1 82 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



however, we find in fact other fields of conduct in which a 

 more mature stage has been reached. Almost uniformly 

 we find certain transgressions which are punished by such 

 force as collective society can bring to bear breaches of 

 the marriage taboo and murder by witchcraft being the two 

 offences that occur most frequently in this connection, and 

 thus form the starting-point of a true criminal law. 

 Generally moreover, though on this point exact information 

 is less readily obtainable, the mutual obligations of the 

 kinsfolk may be regarded as true duties, genuine contents 

 of a categorical imperative. It remains that over a large 

 sphere of life, that in which many of the most elementary 

 rights are conceived, the ethical judgment proper is imper- 

 fectly formed. The recognised code does not say * Thou 

 shalt not kill,' it says ' If thou killest, expect the avenger 

 of blood.' 



This, it may be, is largely a matter of defective social 

 organisation. The blood feud may be regarded as a stage 

 in jurisprudence rather than in morals. But in the end 

 ethical ideas work themselves out in the structure of law 

 and custom, and the bond of custom in early society is 

 quite strong enough to be a very real force, even if there 

 is no physical force to back it. The characteristic customs 

 of the blood feud prevail, we may be fairly sure, because on 

 the whole they lie near to prevailing sentiment, and this 

 sentiment, which recognises no obligations at all outside 

 the community, admits them within the community, but 

 outside the kinsfolk, just in the form and to the degree 

 which the custom of regulated collective vengeance 

 expresses. 



With this half-formed character of the ethical judgment 

 the early conception of the moral sanction is in full accord. 

 Primitive societies have their own theory of custom. 

 They seek a reason for it in one of two directions. Gener- 

 ally the breach of custom brings a misfortune on the trans- 

 gressor and those connected with him. Precisely how this 

 misfortune operates it is not always easy to say, but in many 

 cases it is clearly connected with the prevailing ideas of 

 magic. In particular the magic power of the curse is an 

 object of fear that may serve to justify the authority of 



