N DUNMORE LANG.

To Dr. Hodgkin.

...

LAWS OF INHERITANCE AND TRESPASS. LINE OF INHERITANCE.

A father divides his land during his lifetime, fairly apportioning it
amongst his several sons, and at as early an age as fourteen or fifteen
they can point out the portion which they are eventually to inherit.

If the males of a family become extinct the male children of the
daughters inherit their grandfather's land.

CERTAIN LAWS REGARDING ARTICLES OF FOOD.

The punishment of trespass for the purpose of hunting, is invariably
death, if taken in the fact, and at the very least an obstinate contest
ensues. If the trespasser is not taken in the fact, but is recognised
from his footmarks, or from any other circumstance, and is ever caught in
a defenceless state, he is probably killed; but if he appears attended by
his friends he is speared through the thigh, in a manner which will be
mentioned under the head of punishments.

There are other laws intended for the preservation of food, such as that
which enjoins that:

1. No vegetable production used by the natives as food should be plucked
or gathered when bearing seed.

2. That certain classes of natives should not eat particular articles of
food; this restriction being tantamount to game laws, which preserve
certain choice and scarce articles of food from being so generally
destroyed as those which are more abundant.

3. The law regarding the family kobongs, mentioned above.

Independent of these laws there are certain articles of food which they
reject in one portion of the continent and which are eaten in another;
and that this rejection does not arise from the noxious qualities of the
article is plain, for it is sometimes not only of an innocent nature but
both palatable and nutritious: I may take for example the unio, which the
natives of South-west Australia will not eat because, according to a
tradition, a long time ago some natives ate them and died through the
agency of certain sorcerers who looked upon that shellfish as their
peculiar property.

CHAPTER 12. CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.

Laws relative to Deaths and Punishments.

SUPERSTITIOUS REVENGE OF NATURAL DEATH.

The natives do not allow that there is such a thing as a death from
natural causes; they believe that were it not for murderers or the
malignity of sorcerers they might live for ever: hence:

When a native dies from the effect of an accident or from some natural
cause they use a variet