dividual who presumes to steal in his native village, they
encourage depredations upon the other tribes (_Revue d' Anthropologie_,
1874). The cleverest thieves are greatly esteemed, are paid for
instructing boys in their profession, and are chosen to lead the
expeditions.

In India the tribe Zakka Khel is devoted to this dishonest calling, and
at birth every male child is consecrated to thievish practices by a
peculiar ceremony, in which the new-born infant is passed through a
breach in the wall of his father's house, whilst the words "Become a
thief" are chanted three times in chorus. Amongst the ancient Germans,
according to Tacitus, thefts perpetrated outside the boundary of the
tribe itself were by no means infamous. In the midst of a great
assembly, the chief called upon those he wished to follow him; they
showed their willingness by rising to their feet amid the applause of
the crowd. Those who refused to take part were looked upon as deserters
and traitors (Spencer, _Principles of Ethics_, 1895). Among the
Comanches (Muelhausen, _Diary of a Journey from the Mississippi to the
Pacific_) no man was considered worthy of being numbered among the
warriors of the tribe, unless he had taken part in some successful
pillaging expedition. The cleverest thieves were the most respected
members of the tribe. No Patagonian is deemed worthy of a wife unless he
has graduated in the art of despoiling a stranger (Snow, _Two Years'
Cruise round Tierra del Fuego_). Among the Kukis (Dalton, _Descriptive
Ethnology of Bengal_) skill in stealing is the most esteemed talent. In
Mongolia (Gilmour, _Among the Mongols_), thieves are regarded as
respectable members of the community, provided they steal cleverly and
escape detection.

CRIMINALITY IN CHILDREN

The criminal instincts common to primitive savages would be found
proportionally in nearly all children, if they were not influenced by
moral training and example. This does not mean that without educative
restraints, all children would develop into criminals. According to the
observations made by Prof. Mario Carrara at Cagliari, the bands of
neglected children who run wild in the streets of the Sardinian capital
and are addicted to thievish practices and more serious vices,
spontaneously correct themselves of these habits as soon as they have
arrived at puberty.

This fact, that the germs of moral insanity and criminality are found
normally in mankind in the first stages of his e