Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Mafulu - Mountain People of British New Guinea by Robert Wood Williamson
page 115 of 414 (27%)
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 adhere to the shell a small piece of wild
bees' wax, this being done, I was told, surreptitiously, though I
cannot say to what extent the people are deceived by the dodge, or
are aware of it. The implement stands on the shell for a few seconds,
after which it falls down. Previously to doing this he has told his
client of certain possible directions in which the implement may fall,
and intimated that, whichever that may be, it will be the direction
DigitalOcean Referral Badge