-up or amalgamation of villages, and warlike operations; but
events of this character are not frequent. And as to justice, neither
the chiefs nor any other persons have any official duties of settling
personal disputes or trying or punishing wrongdoers. The active
functions of the chiefs, in fact, appear to be largely ceremonial.

Concerning the question of justice, it would seem, indeed, that
a judicial system is hardly requisite. Personal disputes between
members of a village or clan, or even of a community, on such possible
subjects as inheritance, boundary, ownership of property, trespass
and the like, and wrongful acts within the village or the community,
are exceedingly rare, except as regards adultery and wounding and
killing cases arising from acts of adultery, which are more common.

There are certain things which from immemorial custom are regarded
as being wrong, and appropriate punishments for which are generally
recognised, especially stealing, wounding, killing and adultery; but
the punishment for these is administered by the injured parties and
their friends, favoured and supported by public opinion, and often,
where the offender belongs to another clan, actively helped by the
whole clan of the injured parties.

The penalty for stealing is the return or replacement of the article
stolen; but stealing within the community, and perhaps even more so
within the clan or village, is regarded as such a disgraceful offence,
more so, I believe, than either killing or adultery, that its mere
discovery involves a distressing punishment to the offender. As regards
wounding and killing, the recognised rule is blood for blood, and a
life for a life. The recognised code for adultery will be stated in
the chapter on matrimonial matters.

Any retribution for a serious offence committed by someone outside
the clan of the person injured is often directed, not only against
the offender himself, but against his whole clan.

There is a method of discovering the whereabouts of a stolen article,
and the identity of the thief, through the medium of a man who is
believed to have special powers of ascertaining them. This man takes
one of the large broad single-shell arm ornaments, which he places on
its edge on the ground, and one of the pig-bone implements already
described, which he places standing on its point upon the convex
surface of the shell. To make the implement stand in this way he puts
on the point, and makes to ad