THE TALLENSI 369
was a gift from the party for whom he found. He had no means of enforcing his verdict. The heads and lineage elders of the group adjudged wrong might attempt to do so in the interest of future good relationships. Sometimes, as still to-day, the issue would be left to mystical arbitrament. The disputants swear to the justice of their respective claims by the chief's skins or the Earth, and the prevaricator will, it is held, perish in due course. A chief could not impose fines even on members of his own clan or expel any one from the community. Like any head of a ma&imal lineage, he might, if he were gravely affronted, or if some one were a source of continual discord, curse the offender, who might migrate for fear of the ancestors' wrath. Public indignation might have the same effect; for such people endanger the community's welfare.
Compensation plays no part in Tale methods of adjusting wrongs. Homicide was and is regarded as equally a grave sin against the Earth and the ancestors, and an injury against the corporate unity of the victim's lineage and clan. If a man killed a clansman, whether accidentally or deliberately, the elders of the murderer's segment sent to beg the forgiveness of the chief or tendaana for this act which threatened to 'destroy the community' (yma &#). The chief or tendaana and the clan elders would then determine the number of cattle and sheep which must be offered by the culprit's family as expiatory sacrifices to the ancestor spirits and the Earth. The victim's family, too, must contribute animals to these sacrifices; for they serve not only to expiate the bloodshed, but to reconcile the two hostile segments. Vengeance is forbidden and, if necessary, forcible restraint or a ritual interdiction by the chief or tzndaana would be used to quell hot tempers. The procedure was the same if the victim belonged to a different clan from the murderer. But if the two clans were traditional enemies in war, vengeance would be taken if opportunity offered by any clansman of the victim against any clansman of the culprit. Expiatory sacrifices would be made again, but no further reprisals ensue. Such murders, however, might formerly have led to war.
A thief caught in flagrante was severely beaten and publicly disgraced if he were a clansman of the sufferer. If not, his eyes were put out or he was otherwise mutilated. The disgrace was considered to be so great that no reprisals would be attempted.
Matrimonial rights are far more jealously guarded than property