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CHAPTER XVIII

SACRIFICE

The theory of compensation for wrong done the basis of criminal lawIllustrations-Saxon, Indian, Icelandic law-The theory of compensation applied to religious wrongs-originates sacrifice-Life and honour the two best gifts--Rites of Moloch and Mylitta-Human sacrificesamong the Carthaginians—Arabs-Egyptians-Persians-Greek islands -Greeks-Romans-Gauls and Britons-Germans--Lithuanians-Scandinavians-American Indians-Peruvians-Aztecs-Dahomians-The prevalence of sacrifice not an evidence of a consciousness of sin-Expiatory sacrifices-when instituted-The sense of sin-The demand for expiation-Vicarious suffering according to natural law-Suffering the means of obtaining benefits.

WHEN an injury has been done by one man to another,

he who has done the wrong must be compelled to make compensation for the wrong done, if he will not do so of his own accord. This is a law of social life. Without it society would be broken up. If every man might maltreat his neighbour without suffering for it, each man would be a centre of repulsion from whom every one else would fly. This law is a necessity, and is therefore an instinct, of humanity.

Among barbarous tribes, the person who is wronged redresses his wrong with his own hand. The community, however, claims a right of interfering between the parties, and fixing the amount of compensation due for the injury done. Upon this simple principle the whole fabric of

criminal law is built up. Revenge is a duty and a right because it is a necessity. But the mode in which the revenge is effected is ruled by the tradition of the race. Among the Californian Indians, if the blood of a savage be shed, it is incumbent on his relatives to wipe it out with the blood of a member of another tribe, and often a guiltless person is tomahawked for the purpose. But among more civilized races, the family which has suffered may forego their vengeance, and take a compensation in goods or money for the loss sustained. Out of this arose those arbitrary tariffs for wounds or loss of life which are common among American Indians of the present day, and were prevalent among our own Teutonic and Scandinavian ancestors. These tariffs, settled by the tribe, are the first elements of the law of nations. It is the characteristic of the Saxon laws that they aimed at compensation, rather than retribution, and although they sanctioned capital punishment, they endeavoured in all cases to substitute a penalty in its place. The fine inflicted on a murderer was regulated according to the "were," or sum at which the life of the murdered party was valued: thus, if a man slew a freeman, he was to make compensation with a hundred shillings; the sum if he killed his slave was merely nominal, as it was supposed that he himself was the chief sufferer. If a man broke into the house of another, he was fined six shillings, and if a thief took away property from a dwelling, he was to make compensation with three times the value of the goods. Three shillings were deemed sufficient compensation for a broken rib, while a fine of twenty shillings was inflicted for a dislocation of the shoulder. If a man cut off the foot or struck out the eye of another, he was compelled to make satisfaction with fifty shillings. Each tooth had its fixed price; for a front tooth, six shil

lings were demanded; for a canine tooth, four; and for a molar, only one shilling; the pain incurred by a loss of a double tooth, however, led King Alfred to alter this portion of the law as unjust, and he raised the price of a molar to fifteen shillings. So also was the price of each finger and toe set down in the Saxon doom-book; even the very nails of the little fingers were protected by the decrees of Witan, and a fine of one shilling was inflicted for their loss; a thumb-nail was to be compensated with three times that amount.1

Mr. Parkman, in his "History of the Jesuit Missions in Canada," gives us a curious picture of Indian atonement for murder. A Frenchman had been killed by a Huron, and the tribe came to the Jesuits to make compensation for the act. "A kind of arena had been prepared, and here were hung the fifty presents in which the atonement essentially consisted the rest, amounting to as many more, being merely accessory. The Jesuits had the right of examining them all, rejecting any that did not satisfy them, and demanding others in place of them. The naked crowd sat silent and attentive, while the orator in the midst delivered the fifty presents in a series of harangues, which the tired. listener has not thought it necessary to preserve. Then came the minor gifts, each with its significance explained in turn by the speaker. First, as a sepulchre had been provided the day before for the dead man, it was now necessary to clothe and equip him for his journey to the next world; and to this end three presents were made. They represented a hat, a coat, a shirt, breeches, stockings, shoes, a gun, powder and bullets; but they were in fact something quite different, as wampum, beaver-skins, and the like. Next came several gifts to close up the wounds 1 Thorpe Ancient Laws of England, pp. 42, 48, &c.

of the slain. Then followed three more. The first closed the chasm in the earth, which had burst through horror of the crime. The next trod the ground firm that it might not open again; and here the whole assembly arose and danced, as custom required. The last placed a large stone over the closed gulf, to make it doubly secure. Now came

another series of presents, seven in number: to restore the voices of all the missionaries; to invite the men in their service to forget the murder; to appease the Governor when he should hear of it; to light the fire at Sainte Marie; to open the gate; to launch the ferry-boat, in which the Huron visitors crossed the river; and to give back the paddle to the boy who had charge of the boat. The Fathers, it seems, had the right of exacting two more presents, to rebuild their house and church-supposed to have been shaken to the earth by the late calamity-but they forebore to urge the claim."1

In ancient Iceland, when a man had been killed, his son or next of kin, as the case might be, had three courses open to him. He might in his turn kill the person who had deprived his father of life; he might bring him before the court, and obtain on him sentence of outlawry; or he might receive a fine, in which case no further notice was taken of the transaction. In the Teutonic codes each limb had its tax, and a man knew beforehand how far his money would allow him to execute revenge or anger, by cutting off another man's nose, or by rendering him a cripple for life. In the Scandinavian codes there was nothing of this kind. The sentence on murder or breach of the peace was exile, which could only be escaped by satisfying the claims of the injured person with silver, and so preventing the suit from entering the law court.2

1 Parkman Jesuits in Canada, p. 359; Boston, 1867.

2 Grágás: Hafniæ, 1829.

This idea of making compensation for wrong done, which is prevalent in every society, has penetrated into nearly every religion as well. Defeat in battle, disappointment in projects, sickness, pain, hunger, death, are all supposed to be due to a God, and to be punishments executed by Him on those who have interfered with His rights, or infringed His prerogatives. Consequently, men seek to propitiate Him, by offering sacrifice, which is in religion what mulet is in law. When the ancient Norsemen suffered from famine, they supposed that the Esir were wroth with them, and they endeavoured to appease them with the sacrifice of their king. When a man was born blind, the Jews believed that he or his parents had sinned; and the Greeks, when detained by contrary winds at Aulis, were bidden to sacrifice Iphigenia, because Artemis was angry with her father for having killed her stag.

1

The idea formed of the Deity was so low, and so completely a reflexion of the idea formed by each man of his neighbour, that it is only what might be expected, to find the transactions of men with God a reproduction of their transactions with one another. Men thought that the gods heaped on them benefits or ills, according as they were disposed towards them. And as they knew that among their fellow-men a gift turneth away anger, they attempted to bribe the gods to favour them, precisely as they would treat a foe or a neutral, whose anger was dreaded, or whose assistance was solicited.

The first offerings were probably flowers, fruits, and animals. But, because the most precious possession man has in the world is life, he often immolated himself to the gods. We have seen how he does that, in the chapter on Asceticism. But, just as a warrior to avoid an adversary 1 Heimskringla, Saga i. c. 18.

2 John ix. 2.

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