e jungle when there is a prospect of a row. But with
the development of a central authority, whether in the shape of the
rule of many or of one, the public control of the blood-feud begins
to assert itself; for the good reason that endless vendetta is a
dissolving force, which the larger and more stable type of society
cannot afford to tolerate if it is to survive. The following are a
few instances illustrative of the transition from private to public
jurisdiction. In North America, Africa, and elsewhere, we find the
chief or chiefs pronouncing sentence, but the clan or family left to
carry it out as best they can. Again, the kin may be entrusted with
the function of punishment, but obliged to carry it out in the way
prescribed by the authorities; as, for instance, in Abyssinia, where
the nearest relation executes the manslayer in the presence of the
king, using exactly the same kind of weapon as that with which the
murder was committed. Or the right of the kin to punish dwindles to
a mere form. Thus in Afghanistan the elders make a show of handing
over the criminal to his accusers, who must, however, comply strictly
with the wishes of the assembly; whilst in Samoa the offender was bound
and deposited before the family "as if to signify that he lay at their
mercy," and the chief saw to the rest. Finally, the state, in the person
of its executive officers, both convicts and executes.

When the state is represented by a single ruler, crime tends to become
an offence against "the king's peace"--or, in the language of Roman
law, against his "majesty." Henceforward, the easy-going system of
getting off with a fine is at an end, and murder is punished with the
utmost sternness. In such a state as Dahomey, in the old days of
independence, there may have been a good deal of barbarity displayed
in the administration of justice, but at any rate human life was no
less effectively protected by the law than it was, say, in mediaeval
Europe.

* * * * *

The evolution of the punishment of murder affords the typical instance
of the development of a legal sanction in primitive society. Other
forms, however, of the forcible repression of wrong-doing deserve a
more or less passing notice.

Adultery is, even amongst the ruder peoples, a transgression that is
reckoned only a degree less grave than manslaughter; especially as
manslaughter is a usual consequence of it, quarrels about women
constituting one