SUMATRA, 
20f 
little other than voluntary ; efpccially of the men of influence, who arc 
held in fubje<Stion rather by the fcnie of general utility, planted in the 
breafts of mankind j attachment to their family and connexions ; and 
veneration for the fpot in which their anceftors were interred, than by the 
apprehcnfion of any fuperior authority, Thefc confiderations, however, 
they would readily forego, renounce their fealty, and quit their country, 
if in any cafe they were in danger of paying with life, the forfck of dicir 
crimes : to letter punUhmencs thole ties induce them to fubmit ; and to 
flrengthen this hold, their cuftoms wifely enjoin, that every the remoteft 
branch of the family, ihall be refponfibie for the payment of their judge- 
ment, and other debts ; and in cafes of murder, the bangmn^ or com pen- 
fation, may be levied on the inhabitants of the village the culprit be- 
longed to, if it happen that neither he, nor any of his relations can be 
found. 
The equality of puniihrnent, which allows to the rich man the faculty 
of committing, with fmall inconvenience, crimes that bring utter de- 
ftruttion on the pooi cnan, and Kio family, and which is in fa£t the 
greateft inequality, originates certainly from the interefted delign ot thofe 
through whofe influence the regulation" came to be adopted. It's view was 
to eftablilh a fubordination of perfons. In Europe, the abfolute diflindion 
between rich and poor, though too feniibly felt, is not infifted upon in 
fpeculation, but rather denied or explained away in general reafoning* 
Among the Sumatrans it is coolly acknowledged, and a man without 
property, family, or connexions, never, in the partiality of felf love, 
confiders his own life as being of equal value with that of a man of 
fubftance. A maxim, though not the practice, of their law, fays, 
" that he who is able to pay the bangoon for murder, muft fatisfy the 
relations of the deceafed ; he who is unable, muft fuffer death." But 
the avarice of the relations prefers felling the body of the delinquent 
for what his flavery will fetch them, to the fatisfadion of feeing the 
murder revenged by the public execution of a culprit of that mean dc- 
fcription. Capital punifhments are therefore almoft totally out of ufe 
among them ; and it is only far la im du pius fori^ that the Europeans 
take 
