A serious breach of tribal custom among the YYyandot i> 

 punished by outlawry declared after formal trial before the 

 triltal council. Should the offender continue in the commission 

 of the wrong act. it is lawful for any person to kill him on si-lit. 

 and sometimes it becomes the duty of all men to kill him.- ' The 

 Kamilaroi drive out of the company of his friends a man who 

 persists in keeping as his wife a woman of a subclass with which 

 his subclass must not marry. When this does not induce him to 

 leave the woman, his male kindred follow him and kill him, and 

 the female kindred kill h 



One who makes light of the authority of the chiefs or of the 

 sacred ; .ha is considered a disturber of the peace, 



and by ord--r of the tribe is killed by being wounded with the 

 poisoned end of a start'.- Amoni: the Tlingit, when a murderer is 

 not high caste enou-jh to make up for the dead man. a council of 

 the people of the victim gather before the house of a man of eoual 

 caste and call him out to be killed.'-" 1 A murderer or his 

 kin is killed by the Iowa. 24 The natives of Southeast Australia 

 ordinarily kill young men who tr, : the mama- 



rules. The Karamundi and Harkinji kill men who break the 

 totem marriage rules. The Yaitma-thang and Wolgal tribes 

 Dually punish infringements of this sort by death. Amoiiu r the 

 Tongarankas the whole tribe take a hand in the killing of an 

 offender against marriage laws or class rules. 25 



Adultery is a particularly heinous offense against marriage 



'oms, and among many primitive peoples is punished by 

 death. It is regarded as a grave tr;: ion because the wife 



is ordinarily considered to be the property of her husband. 28 In 

 Melanesia adultery is regarded as an offense against 

 The man who commits it is led before the chief, jud-j-d by the 



20 First Annual Import, Bureau of Ame> lf >logy, pp. 07-68. 



[owHt, <}>. t., p. 



22 Twenty-seventh Annual /,' , <m >,f t//- p. 213. 



M Twenty -xi.rth \in\unl Ifijinrt. Hun mi >,f ImtHctm /.'(// >io/o*///. p. 11!'. 

 24 J'tt't' < nih .\iuinal /,' nn I t lni>,l<i</. j,. .' 



.p. :w-2. 



oiirncau. /<//i^n of Marriage and the Family (London. 



pp. 208-27. 



