ioo BIRD-HUNTING 



may have to pay the penalty. Among some of the 

 mountain tribes, it is allowable to kill anybody from 

 the same village. Probably this is a practical equiva- 

 lent to killing a relative, for the mountaineers have 

 a tribal system something like the old Scottish clans, 

 and all are probably related to one another. Thus 

 an injury to one is avenged by the whole clan ; and 

 as many of these clans number some thousand rifles, 

 the organization is powerful enough to cause some 

 hesitation in offending any of its members. 



I heard of men who had been prisoners in their 

 own houses for years, unable to go outside for fear 

 of being shot at sight. One man had sworn to be 

 avenged on the body of his father some years 

 previously. Up to last year he had killed twenty- 

 four people. 1 don't know if he is still alive, and if 

 so what the tale of vengeance now amounts to ; but 

 he is sure to be killed himself some day, and could 

 hardly have survived as long as he has but for the 

 fact of his being rich and powerful, with a large 

 following. 



Houses in the country are commonly loopholed 

 for musketry, and provided with a watch-tower ; 

 and several times I have found a body of armed 

 retainers in attendance upon men over whom hung 

 the threatened vengeance of a blood-feud. It is 

 difficult to imagine such a state of things existing in 

 the twentieth century. 



