SUMATRA. 
207 
The prance of outlawing (Ifppayj'e fcor^) an individual of a family oatkwi^ 
by the head of it^ has it's foundation in the cuftoni which obliges all the 
branches to be refponfible for the debts contradted by any one of the kin- 
dred- When an extravagant and unprincipled fpendthrifc is running a 
career that appears likely to involve his family in ruinous confequences^. 
they have the right of diflblving the connexion, and clearing themfclvcs 
of further refponiibility, by this public a£t^ which, as cxprcfles 
it, icnds tortn the oui call, as a deer into the woods, no longer to be 
• confidered as enjoying the priviledges of fociety. This charadter is 
what they terra reefiw, though it is fometimes applied to perfons not 
iibfolutely outlawed, but of debauched and irreg-ular manners,^ 
In the Saxon laws we find a flrong refemblence to this cuftom ; the 
kindred of a murderer being exempt from the feud, if they abandoned 
him to his fate. They bound themfeives in this cafe neither to con- 
verfe with him, or to furniHi him with meat or other neceCaries. 7 his 
k precifcly the Sumacran outlawry, in which it is always particulary 
ipccifica (bcfidc -whiit relates to common debts) that if the outlaw kills 
a perfon, they will not pay the compcnfation, nor cidXm u ;f 1,^ lfnie<fl. 
But the writ muft have been ilTucd before the event, and they cannot 
free themfeives by a fublequent procefSj as it would feem the Saxons, 
might. If an outlaw commits murder, the friends of the deceafed may 
take perfonal revenge on him,, and are not liable to be called to an ac- 
count for ir i but if fuch be killed, otherwife than in fatisfaftion for 
murder, although his family have no claim, the prince of the country 
is entitled to a certain compenlationj all outlaws being nominally his pro- 
perty, like other wild animals. 
In cafes of theft, the fwearing a robbery againO a perfon fufpeaed, isof p^oof in cafe*. 
floe£re6:> and juftly, for were it otherwife, nothing would be more com- 
mon than the profecution of innocent prrfons. The proper proofs are 
cither, feizure of the perfon in the fad:,, before witnefijbs, or difcovery of 
the goods ftolcn, in poffeffion of oiae who can give no fatisfattory account 
how he came by them. As it frequently happens that a man iindt; part 
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