Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/121

 LAWS. 107 ject is, to render the criminal an object of contempt and ridicule. For this purpose, his face is alter- nately streaked with charcoal and turmeric, an enormous red flower is placed as a burlesque orna- ment behind his ear, and in this plight he is car- ried through the town or village mounted on a white buffalo, an animal in disrepute. The cruel and unjust punishment of mutilation^ liberally inflicted for the crime of theft, wherever the Mahomedan religion prevails, appears to have been introduced with that religion, and not to be congenial to the manners and customs of the peo- ple. Imprisonment, as a punishment, does not belong to the manners of the people, and, perhaps, will be found to prevail only where it has been in- troduced by Europeans. The practice of outlaw- ing does not obtain any where, that I am aware of, except among some of the tribes of Sumatra. It is not a legal punishment awarded for any spe- cies of offence, but a right exercised by every tribe or family, with respect to its own members, na- turally arising out of their legal responsibility for the acts of all those members. The individual thus outlawed (llisao) is considered to be without the pale of society, and again reduced to the sa- vage or wild state. *' If an outlaw,*' says the his- torian of Sumatra, " commits murder, the friends of the deceased may take personal revenge on him, and are not liable to be called to an account for it ;