898 KEPORT— 1893. 



punishment, so tliere the act of retaliation devolved upon the individual injured. 

 Still, it is not entirely a private matter, for it is part of the system of centralisation : 

 in the first degree under the head of the family, in the second under the sacerdotal 

 classes, the chieftain, prince, or Mng, or both together. 



Though the phases overlap we may distinguish (I.) punishment by the individual ; 

 (II.) puninhment by the community or its representative. 



1. 



Punishment by the individual. — The custom is widespread and far older than 

 ' Aryans,' and the reason for it is evident — because the organisation of society is 

 too loose. 



The first points considered were, Who took the initiative, and was the act 

 intentional ? 



Offences calling for retribution. — The Greek conception of v^pis and lipxfiy 



J((ipS>t> dSlKCOl'. 



(i.) Injury, including such offences as adultery and incest, which were visited 

 with the severest penalties. 



(ii.) Theft : its recognition attested by the antiquity of such words as clepere 



(iii.) Assault, not confined to the plaiutifi^s person. 



Murder : its far-reaching consequences. Murder by (i.) weapon ; (ii.) burning ; 

 (iii.) poison. Murder (a) culpable; (3) pardonable; (y) justifiable ; (5) pre- 

 meditated. 



These offences might be manifest, in which case they were avenged on the spot ; 

 or non-manifest, in which case examination was necessary. 



Methods of procedure. — The superstition of fiaaxaXi(fcv ; the imprecation ; the 

 avenging fiend. (A) Punishment by the spirit of the murdered. 



(15) Punishment by relatives. First phase : passion for revenge ; linguistic 

 evidence. 



Second phase : execution ; guilt falls upon the head ; the vendetta ; talio ,- 

 asyln ; banishment. 



Third phase : reparation by fine ; linguistic evidence, (a) Fines paid to person 

 or relatives according to the member maimed or the rank of the injured. Anglo- 

 Saxon, wergeld ; Old Welsh, galanas ; noivrj ; poena. (/3) Restitution to the com- 

 munity ; (TTi&o'ki) ; Lat. multa ; and Old Welsh, sarhaad. 



Parricide : its heinous and unnatural character ; the sack punishment ; 

 imperilled family succession and worship ; at first unpardonable, later expiable. 



The ideas of purification, &c., elaborated in the Indian Prayaqcitta. 



II. 



Punishment by the community or representatives hardly falls within the scope of 

 this inquiry, being of later growth. 



Though found in rudimentary forms at an early period, society did not directly 

 interfere, except to regulate punishment. The authorities by whom it was exercised : 

 (i.) the head of the family, patria potestas ; the priest; the king; San&krit 

 danda ; (ii.) tribunals: Areopagus; Ephetae ; Curia. 



Punishment in the next icorld. — The growth of these ideas, of revenge, punish- 

 ment, and atonement, mirrored in Homer, where poems, as, e.g., ' Iliad,' xviii. 

 497-508, if microscopically examined, reveal the successive stages of growth. 



'/. ' Four ' as a Sacred Number. By Miss A. W. Buckland. 



Miss Buckland, in following out the subject of a former paper read before the 

 Anthropological Section, entitled ' Points of Contact between Old-world Myths 

 and Customs and the Navajo Myth entitled "The Mountain Chant,"' finds so 

 many allusions to ' four' as a sacred number, and its connection with the cardinal 

 points, and to the cross as a symbol of these points, or of the winds blowing from 



