212 THE KEGULATION OF NUMBEKS 



himself, his wife and his children, then he need not divide with 

 others ; but if he found that his father had no food, he would 

 give them what he had and go out and look for more/ * ' All the 

 males in the Chepara tribe are expected to provide food, if not 

 sick. If a man is lazy and stays in camp, he is jeered at and 

 insulted by the others.' 2 



The principal features of the Australian customs as described 

 above are to be found among all hunting and fishing races, though 

 such elaborate rules as are usual -in Australia are somewhat 

 uncommon elsewhere. The Bushmen may have had their rules 

 for the division of game ; all we are told is to the effect that they 

 shared food. ' When one feasted they all partook ; and when one 

 hungered they all equally suffered.' 3 We have evidence both of 

 the sharing of food and of the dividing up of game among the 

 Eskimos. Details of the latter are given by Nansen; 4 with regard 

 to the former we have frequent references to the division of food 

 within the villages among all who need it. 5 Of the Eskimos we are 

 also told that * it might be considered a law that every man, as far 

 as he was able to do it, should practise the trade of a hunter on the 

 sea, until he was either disabled by old age or had a son to succeed 

 him. This duty neglected, he brought upon himself the repre- 

 hension not only of the other members of his own family, but also 

 of the wider community.' 6 Kules for the division of food were 

 almost universal among the Indians ; when a hunter of the Hare 

 tribe kills an animal, he is only allowed the tongue and ribs ; the 

 rest is distributed according to a system. 7 So, too, among the 

 Lillooet a regular partition of the game took place, of which one 

 of the features was ' that the persons who had the game had no 

 preference over others '. 8 Such phrases as ' studied equity in the 

 distribution of necessaries ', 9 which is applied to the Seri Indians, 

 indicate the existence of similar rules. 10 



Conditions are similar among the races of the second group. In 

 Fiji ' public opinion took care that no man in the community 



1 Howitt, Native Tribes, p. 765. 2 Ibid., p. 767. 3 Stow, loc. cit., p. 41. See also 

 Theal, Yellow- and Dark-Skinned People, p. 48. 4 Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 113. 



5 See, for instance, Klutschak, pp. 231 if., and Whymper, Voyages et Aventures, 

 p. 346. Rink, loc. cit.. p. 31. 7 Bancroft, loc. cit., vol. i, p. 121. 



8 Teit, loc. cit., vol. ii, p. 256. MacGee, 17th A. R. B. E., p. 273. 



10 Hill Tout (British North America, p. 159) describes an exceptional case of 

 a Salish tribe in which ' even the food was held and the meals taken in common, 

 the presiding elder or headsman calling a certain family each day to provide 

 the meals for all the rest, every one taking it in turn to discharge this social 

 duty '. 



