BLOOD-REVENGE AND COMPENSATION—THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Westermarck, Edward
According to Yakut beliefs, a person who is murdered becomes a yor, that is, his ghost never comes to rest.34 The Cheremises imagine that the spirits of persons who have died a violent death cause illness, especially fever and ague.35 The Saoras of India seem to have most fear of the spirits of those who have died violent deaths.36 The Burmese believe that persons who meet a violent death become “nats “and haunt the place where they were killed.37 The Hudson Bay Eskimo regard the island of Akpatok as tabooed since the murder of part of the crew of a wrecked vessel, who camped on that island; “not a soul visits that locality lest the ghosts of the victims should appear and supplicate relief from the natives, who have not the proper offerings to make to appease them.”38 The Omahas believe that the spirits of those who have been killed reappear after death, their errand being “to solicit vengeance on the perpetrators of the deed.”39 According to Genesis, the voice of blood shed cried for vengeance until the murderer was punished.40 A similar notion prevailed among the Bedouins, hence they thought they might escape the taking of revenge by covering up the blood with earth.41 One of the most popular ghost stories in folk-tales is that which treats of the ghost of a murdered person flitting about the haunts of the living with no gratification but to terrify them.42 According to Rohde, this belief was in full force at Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries before Christ.43 Aeschylus attributes an Erinys to the heinous crime of a man’s neglecting his duty as avenger of blood44—in
other words, the soul of the slain turned its anger against the neglectful relative. Traces of the same belief still survive in various parts of Europe.45 In Wärend, in Sweden, the people maintain that the unsatisfied ghost of a murdered man visits his relatives at night, and disturbs their rest; and it was an ancient custom among them that, if the murderer was not known, the nearest relation of the dead, before the knell began, went forward to the corpse and asked the dead himself to avenge his murder.46
From one point of view, blood-revenge is thus a form of human sacrifice. Sometimes it even formally bears a strong resemblance to certain other human sacrifices which are offered to the dead. Among some Queensland tribes, when the assassin has been caught red-handed, the slayer and slain are buried together in the same grave;47 and among the ancient Teutons the avenger by preference slew the culprit at the feet of the murdered man, or at his tomb.48 Blood-revenge also resembles other kinds of human sacrifice so far that it serves as a safeguard for the sacrificer—in this case the avenger, who would otherwise expose himself to the persecutions of the revengeful spirit of the dead.
But the practice of blood-revenge is not exclusively based on a desire to avenge the injury done to a fellow-creature and to gratify the angry passion of his soul. The act which caused his death is at the same time an injury inflicted upon the survivors. Hence, in many cases, a murder committed within the family or kin is left unavenged.49 Among the Iroquois, says Loskiel, any one who has murdered his own relative escapes without much difficulty, since the family, who alone have a right to take revenge, do not choose to weaken their influence by depriving themselves of another member besides the one whom they have already lost.50 Again, when the murderer belongs to an extraneous family, the injury inflicted on the relatives of the murdered man suggests not only revenge, but reparation.
The taking of life for life may itself, in a way, serve as compensation. It seems that, in some cases, the blood of the slain homicide is supposed to restore, as it were, to the family of his victim the loss of life which he has caused them.51 Such an idea probably underlies a custom which Burckhardt heard existed among the Hallenga, who draw their origin from Abyssinia. When the slayer has been seized by the relatives of the deceased, a family feast is proclaimed, at which the murderer is brought into their midst. While his throat is then slowly cut with a razor, the blood is caught in a bowl and handed round amongst the guests, “every one of whom is bound to drink of it at the moment the victim breathes his last.”52 Among various Arabic-speaking tribes in Morocco I have met with a practice which also, possibly, involves a vague idea of restoration. On the perpetration of his deed the avenger licks off the blood from the blade of the dagger with which he killed his victim; and in one instance related to me, he bit off a piece of flesh from the dead body and sucked its blood.53 Mr. Trumbull even goes so far as to believe that, among the Hebrews, the primal idea of the goel’s mission was not to wreak vengeance, but “to restore life for life, or to secure the adjusted equivalent of a lost life.”54 But it is difficult to suppose that the exacting of blood-revenge ever could have been looked upon as an equivalent in the full sense of the term. If the loss of life is to be compensated some other practice must take its place.
Sometimes the manslayer, instead of being killed, is adopted as a member of the family of his victim.55 Among the Kabyles of Algeria, for instance, a person who has killed another unintentionally, goes to the parents of the dead and says to them: “If you want to kill me, kill me, here is my winding-sheet. If not, pardon me, and I shall henceforth be one of your children.” And from this day the manslayer is considered to belong to the kharouba, or gens, of the deceased.56 Among the Jbâla of Northern Morocco, again, a homicide sometimes induces the avenger to abstain from his persecutions by giving him his sister or daughter in marriage; and a similar custom has been noticed among the Beni Amer57 and Bogos.58 In other cases slaves are given to the relatives of the slain in order to atone for the guilt;59 but most commonly the compensation consists of cattle, money, or other property.
By giving presents to the relatives of his victim, the offender not only repairs the loss which he has inflicted upon them, but also appeases their wounded feelings.60 The pleasure of gain tends to suppress their passion, and the loss and humiliation which the adversary suffers by the gift exercise a healing influence on their resentment.61 Sometimes the present is chiefly intended to serve as an apology. Among the Iroquois, according to Mr. Morgan, the white wampum which the murderer sent to the family of his victim and which, if accepted, for ever wiped out the memory of his deed, “was not in the nature of a compensation for the life of the deceased, but of a regretful confession of the crime, with a petition for forgiveness.”62 Compensation, moreover, has the advantage of saving the injured party the dangers involved in a blood-feud, the uncertainty of the issue, and the serious consequences which may result from the accomplished act of revenge. Whilst the carrying out of the principle of “life for life” often leads to protracted hostilities between the parties, compensation has a tendency to bring about a durable peace. For this reason it is to the interest of society at large to encourage the latter practice; and this encouragement naturally adds to its attractions.
But in spite of its merits, the practice of composition has, in comparison with blood-revenge, various disadvantages. It is not equally calculated to satisfy a revengeful mind. It has to contend with the conservatism of ancient custom. It may be taken as a token of cowardice or weakness, whereas the blood-feud gives to its perpetrator an opportunity to display his courage and skill. It may be considered offensive to the dead kinsman. Finally, if it is to flourish, it presupposes a certain amount of wealth.63 The importance of these difficulties depends on the circumstances in each special case. Vindictiveness, conservatism, the desire for fighting, and the estimation in which courage and martial ability are held, are naturally subject to variations, and so are people’s wealth and their willingness to compensate. The ideas held concerning the spirits of the departed are likewise variable. The readiness with which blood-money was accepted among the Greeks of the Homeric age has been explained by their belief in the disembodied soul’s dreamlike existence in Hades, without strong passions and without the power to molest the living; whilst the later custom of demanding life for life has been interpreted as the result of a change of ideas which attributed much greater activity to the dead.64 In other cases the deceased is supposed to be appeased by a mere ceremony, or by a vicarious sacrifice.
The Ossetes believe that he often appears in a dream to some of his descendants, “tantôt pour exiger de lui la vengeance, tantôt pour lui permettre, au contraire, de la remplacer par un simple office des morts…. Revêtu d’habits de deuil, les cheveux épars, l’assassin Ossète vient sur la tombe de celui qu’il a tué, pour accomplir une cérémonie dont le but avéré est de se consacrer lui-même à sa victime. Cette cérémonie est connue sous le nom de kifaeldicïn: le meurtrier se livre spontanément au défunt, qui, en la personne de son descendant, lui pardonne son offense.”65 In Eastern Central Africa, says Mr. Macdonald, “if one man slay another, the friends of the deceased are justified in killing the murderer on the spot. But if they catch him alive they put him in a slave-stick, till compensation be made by a heavy fine of from four to twenty slaves. When the fine is paid the life of the murderer is not demanded, but several of the slaves obtained in compensation are killed, to accompany the deceased.”66 In other instances the dead is perhaps supposed to be appeased by the mere compensation paid to his descendants, or his feelings are simply disregarded when they collide with the interests of the living.67 Generally speaking, the question whether compensation is to be accepted or not, must be settled by a balancing of advantages and drawbacks.
Source notes
34 Sumner, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxi. 101.
35 Abercromby, Pre- and Proto-historic Finns, i. 168 sq.
36 Fawcett, in Jour. Anthrop. Soc. Bombay, i. 59.
37 Schway Yoe, The Burman, i. 286.
38 Turner, ‘Ethnology of the Ungava District,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 186.
39 James, Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains, i. 267.
40Genesis, iv. 10.
41 Jacob, Leben der vorislâmischen Beduinen, p. 146. Cf. Schwally, Leben nach dem Tode, p. 52 sq.
42 See Dyer, The Ghost World, p. 65 sqq.; Andree, Ethnographische Parallelen, p. 80 sqq.
43 Rohde, Psyche, p. 240. Cf. Idem, ‘Paralipomena,’ in Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 1895, p. 19 sq.; Schmidt, Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 125 sqq.
44 Aeschylus, Choephori, 283 sqq. Cf. ibid. 400 sqq.; Plato, Leges, ix. 866.
45 Dyer, op. cit. p. 68 sqq. Thorpe, Northern Mythology, ii. 19 sq.
46 Hyltén-Cavallius, Wärend och Wirdarne, ii. 274; i. 473.
47 Roth, Ethnological Studies among the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines, p. 165.
48 Wilda, Strafrecht der Germanen, pp. 170, 692.
49 Steinmetz, Ethnologische Studien zur ersten Entwicklung der Strafe, ii. 159 sqq. Mauss, ‘La religion et les origines du droit pénal,’ in Revue de l’histoire des religions, xxxv. 44. Kovalewsky, ‘Les origines du devoir,’ in Revue internationale de Sociologie, ii. 86. Cf. Seebohm, Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law, pp. 30, 42 (Welsh); Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 420; Idem, Marriage and Kinship in early Arabia, p. 25. Among the Jbâla of Northern Morocco blood-revenge is taken for the killing of a cousin, but not for the killing of a brother.
50 Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, i. 16.
51Cf. Trumbull, Blood Covenant, p. 126 sqq.
52 Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, p. 356.
53Cf. Goldziher, in Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, p. 296 n. 1.
54 Trumbull, Blood Covenant, pp. 260, 263.
55 See Steinmetz, Studien, i. 410 sqq., 439 sqq.; Kovalewsky, in Revue Internationale de Sociologie, ii. 87 sq.
56 Hanoteau and Letourneux, La Kabylie, iii. 68 sq.
57 Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 322.
58Idem, Die Sitten und das Recht der Bogos, p. 83. Cf. Kohler, Nachwort zu Shakespeare vor dem Forum der Jurisprudenz, p. 15 sq.
59 Squier, ‘Archæology and Ethnology of Nicaragua,’ in Trans. American Ethn. Soc. iii. pt. i. 129. Idem, Nicaragua, ii. 345 (ancient Nicaraguans). Macdonald, Africana, i. 171 (Eastern Central Africans).
60 Rée, Entstehung des Gewissens, p. 57 sqq. Steinmetz, Studien, i. 472 sq.
61Cf. Miklosich, loc. cit. p. 148; Kohl, op. cit. i. 426, 436 (Montenegrines and Albanians).
62 Morgan, League of the Iroquois, pp. 331, 333. Cf. Turner, Samoa, p. 326 (people of Aneiteum).
63 For the influence of wealth on the practice of composition, see Steinmetz, Studien, i. 427 sqq., and Lippert, Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit, ii. 591. Occasionally, however, composition occurs even among such a poor people as the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego. “Sometimes,” says Mr. Bridges (in A Voice for South America, xiii. 207), “the murderer is suffered to live, but he is much beaten and hurt, and has to make many presents to the relatives of the dead.”
64 Schmidt, Ethik der alten Griechen, ii. 125 sqq. Rohde, Psyche, pp. 8 sqq., 238.