162 CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S' NARRATIVE: 
crime, it would appear, being punished in proportion to the 
rank of the husband. Thus a private man accepts two 
slaves from the aggressor ; but the son of a Chenoo cannot 
thus compromise his dishonour, but is held bound to kill the 
ageressor ; and if he escapes his pursuit, he may take the 
life of the first relation of the adulterer he meets; and 
the relatives of this latter, by a natural re-action, revenging 
this injustice on the other party, or one of his relations, is 
one of the grand causes of the constant animosities of 
the neighbouring villages. If a man poisons an equal, he is 
simply decapitated ; but if an inferior commits this crime 
(the only kind of secret murder) on a superior, the whole of 
his male relations are put to death, even to the infants at the 
breast. 
When a theft is discovered, the gangam kissey or priest, 
is applied to, and the whole of the persons suspected are 
brought before him. After throwing himself mto violent 
contortions, which the spectators consider as the inspirations 
of the kissey or fetiche, he fixes on one of the party as 
the thief, and the latter is led away immediately to be sen- 
tenced by a palaver. Of course the judgment of the priest 
is guided either by chance, or by individual enmity ; 
and though (as our informer assured us) the judgment 
was often found to be false, it derogates nothing from 
