THE ETHICS OF TRIBAL SOCIETY. 299 



law of the strong was never yet wrong is the cynical expression 

 of protesting submission to the inevitable, recognized as outra- 

 geous. It is the same bitter sarcasm that mocks at unjust and 

 irresistible power in the popular saying, " Might makes right " ; 

 it is despair taking refuge and finding relief in ironical humor, 

 which turns the first principles of ethics topsy-turvy. 



Wildfangsrecht was originally applied to fugitive serfs and to 

 strangers, but was soon extended to bastards and bachelors, glee- 

 men and professional champions in ordeals by battle, all of whom 

 lived more or less in a state of outlawry as to their persons and 

 property, and could, under certain circumstances, be reduced to 

 the condition of chattels. Foreigners who could prove the place 

 of their nativity were subjected to a poll tax (cherage) for the pro- 

 tection vouchsafed to them by the reeve or Vogt, and were there- 

 fore called Vogtleute. In the Canton de Vaud and elsewhere in 

 Switzerland this pollage is still levied as permis d'etablissement, 

 a lingering vestige of mediaeval extortion which the most enlight- 

 ened European governments have now abolished. Persons of un- 

 known origin were treated as waifs (epaves), the mere flotson and 

 waveson on the drifting tide of humanity, and were liable to be 

 seized and envassaled by any petty lord on whose territory they 

 chanced to strand. Perhaps a diligent study of these old laws 

 might suggest to American legislators some drastic means of purg- 

 ing the country of tramps. 



In " the good old time " in England any alien could be arrested 

 and punished for the crimes and misdemeanors of other aliens, 

 although having no complicity with them. They were all lumped 

 together as a class, any individual of which was liable to be ap- 

 prehended and held accountable for the debts incurred or for the 

 offenses committed by any other individual of the class. 



The idea of justice implied by such a proceeding corresponds 

 to that entertained by the aboriginal Australian or American, 

 who, when his wife dies, feels himself in duty bound to kill the 

 wife of some member of another tribe, and avenges an injury in- 

 flicted upon him by a white man by slaying the first white man 

 he happens to meet. The loss or offense, whatever it may be, is 

 tribal, and is satisfied with tribal expiation or retaliation. 



A case of this kind occurred quite recently in Dakota. A Sioux 

 Indian, on the death of his squaw, went forth from his lodge with 

 his gun and shot a missionary who was passing by. The red man 

 had no grudge against the white man as an individual ; on the con- 

 trary, he was personally fond of his victim, from whom he had 

 received many acts of kindness ; but the vow of vengeance was as 

 sacred as that made by Jephthah the Gileadite, and had to be as 

 religiously kept. 



The old English custom, just referred to as a survival of the 



