112 



Quam bene parcntum piovida aetas statuerat 

 Ut cogeretur de via decedere 

 Hominumque visu, cTde patrala, noceus ; 

 Fugaque lueret triste. iion letho, Scelus. 



Grotius, 



INIaii}^ instances of this custom occur in Homer. 



During the interval of 531 years betwixt the deluge and 

 the dispersion, and many subsequent ages, various crimmals 

 followed by their families must have been from time to lime 

 driven to countries far distant from the parent stale. There, 

 ignorant of all arts, destitute of tools, and furnished only 

 with bows and arrows and fishing tackling, they fell into that 

 miserable unconnected lawless state which we call savarre. In 

 a course of ages their original language was corrupted or lost. 

 Different nations or tribes arose from a succession of such 

 outlaws from different countries, or perhaps from the same. 



This I believe to have been the cause generally productive 

 of this mode of life ; but it probably often originated also 

 from various accidents, as shipwrecks on desert countries, 

 expulsion by a conquering nation, &c. 



That savage nations or tribes existed in the most ancient 

 ages, we have many authentic testimonies. Pomponius 

 Mela, treating of the nations in the interior of Africa, says,* 

 Sequjitur vagi pecora.—Quanquam in familias passim .j- sine 

 lege dispersi, nihil in commune consultant. And Sallust, De 



Bello 



^ • •■" * Lib. 1. cap. 8. 



I 



