NEW GROUND. 
221 
For sitting or reclining on another person's 
bed, these people fine an offender an ox, or con¬ 
demn him, in default, to be shot. For striding 
over a person, or even over the foot of any one 
who may be asleep, or merely lying upon the 
ground, the same. For brushing a person's face, 
or any part of his body, with a corner of the 
robe, even by accident, the same. For using 
spoons, plates, or drinking-vessels belonging to 
another person, the same fine is exacted. The 
children are of course exempt from these penal¬ 
ties till they arrive at an age when they are able 
to carry a spear, when they are taken into soli¬ 
tude for a month by their mothers, and instructed 
in these matters; and on their return to social 
life, if any of the children should afterwards 
commit any of these offences, the father will pay 
the fine but disinherit the child, and on a second 
offence will banish him from the place. 
The king, in going into war, must go into the 
battle at the head of his clan, and not till he is 
wounded or exhausted will any one come to his 
aid. At a death, guns are fired, and a horrible 
wailing is set up; a third of the oxen of the 
deceased are killed, for the purpose of gratifying 
the vanity of the departed one, and “ laying his 
ghost." When a king dies, the ceremonies are 
more elaborate and on a larger scale. His wives 
must cut off all their hair, half his cattle are 
