Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/118

 ties, who guaranteed his immunity from evil consequences.

Under such a system it was natural that considerable power should be vested in the individual. Thus all persons were authorised to arrest suspicious characters,—a commission of wide import, inasmuch as if a man without ostensible occupation was seen frequenting a village, or if any one was observed lurking in a temple-enclosure or a forest, or leading a horse in an unwonted manner, he became a suspicious character for the purposes of the injunction, and should those detecting him be unable to effect his arrest, they were to appeal to the headman of the village, whose duty then required him to collect a sufficient number of persons to accomplish the task. It was also lawful for the inhabitants of a village to expel mendicants of every class—including itinerant priests and kōmuso—if they grew troublesome or importunate. The samurai in this era retained some of the police functions that had devolved on them in early feudal days. Thus, if a murder was committed in the vicinity of a samurai's dwelling, he was expected to pursue the assassin, deprive him of his weapons, and hand him over to the nearest magisterial court, or kill him if he resisted; nor might a householder plead ignorance of such a deed of blood, for ignorance of lawless acts perpetrated close at hand was regarded as culpable negligence. But, on the whole, a transfer of the duty of preserving public order from