524: POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



tion ; and beyond the special Injunctions of deceased leaders, 

 which have a more distinct religious sanction ; there is some, 

 though a slight, amount of regulation derived from the will 

 of the predominant man ; and there is also the effect, vague 

 but influential, of the aggregate opinion. Not dwelling on the 

 first of these, which is slowly modified by accretions derived 

 from the others, it is observable that in the second we have 

 the germ of the law afterwards distinguished as divine ; that 

 in the third we have the germ of the law which gets its sanc 

 tion from allegiance to the living governor ; and that in the 

 fourth we have the germ of the law which eventually becomes 

 recognized as expressing the public will. 



Already I have sufficiently illustrated those kinds of laws 

 which originate personally, as commands of a feared invisible 

 ruler and a feared visible ruler. But before going further, it 

 will be well to indicate more distinctly the kind of law which 

 originates impersonally, from the prevailing sentiments and 

 ideas, and which we find clearly shown in rude stages before 

 the other two have become dominant. A few extracts will 

 exhibit it. Schoolcraft says of the Chippewayans 

 &quot; Thus, though they have no regular government, as every man is lord in 

 his own family, they are influenced more or less by certain principles 

 which conduce to their general benefit.&quot; 



Of the unorganized Shoshones Bancroft writes 

 &quot; Every man does as he likes. Private revenge, of course, occasionally 

 overtakes the murderer, or, if the sympathies of the tribe be with the 

 murdered man, he may possibly be publicly executed, but there are no 

 fixed laws for such cases.&quot; 



In like manner the same writer tells us of the Haidahs that 

 &quot; Crimes have no punishment by law ; murder is settled for with rela- 

 tives of the victim, by death or by the payment of a large sum ; and 

 sometimes general or notorious offenders, especially medicine-men, are 

 put to death by an agreement among leading men.&quot; 



Even where government is considerably developed, public 

 opinion continues to be an independent source of law. Ellis 

 says that 



&quot; In cases of theft in the Sandwich Islands, those who had been robbed 

 retaliated upon the guilty party, by seizing whatever they could find ; 



