Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/125

 LAWS. Ill The lex talionis more or less obtains amonsf the different tribes as they are more or less civilized. The more ferocious tribes insist, in many situa- tions, upon a literal compliance with the law of re- taliation ; other tribes constantly accept a pecuni- ary compensation. Among the Javanese, a civil- ized tribe, we seldom hear of the law of retaliation. Such, among them, was the power of a despotic government, and the tameness of the people, that the strict law could be carried into execution, and compensation for murder is scarcely heard of. By the laws of the Sumatrans there was hardly a crime that might not be expiated by a pecuniary compensation. The following extract from the laws of the Rejangs is a curious example of the length to which this principle has been pushed : limb, or imminent danger of death, half the bmu gun is to be paid. " For a wound on the head, the pampas^ or compensation, is twenty dolhirs. " For other wounds, the pampas from twenty dollars downwards. " If a person is carried off and sold beyond the hills, the offender, if convicted, must pay the ban- gun. If the person has been recovered previous to the trial, the ofi'ender pays half the hangun, " If a man kills his brother, he pays to the proattins the tippong Oumi, (purification money.)
 * For a wound occasioning the loss of an eye or