CHAPTER XII. 

 the LAW. 



§ 299. The law, which is the body of rules that the State endeavors 

 directly or indirectly to enforce, may be properly classed as follows: 

 1. Personal law. 2. Property law. 3. Corporation law. 4. Govern- 

 ment law. 5. International law. 6. Military law. 7. Religious law. 



Crimes may be committed against personal law, property law, cor- 

 poration law, government law, international law, military law, and re- 

 ligious law. So there are as many divisions of criminal law. 



PERSONAL LAW. 



§ 300. A large part of personal law belongs to gentile or family law. 

 Certain degrees of consanguinity and affinity are considered as bars to 

 intermarriage. The marriage of kindred has always been regarded as 

 incestuous by the Omahas and kindred tribes. Affinities were forbidden 

 to Self in certain places which are explained in the description of the 

 kinship system and the marriage laws. 



Marriage by elopement has been practiced, but marriage by capture 

 or I iy duel are not known. (See§ 82.) 



Nage, quarreling and fighting. — It used to be a custom amoug the 

 Omahas, when two men engaged in a fight, that he who gave the first 

 blow was beaten by the native policemen. 



T'e<fai, accidental killing, and "t'ekifai," intentional hilling or murder, 

 are also crimes against i - eligious law, which see in §§ 310, 311. 



Witchcraft. — When the supposed victim has died and the offender has 

 been detected his life may be takeu by the kinsman of the victim with- 

 out a trial before the assembly or any other tribunal. 



Slavery was not known. Captives taken in war were not put to death. 

 (See § 222.) 



§ 301. Social vices (a), Adultery. — Sometimes a man steals another 

 man's wife. Sometimes he tempts her, but does not take her from her 

 husband. The injured man may strike or kill the guilty man, he may 

 hit the woman, or he may deprive the offending man of his property. 

 If a womau's husband be guilty of adultery with another woman she 

 may strike him or the guilty female in her anger, but she cannot claim 

 damages. In some extreme cases, as recorded by Say, an inexorable 

 man has been known to tie his frail partner firmly upon the earth in 

 the prairie, and in this situation has she been compelled to submit to 



3(i4 



