b-ARSTEN] BLOOD REVENGE, WAR, AND VICTORY FEASTS 11 



hiends a Jibaro because he has killed an enemy, his answer is gen- 

 erally: "He has killed himself." But blood revenge among these 

 Indians is not merely owing to moral or ethical, but also to religious 

 reasons. The soul of the murdered Indian requires that his relatives 

 shall avenge his death. The errant spirit, which gets no rest, visits 

 his sons, his brothers, his father, in the dream, and, weeping, con- 

 jures them not to let the slayer escape but to wreak vengeance upon 

 him for the life he has taken. If they omit to fulfill this duty the 

 anger of the vengeful spirit may turn against themselves. To 

 avenge the blood of a murdered father, brother, or son, is therefore 

 looked upon as one of the most sacred duties of a Jibaro Indian. 

 The expression which the Jibaros use for this is ayamhmamdktinyu 

 (in Quichua randipashca) which means "to avenge the blood of a 

 murdered relation." It may happen that a Jibaro keeps the thought 

 of revenge in his mind for years, even for decades, waiting for the 

 opportunity to carry it out, but he never gives it up. A man has 

 perhaps been murdered while his sons were still small, and he has 

 perhaps likewise lacked brothers or other male relatives who had 

 been able to revenge his death. As soon as the sons become full 

 ^rown they know what their duty toward their murdered father re- 

 quires of them. However, in such cases it sometimes occurs that the 

 affair is settled in a peaceful way. The sons of the murdered Indian 

 send the following message to the slayer, or, in case he is dead, to 

 his sons : " You (or your father) killed our father while we were 

 still children. It is our duty to avenge his blood and to take your 

 life in retaliation. But if you promise to pay such and such a price — 

 a rifle, an axe, a good hound, etc. — we will regard the blood guilt 

 as atoned and pardon you." If the Indian thus threatened agrees 

 with this, the matter is definitely settled. The Jibaros do not find 

 anything repugnant in thus estimating the life of a parent with 

 material equivalents, and an agreement like this is especially pos- 

 sible in cases where the crime to be punished has been committed 

 very long ago. In cases of murder recently committed the indigna- 

 tion of the offended family is generally so great that any material 

 compensation is out of the question, and an atonement in blood is 

 required. 



' Among the Jibaros blood revenge is not strictly individualized in 

 the sense that it always directs itself exclusively against the slayer. 

 The Jibaro certainly first of all wants to take revenge on the person 

 who committed the crime, but if he can not be caught it may instead 

 be directed against some one of his relatives — his brother, his father, 

 even his mother or sister. To understand this we have to consider 

 that the conception of individual personality and consequently of in- 

 dividual responsibility does not exist among the primitive Indians 



