.REVENUE* 



365 



But these customs are founded, unlike ours, upon bar- 

 barous human nature. Instinct prompts a man to slay 

 the slayer of his kith and kin ; the offence is against the 

 individual, not the government or society. He must 

 reason to persuade himself that the crime, being com- 

 mitted against the law, should be left to the law for no- 

 tice ; he wants revenge, and he cares nought for punish- 

 ment or example for the prevention of crime. The 

 Sultan encourages the payment of blood-money to the 

 relatives of the deceased, or, if powerful enough, claims 

 it himself, rather than that one murder should lead to 

 another, and eventually to a chronic state of bloodshed 

 and confusion. Thus, in some tribes the individual re- 

 venges himself, and in others he commits his cause to 

 the chief. Here he takes an equivalent in cattle for the 

 blood of a brother or the loss of a wife ; there he visits 

 the erring party with condign punishment. The result 

 of such deficiency of standard is a want of graduation 

 in severity ; a thief is sometimes speared and beheaded, 

 or sold into slavery after all his property has been ex- 

 torted by the chief, the councillors, and the elders, whilst 

 a murderer is perhaps only fined. 



The land in East Africa is everywhere allodial ; it 

 does not belong to the ruler, nor has the dawn of the 

 feudal system yet arisen there. A migratory tribe gives 

 up its rights to the soil, contrary to the mortmain 

 system of the Arab Bedouins, and, if it would return, 

 it must return by force. The Sultan, however, exacts 

 a fee from all immigrants settling in his territory. 



The sources of revenue in East Africa are uncertain, 

 desultory, and complicated. The agricultural tribes 

 pay yearly a small per centage of grain ; this, however, 

 is the office of the women, who are expert in fraud. 

 Neither sowing nor harvest can take place without 



