52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



CRIME 



Murderers, thieves, traitors, and witches were punished (JE 10: 

 215 ; for punishment of Avitches see section on witchcraft) . 



For the crime of murder, payment had to be made to the deceased's 

 family by the village of the murderer (JE, 15: 157).^^ The relatives 

 addressed themselves to the village of the murderer and that village 

 had to give as many as 60 presents, the least of which had to be of the 

 value of a new beaver robe ( JE 10 : 215-217 ; of. JE 28 : 49) . If the 

 murdered was a member of another tribe, then war was declared be- 

 tween the two tribes, unless that of the murderer gave large presents 

 (S 163-164). Thus, if a Huron killed an Algonquin, the whole 

 country assembled and agreed on the number of presents to be given 

 to the tribe ( JE 28 : 49 ; cf. JE 33 : 231-249 for the council concerned 

 with the murder of a Frenchman by a Huron). And, if the Algon- 

 quin killed a Huron, they gave presents to the Huron. In one case, a 

 Huron man, who had gone to kill a prisoner the Huron had given the 

 Algonquin, was killed by the Algonquins. As a result, they had to 

 give the Huron fifty wampum belts, a hundred fathoms of wampum, a 

 large number of kettles and hatchets, and two female prisoners (C 

 102-103) . If a Huron murdered a foreigner, a bundle of small sticks, 

 a little larger and thicker than matches, tied together, was given 

 by the tribe of the murdered to that of the murderer to indicate 

 the number of presents they desired. The chiefs then divided the 

 sticks among themselves to decide what each nation would give. Then 

 the chiefs returned to their villages to exhort the people to provide the 

 required number of presents ( JE 33 : 239-241) . 



If the village or the relatives of the murdered were not given gifts 

 by that of the murderer, the village or relatives would take up arms 

 against them: it was an insult (JE 10: 219; S 163). But this rarely 

 happened (S163). 



The usual number of gifts for the murder of a Huron man by an- 

 other Huron was 30 presents and for the murder of a woman, 40. The 

 price was higher for the death of a woman, the Huron said, because, 



^8 It seems likely that the Jesuits were in error and the payment had to be made to the 

 clan rather than the village. Among the Wyandot, if a man murdered a member of his 

 clan, the matter was brought up in the clan council ; if a man murdered a member of a 

 different clan, the matter was settled in a meeting of the two clans (Powell 1881 : 66-67 ; 

 cf. Finley 1840: 59). Similarly, among the Iroquois, the clans of the murderer and the 

 murdered meet in separate councils, or if they were of different phratries, the phratries 

 might meet in separate councils (Morgan 1881: 12; 1901(1) : 322-324) ; the members of 

 the lineage or clan were obligated to purchase the life of one of its members who had 

 forfeited it by homicide and to pay for the life of the victim (Hewitt 1918: 533-534). 

 Apparently, with the establishment of the League, if the murderer and murdered were of 

 different tribes, the matter was considered in a League council (Hale 1883 : 68). 



