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. There is no punishment for it. They rarely oppose 

 the return of the pillagers, 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 role is chiefly that of a patriarch, limited to the guidance, the 

 38734°— sm 1911 — -37 



