introduced by Muhammedanism.
68 Crawfurd, op. cit. iii. 115 (Javanese) Kükenthal, Ergebnisse einer zoologischen Forschungsreise in den Molukken und Borneo, i. 188 (Alfura of Halmahera). Marsden, op. cit. p. 471 (Poggi Islanders). Among the Bataks (von Brenner, op. cit. p. 212) and Achinese of Sumatra (Marsden, op. cit. p. 404) robbery is punished with death.
69 Wilken, loc. cit. p. 88 sqq. von Rosenberg, op. cit. p. 166; Modigliani, op. cit. p. 496 (Niase).
70 McNair, Perak and the Malays, p. 204.
71 Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, p. 235. Bock, Head-Hunters of Borneo, p. 209. Selenka, Sonnige Welten, p. 19. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, i. 81, 82, 92.