Ixii INTRODUCTION. 



public opinion, was commonly effected without blood- 

 shed, by presents given in atonement. But if the mur- 

 derer and his victim were of different clans or different 

 nations, still more, if the slain was a foreigner, the 

 whole community became interested to prevent the dis- 

 cord or the war which might arise. All directed their 

 efforts, not to bring the murderer to punishment, but to 

 satisfy the injured parties by a vicarious atonement. ^ 

 To this end, contributions were made and presents col- 

 lected. Their number and value were determined by 

 established usage. Among the Hurons, thirty presents 

 of very considerable value were the price of a man's life. 

 That of a woman's was fixed at forty, by reason of her 

 weakness, and because on her depended the continuance 

 and increase of the population. This was when the slain 

 belonged to the nation. If of a foreign tribe, his death 

 demanded a higher compensation, since it involved the 

 danger of war.^ These presents were offered in solemr^* 

 council, with prescribed formalities. The relatives of 

 the slain might refuse them, if they chose, and in this 

 case the murderer was given them as a slave ; but 

 they might by no means kill him, since, in so doing, they 

 would incur public censure, and be icompelled in their 

 turn to make atonement. Besides the principal gifts, 

 there was a great number of less value, all symbolical, 

 and each delivered with a set form of words : as, "By 

 this we wash out the blood of the slain : By this we 

 cleanse his wound : By this we clothe his corpse with a 

 new shirt : By this we place food on his grave " : and 



1 Lalemant, while inveighing against a practice which made the 

 public, and not the criminal, answerable for an offence, admits that 

 heinous crimes were more rare than in France, where the guilty party 

 himself was punished. — Lettre au P. Provincial, 15 May, 1645. 



''^ Ragueneau, Relation des Hurons, 1648, 80. 



