THE LOLOS OF KIENTCHANG, WESTERN CHINA—LEGENDRE. 577 
decisions, that hold the place. and the authority of law. It is a 
primitive form of justice yet dignified and equitable. The ordinary 
theft as defined in Europe exists but little in the clans. If perchance 
a petty theft is committed, it is amicably arranged, but restitution 
is obligatory. If it is repeated and a serious falling out is caused 
between two or more families, the culprit is imprisoned by order of 
the seignor. If he will not mend his ways, but becomes a menace to 
the peace of the clan, he is drowned in a mountain torrent. 
What the Lolo practices most of all is resenting by force of arms 
between tribes and clans that which a family or a group of such 
consider to be an injury, or they inflict on an adversary a damage 
equal to that received. This is not robbery. It is a legitimate ran- 
som for a prior villainy. But the one who suffers most from this 
punishment by retaliation, constantly applied, is the Chinese. In 
pillaging at will with nameless impudence, the Lolo declares that he 
is regaining by his rightful usurpation his own valleys, his fertile 
fields, which the other gained by ruse. He scatters animals and men, 
desolates entire villages, ruins special districts—it becomes to him a 
sport, a pastime. Thereis no punishment forit. They rarely oppose 
the return of the pulagers, and there is little risk of being punished 
in their mountain homes. 
Murder for robbery or personal vengeance is almost unknown. 
When a murder has been committed, the criminal is hung as soon as 
- possible. If not he is buried alive in the forest, or, fastened to a tree 
in a solitary place, he dies from starvation or from the teeth.of wild 
beasts. Some tribes inflict punishment by fire, each carrying his fire 
log to the place appointed for the execution. 
If the murderer belongs to a different tribe, it means war at once 
and unrelenting. There is no isolated action by the family of the 
victim, but a getting together of all the clan—all the tribe, if neces- 
sary. The bloody feud is then at its height—vengeance for all. 
Ownership of property——A ruling principle in the property system 
is that the products of the soil belong to the one who cultivates the 
land and not to the chief of the clan, though some contracts are made 
for renting and farming with return in natural products. 
The vast expanses, stretches of forest land, are by no means owned 
by the seignior, but they are the property of the clan as a community. 
The os noir or highest class has his own lands that he makes valuable 
through the aid of his serfs, and he has no right to increase them by 
monopolizing those of his neighbor’s. He is also forbidden by the 
right of common custom from possessing himself of a heritage. The 
chief of a tribe has none of the prerogatives of a petty tyrant king. 
His réle is chiefly that of a patriarch, limited to the guidance, the 
38734°—sm 1911——37 
