SKETCH OF THE BOOTHIANS. 11 



about tlie division of a reindeer, one of the disputants had stabbed 

 the other. What we could understand was, that tlie murderer's 

 punishment consisted in being banished to perpetual solitude, or 

 shunned by every individual of the tribe ; insomuch that even 

 his sight was avoided by those who might inadvertently meet 

 him. Wljen asked why his life was not taken in return, it was 

 replied that this would be to make themselves equally bad, that 

 the loss of his life would not restore the other ; and that he who 

 should commit such an act would be held equally guilty. 

 To these arguments, I imagine, no reply could easily be 

 made, where there was no positive law to quote, within the 

 compass of their understanding : but it would not be easy to 

 deny that they carried in them an air of reflection and of 

 humanity not undeserving of praise. 



It could not be conjectured that any one of the tribe possessed 

 authority over the rest, that there was any one in the nature of 

 a patriarch, where there was no chief. If superior age or talents 

 commanded any respect, neither of these appeared to possess any 

 influence. There seemed not the slightest approach, even to 

 that insensible government, which, generally, in some manner, 

 acts so as to unite a tribe in one common pursuit, or to combine 

 them in a single society, so that the conduct of the whole, in their 

 migrations and occupations, is similar and simultaneous. Here, 

 every family decamped and travelled as its own views or caprices 

 dictated ; all being as independent as they seemed, since each could 

 soon construct its own habitation without the aid of others, and 

 proceed to procure its own sustenance without the help of society. 



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