Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/453

Rh themselves greatly in their sieges; and therefore revenge themselves by the blood of all those who have spilt theirs.

ATHER Du Halde says, that amongst the Tartars, the youngest of the males is always the heir, by reason that as soon as the elder are capable of leading a pastoral life, they leave the house with a certain number of cattle given them by the father, and go to build a new habitation. The last of the males who continues in the house with the father, is then his natural heir.

I have heard that a like custom was also observed in some small districts of England. This was doubtless a pastoral law conveyed thither by some of the people of Britany, or established by some German nation. We are informed by Cæsar and Tacitus, that these last cultivated but little land.

SHALL here explain how that particular passage of the Salic law, which is commonly distinguished by the term The Salic Law, relates to the institutions of a people who do not cultivate the earth, or at least who cultivate it but very little.

The Salic law ordains that when a man has left children behind him, the males shall succeed to the Salic land, to the prejudice of the females. Rh