262 PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 



and secondly by god-appointed or god-approved kings. For 

 the theological view implies that governments in general 

 exist by divine permission, and that their dictates have con 

 sequently a divine sanction. In the absence of a utilitarian 

 justification, which only gradually emerges in the minds of 

 thinking men, there of course exists for law no other justifi 

 cation than that of being supernaturally derived first of all 

 directly and afterwards indirectly. 



It follows, therefore, that primitive law, formed out of 

 transmitted injunctions, partly of ancestry at large and 

 partly of the distinguished ancestor or deceased ruler, comes 

 usually to be enunciated by those who were in contact with 

 the ruler those who, first of all as attendants communi 

 cated his commands to his subjects, and who afterwards, 

 ministering to his apotheosized ghost, became (some of 

 them) his priests. Naturally these last, carrying on the 

 worship of him in successive generations, grow into expo 

 nents of his will; both as depositaries of his original com 

 mands and as mouth-pieces through whom the commands 

 of his spirit are communicated. By necessity, then, the 

 primitive priests are distinguished as those who above all 

 others know what the law is, and as those to whom, there 

 fore, all questions about transgressions are referred the 

 judges. 



694. In small rude societies judicial systems have not 

 arisen, and hence there is little evidence. Still we read that 

 among the Guiana Indians the Pe-i-men are at once priests, 

 sorcerers, doctors, and judges. Concerning the Kalmucks, 

 who are more advanced, Pallas tells us that the highest 

 judicial council consisted partly of priests and also that one 

 of the high-priests of the community was head-judge. 



Though among the semi-civilized Negro races of Africa, 

 theological development has usually not gone far enough to 

 establish the cult of a great god or gods, yet among them 

 may be traced the belief that conduct is to be regulated by 



