POLITICAL FORMS AND FORCES. 319 



The Greenlanders are entirely without political control; 

 having nothing which represents it more nearly than the 

 deference paid to the opinion of some old man, skilled in seal- 

 catching and the signs of the weather. But a Greenlander 

 who is aggrieved by another, has his remedy in what is called 

 a singing combat. He composes a satirical poem, and 

 challenges his antagonist to a satirical duel in face of the 

 tribe : &quot; he who has the last word wins the trial.&quot; And then 

 Crantz adds &quot; nothing so effectually restrains a Greenlander 

 from vice, as the dread of public disgrace.&quot; Here we see 

 operating in its original unqualified way, that governing 

 influence of public sentiment which precedes more special 

 governing influences. The dread of social reprobation is 



in some cases enforced by the dread of banishment. Among 

 the otherwise unsubordinated Australians, they &quot; punish each 

 other for such offences as theft, sometimes by expulsion from 

 the camp.&quot; Of one of the Columbian tribes we read that 

 u the Salish can hardly be said to have any regular form of 

 government ;&quot; and then, further, we read that &quot; criminals are 

 sometimes punished by banishment from their tribe.&quot; Certain 

 aborigines of the Indian hills, widely unlike these Columbians 

 in type and in mode of life, show us a similar relation between 

 undeveloped political restraint and the restraint of aggregate 

 feeling. Among the Bodo and the Dhiinals, whose village 

 heads are simply respected elders with no coercive powers, 

 those who offend against customs &quot; are admonished, fined, or 

 excommunicated, according to the degree of the offence.&quot; 

 But the controlling influence of public sentiment in groups 

 which have little or no organization, is best shown in the 

 force with which it acts on those who are bound to avenge 

 murders. Concerning the Australian aborigines, Sir George 

 Grey writes : 



* The holiest duty a native is called on to perform is that of avenging 

 the death of his nearest relation, for it is his peculiar duty to do so ; 

 until he has fulfilled this task, he is constantly taunted by the old 

 women ; his wives, if he is married, would soon quit him ; if he is un 

 married, riot a single young woman would speak to him , his mother 

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