54 JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 



localities. The right to the animal belongs either to the one who 

 first sees it, or the one who first wounds it (no matter who fires 

 the fatal shot), or, if several shoot at once, the one who comes 

 nearest a vital spot. Eeferring to this last rule, Crantz remarks 

 that since the introduction of muskets, many disputes arise 

 which are not easily settled since no one knows his own bullet. 

 (16. 1:67.) A case of what a jurist would call &quot;conflict of 

 laws&quot; is given in a Cumberland Sound tale. 



All the people shot arrows at a caribou and killed it. One shouted, 

 &quot;I hit it first;&quot; another, &quot;It was my arrow that killed it.&quot; Finally 

 one of the party grew so angry that he took the caribou by the hind 

 legs and dashed it to pieces on the rocks. Then nobody dared to claim 

 it.&quot; (6: 284.) 



How detailed the principles of division sometimes are is shown 

 by a rule from the west coast of Hudson Bay: 



&quot;The hunter who first strikes a walrus receives the tusks and one of 

 the forequarters. The person who comes to his assistance receives the 

 other forequarter; the next man, the neck and head; the following the 

 belly, and each of the next two, one of the hindquarters.&quot; (6: 116.) 



Also, in some cases, all who participate in the expedition share 

 in the booty; again all who see the capture of the animal have 

 this right. Under certain conditions, all rights of acquisition 

 are suspended and the captured animal regarded as the common 

 property of the whole community. This is true of all booty in 

 time of scarcity. And at all times, according to Rink, * * animals 

 rare on account of their size or other unusual circumstances, 

 were, more than ordinary species, considered common property. r 

 (53:28.) This holds universally of the whale. (For the 

 description of a &quot;whale-party,&quot; see 16. 1:167.) 



If an animal gets away with the harpoon sticking in it, the 

 finder is entitled to the animal, but the harpoon is returned 

 to the proper owner, if he announces himself. (53:28; 

 16. 1: 167.) On Hudson Bay the finder is allowed to keep the 

 harpoon also. (5:582.) 



Boas has discussed the property marks of the Alaskan Eskimo. 

 These are found 



&quot;almost exclusively on weapons used in hunting, which after being dis 

 patched, remain in the bodies of large game. Their purpose is to secure 

 property-right in the animal in which the weapon is found.&quot; (10: 601.) 



